Summary

In Chapter 1, June and her college friend Athena Liu are celebrating. Athena just got a “TV deal with Netflix” (1). To June, Athena “has everything” (1). She has earned prestigious degrees and published several novels. However, although Athena is young and ambitious, she “has almost no friends” (1). June once thought Athena “was simply aloof” (2). Now she wonders if others hate her, too.

June and Athena became friends at Yale. They lived in the same building and both enjoyed writing. Although June published a novel too, Over the Sycamore was not a great success. She is often jealous that Athena is an “ambiguously queer woman of color” everyone wants to publish (6). She is talented, but her fame seems more about her identity than her work. Sometimes June hates that she is just a “brown-eyed, brown-haired” white girl from Philadelphia (2). June guesses she and Athena have only...