Jaded: A Novel

by Ela Lee

Overview

A young lawyer wakes up in the morning after a work gala with no memory of how she got home the previous night and must figure out what exactly happened—and how much she’s willing to put up with to make her way to the top of the corporate ladder—in this “smart, compulsively readable novel” (The New York Times).

Jade isn’t even my real name. Jade began as my Starbucks name, because all children of immigrants have a Starbucks name.

Jade has become everything she ever wanted to be. A successful lawyer. A dutiful daughter. A beloved girlfriend. A loyal friend. Until Jade wakes up the morning after a work event, naked and alone, with no idea how she got home. Caught between her parents who can’t understand, her boyfriend who feels betrayed, and her job that expects silence, the perfect world Jade has constructed starts to crumble.

For fans of Queenie and I May Destroy You, Jaded is a “raw, dark” (Refinery29) account of consent, power, race, sexism, and identity in a broken society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668011003
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	03/18/2025
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ela Lee was raised in London by her parents who emigrated from South Korea and Turkey. She attended the University of Oxford and previously practiced as a litigation lawyer.

Editorial Reviews

“Smart, compulsively readable.... The book balances the heavy subject of rape with a darkly funny treatment of work culture..... Will justice be served? And how much will Jade risk in its pursuit? These questions drive the plot, but it's the characters who make us care.”—ALLEGRA GOODMAN, New York Times Book Review

“This raw, dark novel explores racism, class and sexism and you’ll want to savor every word on every page.” –Refinery 29

“A thoughtful, unflinching examination of all of the ways in which women (especially women of color) conform to fit others’ expectations, how damaging that can be, and the empowerment of subverting constraints.” —Library Journal

“Lee’s promising debut probes what happens when a British woman’s carefully constructed persona shatters after she’s sexually assaulted… untangling the complicated emotions wrapped up in Jade’s evolving relationship with her parents, who fear she will lose hold of her material successes and grieve their home countries.” —Publishers Weekly

“Debut novelist Lee deconstructs the aftermath of sexual assault in this lucid coming-of-age novel…. Jaded is a painful story with hefty emotion and is sure to spark conversations about consent, race, and success.”—Booklist

“Wonderfully multi-faceted and emotionally compelling.”—JESSICA GEORGE, New York Times bestselling author of Maame

“Jaded is a thoughtful, hard-hitting exploration of race, identity, and the rippling effects of sexual assault. Ela Lee writes with an urgency and clarity that will have you hooked until the last page.”—CECILE PIN, author of Wandering Souls

“Jaded is a sharp, bold and compulsively readable story of power, money, sex-and survival. Ela Lee writes with utter clarity and heartbreaking insight about the cost of survival in cut-throat corporate environments and about the gray space between complicity and compromise. Urgent and necessary, this is a book that will take up space in your heart and mind long after the last page.” –CECILIA RABESS, author of Everything's Fine

"Ela Lee has crafted a novel that’s compulsive, rousing and raw. Jaded is a dizzying debut about power, race, consent, entitlement, and so much more."–Chloë Ashby, author of Wet Paint

From the Publisher