If you want to know why I love my job, I have two words for you: Sloane Crosley. Working at Readings means I got the inside word on Sloane Crosley. And the inside word is this woman can write – and how. Actually, that inside word is very much an ‘outside word’ in America (and among some readers here too), because she’s huge over there. She’s even appeared as herself on Gossip Girl, which may not be the biggest claim to fame she has, but it’s certainly the most commercial. Crosley is from that cohort of writers who have gifted us with books we all want to talk about, writers who are whip-smart, witty, funny, effortlessly cool and shoulder-shruggingly uninterested in how much we care about them. Writers such as Ottessa Moshfegh, Sigrid Nunez, Patricia Lockwood, Sally Rooney, Ella Baxter and Miles Allinson.

Cult Classic is Crosley’s second novel (I can’t believe her first passed me by – I must rectify that), a story of a young woman engaged to be married to maybe the right guy, or maybe the biggest mistake of her life. One night, she unexpectedly runs into an ex she still wonders about. The next night, she runs into another. The third night, there’s ex-boyfriend number three. And from there, we go on a wild ride that gets kookier as we go along. What starts off as a weird set of coincidences ends up having a more sinister driving force.

I picked this book up for the interesting premise, I stayed for the brilliant writing. There is one particular line that I can’t repeat here (too rude), but it still delights me with its acrobatic linguistics (and that’s a clue right there, for any of you who read the book and want to know exactly which line I’m referring to). Settle in and enjoy – you’re in the hands of a master wordsmith and storyteller here. Expect this to achieve cult classic status. It deserves it.