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If You’re Not Yet Like Me

Joellyn—as judgmental as she is insecure—tells her unborn daughter the story of her courtship with an unemployed, terribly dressed man named Zachary. The novella is a romantic comedy—if romantic comedies were dark and screwed up and no one got exactly what they wanted.




Press and Reviews

“Why, when I was reading this extraordinary—no other word for it—novella by Edan Lepucki, did I start thinking of Henry James? Thinking, specifically, of his adventures in human desire, cruelty, and perversity as found inThe Turn of the Screw, The Portrait of a Lady, and other works of highly civilized terror. Lepucki’s work is very much of the here and now—funny, smart, sardonic, and fully sexed—but she goes at her subject with the same flaying relentlessness as H. James. I’ll use that word again: Extraordinary.”

—Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

“. . .Lepucki does a fine job of showing her protagonist’s evolution. She has a way with dialogue and conversational rhythms, both of which are satisfying while allowing us insight into her characters that they themselves might not have. It’s often funny, sometimes sad, and wrenchingly awkward when it needs to be—all qualities of a fine debut.”

—Tobias Carroll, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“If You’re Not Yet Like Me tells quite a few damn good jokes before it decides to twist your heart apart. Gracefully written, barbed and biting; a touching meditation on the mistakes we make before meeting the ones who truly deserve our love.”

—Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

“Lepucki does not attempt, in this novella that reads quicker than many short stories, to stretch Joellyn beyond her limits, to sacrifice the character for the sake of a lesson, a novel, or a heartwarming conclusion. Instead, Lepucki sets herself to the more difficult task of creating charm from Joellyn’s abrasiveness.”

—Eric Jett, Full-Stop

“A sharp, accomplished work.”

—Emily St. John Mandel, The Millions

“Edan Lepucki’s sly, smart novella is never quite a love story—in fact, rarely has the edict ‘only connect’ seemed more difficult to enact than among her small tribe of underachievers. Sex, however, retains its reliable consequences. And therein lies the beauty and the gut punch of this sneaky, deft book.”

—Michelle Huneven, author of Blame

“Joellyn, the caustic, painfully honest narrator of If You’re Not Yet Like Me, is one of the most realistic characters I’ve ever encountered. . . .The significant impact of the short works in this book is impressive, and I look forward to whatever she writes next.”

—Kylee Stoor, Bookslut

“Lepucki is a master at characterization and humor.”

—Tessa Mellas, NewPages