Trust and Safety

Reviews

One of Harper's Bazaar's "16 Best Queer Books of 2024"

Most Anticipated by Electric Lit and Our Culture

“Trust and Safety humorously explores authenticity, betrayal, belonging and entitlement while playfully critiquing modern anxieties about the ‘gay agenda.’” 
—Andrea Bartz via People, “Here's What Your Favorite Authors Are Reading for Pride Month”

“The perfect book for reminding you about the dangers of believing what you see advertised on Instagram, Trust and Safety satirically pierces everything from idyllic countryside living in massive do-upper houses and New York influencers, to polyamory and pickle jars. It’s a very entertaining reminder that what might look good on the surface could be something else entirely behind the scenes.”
—Stylist

“Trust and Safety is a read-in-one-sitting exploration of contemporary life, technology and social media, queerness, belonging and conformity . . . Touching, satirical, humorous and effortlessly, fantastically queer.”
—Book Trip

“It’s tart, smart, and cuts right to the heart of the post-modern zeitgeist of relationships, information technology, and how difficult it can be to parse our lives.”
—Out in Jersey

“The main tenet of the book is that Instagram fantasies will almost never match up to their real-life counterparts… Continuing from The Very Nice Box, [Laura and Eve’s] social satire skills are sharp as ever”
—Our Culture

“Blackett and Gleichman (coauthors of The Very Nice Box) once again join forces to write a bold and satirical novel about modern living.... A clever yet thoughtful look at the insidious power of social media and consumerism.”
—Library Journal

“Clever . . . Blackett and Gleichman expertly build suspense following a bombshell revelation . . . This intrigues and unsettles in equal measure.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Blackett and Gleichman skillfully capture the way a single look from the right person can make you embarrassed about every choice you’ve ever made. A fast, fun read that invites you to change your life (or at least quit Instagram).”
—Kirkus

“…Blackett and Gleichman pair a chipper-seeming story with deep satire and a growing sense of dread. Most of the characters are pretty hard to like, but in a fun way, which adds to the authors' commentary on money, tech, and all the tyranny and hypocrisy therein.”
—Booklist

“Sexy, surprising, witty and beautifully written—Trust and Safety is a complete delight from start to finish.”
—Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Spare Room and We Were Never Here

"Blackett and Gleichman have written a laugh-out-loud novel as delightfully heterogeneous in genre as the queer community is in gender presentation. What starts out as a wry Noël Coward plot for the digital age swiftly escalates to heights of such passion, longing, and remorse that I felt like I was reading the version of Pride and Prejudice we all want—namely, where Darcy is a woodsy, stick shift-driving butch. If you want a book that perfectly evokes millennial sexual politics under late-stage capitalism, and in which all of us—gay, straight, cis, and trans alike—are read for absolute filth, then look no further than Trust and Safety."
—Rafael Frumkin, author of Confidence and Bugsy

“What happens when we try to live the life that Instagram is selling us? This is the question that Trust and Safety hilariously—and poignantly—asks. In answering it, Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman spare no one, taking aim at everyone from tech bros to overbearing mothers. It’s a smart, funny, and timely exploration of what happens when our obsessions get the better of us, and when we discover that authenticity is not as authentic as it seems.”
—Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding

“Trust and Safety is distressingly smart, wickedly sly, and side-clutchingly hilarious—I was howling! I simply could not turn away. Blackett and Gleichman achieve the best kind of storytelling: the type that forces you to contend with their characters' choices, then holds up a mirror so you're implicated in their foibles and bad decision-making—all while demanding that you turn the page because you simply must know how it ends. What a brilliantly observed and witty take on the sometimes absurd ways we choose to live. And how blessedly and wonderfully gay.”
—Vanessa Chan, author of The Storm We Made

“Irresistibly hilarious and weird, sexy and surprising, and gently profound, Trust & Safety delighted me at every turn and delivered razor-sharp insights into our contemporary search for authenticity, beauty, and the perfect vintage doorknob.”
—Jenny Fran Davis, author of Dykette

“Sharp, hilarious, and thought-provoking, Trust & Safety is about the aspirations, absurdities, and longings of contemporary life—a story that will make you question your own life choices when you're not lingering over each pitch-perfect line or racing to find out what happens next.”
—Jane Pek, author of The Verifiers Expand reviews