The Thing Between Us

To me, Julie Buntin is something like the poet laureate of the young and female and working class. The bard of knowing you come from nothing and wanting something better and struggling to believe you deserve such a thing, especially as you watch women like you, better than you, smarter or more beautiful or both, get sucked back in by drugs or despair or abusive men.

Her novel Marlena, the first chapter of which is excerpted here, could be described as coming-of-age. But I’m so moved by the complications her character’s face: not dating or choosing a career, but surviving in a slice of current-day America that doesn’t seem to have much use for you. Without fetishizing technology or harping on millennial kids today, Buntin writes work that feels vividly contemporary and realistic.

About the Author: Julie Buntin is from northern Michigan. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, One Teen Story, Electric Literature, and other publications. Her debut novel, Marlena, was named one of the most anticipated books of 2017 by Elle Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, The Millions, and Vulture. It will be published by Henry Holt on April 4th.

About the Guest Editor: Rachel Fershleiser is the executive director of audience development & community engagement at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Previously she was the head of publisher outreach at Tumblr, the community manager at Bookish, and the director of public programs at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, where she now serves on the board of directors. She is the co-creator of Six-Word Memoirs and co-editor of the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning and three other books. You may also know her from her soup zine “Stock Tips” or her TEDx talk “Why I ❤ the Bookternet.”

About the Publisher: Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction. Recommended Reading is supported by the Amazon Literary Partnership, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For other links from Electric Literature, follow us, or sign up for our eNewsletter.