I couldn’t put it down.” — Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Carrie Soto Is Back
"I saw so much of myself in Homebodies, and in Mickey’s utterly delicious and sometimes aching story. Mickey made me look back and love my young Black woman self, and I loved her so much for returning me to that place.” — Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, New York Times bestselling author of The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
“Homebodies is a modern marvel—Tembe Denton-Hurst’s prose is both intimate and hysterical, inflammatory and elegiac. You’ll root for Mickey as she takes on the world, questioning and searching its contours, weaving a story we can’t help but find our own worlds inside of. Denton-Hurst has written a warm, brilliant novel that’s stunning and poignant; Homebodies is wonderfully witty and full of empathy and entirely original.” — Bryan Washington, award-winning author of Memorial and Lot
“Homebodies is a beautiful story on becoming. Denton-Hurst’s prose is perfect with an innate attention to detail and astonishing ability to capture the shapes and colors of emotions as she brilliantly illuminates the growing pains of forging one’s own path…something which so many of us are still looking to do. This is a deeply felt, assured literary debut by a writer worth watching.” — Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of award-winning novels Here Comes the Sun and Patsy
“Homebodies is a sharp and tender exploration of what it takes to make a place for yourself in a world that has not. Denton-Hurst deftly navigates the line between a knowing despair and an openhearted hope, contrasting the challenges Mickey faces from employers, lovers, and relatives who can’t always see or name her value with the strength she draws from learning to see herself and the love that has always been available to her. A captivating and illuminating debut.” — Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections
"This novel just gets it right. Maybe it’s vivid storytelling or the intersectional approach to queerness, but this novel speaks to queer people of color who often feel isolated, stretched between two communities. Tembe Denton-Hurst balances a critique on white feminism through the lenses of a young, unapologetically Black, queer writer who’s searching for her identity outside the bounds of her career, family, and long-term relationship." — Cosmopolitan
“Denton-Hurst dazzles with her stirring indictment of racism in media and its insidious effects on Mickey. . . . Emotionally and politically resonant, this is not to be missed.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Sharp and heartfelt and keenly observed—I devoured this book.” — Katie Cotugno, New York Times Bestselling author of Birds of California
"Tembe Denton-Hurst's debut novel astutely captures what it's like to fight for yourself in a world that's stacked against you." — Harper's Bazaar
"In her debut novel, Tembe Denton-Hurst crafts an instantly memorable portrait of a queer, Black twenty-something figuring out how to use her voice in an industry where identity is prized, but only as far as it toes the company line." — them
“In her sharp, charming and passionate debut, 'Homebodies,' Tembe Denton-Hurst showcases an eye for the details that matter. . . . It is this eye for the rhythms and textures of life — of millennial digital media, of the death by a thousand cuts offered by workplace racism, of Maryland suburbia — that makes this novel vivid and inviting.” — New York Times Book Review
“Anyone drifting or unsure of themselves, pick up a copy of Homebodies immediately. . . . Part skewering of media, part literary fiction, and part romance, Homebodies has something for everyone.” — Betches
"Excellent . . . we devoured it.” — The Skimm
"Homebodies is crackling with wit and compulsively readable, but it’s also an in-depth examination of the crushing reality that many workers in so-called 'dream jobs' . . . are ultimately expendable to the institutions they devote themselves to." — Vogue
“[A] searing coming-of-age story. . . . Consider it one of the year’s must-reads.” — Porter
"While stories about young women working in the high-pressure media industry have always fascinated, few are told from the perspective of Homebodies. . . . Denton-Hurst deftly crafts a story of ambition, identity and love." — W Magazine
“Denton-Hurst's poignant and captivating debut is on its way to becoming one of summer's ‘it’ books.” — Scary Mommy
"Tembe Denton-Hurst’s masterful command of the narrative—classical in its shape, contemporary in its textures—makes this sparkling story shine all the more." — Esquire
2023-03-14
A young Black woman contends with New York media culture.
Mickey Hayward’s shiny writing job is not as great as she’d hoped it would be. “Instead of reporting on the goings on of Black life,” Denton-Hurst writes in her engaging debut, Mickey “was making listicles about the best lipsticks for every skin tone.” But when she’s abruptly fired from her position, Mickey is devastated and thrown into a depression that forces her to reconsider every aspect of her life—including her relationship with her girlfriend, Lex. For a break, Mickey takes off for her Maryland hometown, where she reconnects with old friends and tries to decide what to do with herself next. Full of contradictions, Mickey makes for an interesting protagonist—but very few of the other characters seem fully formed. Denton-Hurst’s descriptions of the publishing landscape are witty, as when she observes, “Every editor, writer, and intern believed they had a New York media memoir brewing just beneath the surface,” or when Mickey agonizes over a casual text message to her editor: “ ‘Of course!’ she wrote back, wondering if one exclamation point was enough.” But when Mickey heads for Maryland, the book starts to drag. Denton-Hurst has the novice writer’s habit of overwriting: Every action is engulfed by unnecessary description. For example, “Mickey toed off her sneakers before continuing inside, peeling off her coat and hanging her keys on the small hook in the entry.” The verbiage slows down the action and distracts from Denton-Hurst’s otherwise astute observations about media culture, race, and the experience of a young woman trying to make her way in the world.
An intriguing but imperfect debut.
