Joshua Dalton’s provocative debut is a darkly comic collection of fiction and fragments about mental illness, television satire, social media emptiness, workplace trauma, and dating in the age of “why won’t they text me back?”
I Hate You, Please Read Me is a bold, sad and LOL funny literary meditation for fans of David Sedaris, Melissa Broder, and Rachel Bloom.
author’s note
This is my first published book, comprising eleven short stories, hundreds of tweets, and the pilot script for a half-hour dramedy.
The title is a reference to I Hate You—Don’t Leave Me, a well-known (but now-outdated) nonfiction book about borderline personality disorder (BPD), the condition I’m diagnosed with.
The symptoms of BPD include intense fear of abandonment, extreme mood swings, impulsive / self-destructive behaviors, and feelings of emptiness. (But, basically, it’s like having your emotions magnified 100x.)
My goal with this book was to express what having BPD feels like, without being boring or didactic. When I’ve tried writing actual memoir in the past—about my hospitalizations, bad relationships, suicide attempts, whatever—it always felt wrong to me, stilted and dull. I’m much more comfortable wrirting (and entertained by) ironic fiction and darkly humorous tweets.
So, this is a wholly fictional, hopefully-comical collection about a very real, not-so-comical mental illness—and I hope you enjoy it. ❤
about the publisher
I Hate You, Please Read Me was published by House of Vlad, the indie press that has released books by Brian Alan Ellis, Sam Pink, Rebekah Morgan, Jon Lindsey, Shy Watson, Noah Cicero and others.
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