As someone who was finishing up her master’s thesis earlier this year, picking up a book about an eighth-year graduate student struggling to finish her dissertation might have felt too on the nose for a fun read if it weren’t for how freshly Chou tackles questions of identity, merit, intellectualism, admiration, and the thorny places where they meet. The book centers around Ingrid Yang, a Taiwanese American Ph.D. candidate bored to death by her own project (relatable) until she makes an earth-shattering discovery about the subject of her studies: the allegedly deceased Xiao-Wen Chu. As this one facet of her reality radically shifts and she devolves into sheer obsession (we’re talking hiring private investigators; stalking people and hiding in their closets), the rest of Ingrid’s world starts to unravel as she begins to see other things in a new light, from her white fiancé, who works as a Japanese literary translator and is obsessed with Asian culture (woof), and the woker-than-thou scholars in her department (cringe but salvageable). Academia certainly isn’t for everybody, but the sharp humor and satirical wit with which Chou approaches it all makes a story filled with destabilizing twists and turns as lucid of a trip as any. –Rodlyn-mae Banting