2/5 stars

🐻 Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this e-arc!


✨It was only fine. Not that good of a novel but i wouldn't mind reading more from the author

It's hard to talk about this book without giving too much away. I really enjoyed this tale about fast friendships, tension, and the all consuming need for validation.

Neela Devaki's drawn back into the public eye when internet star Rukmini covers her song. Through this, they meet and become firm and fast friends, but when Rukmini's trajectory continues to soar as Neela's flatlines, so it becomes a tale of friendship and tension, jealousy and a want to be seen that leads to destruction. A sharp and engrossing look at paying tribute, appropriation, social media, and women of colour's battles making music in a world that centres the white gaze. Exceptional book, characters, everything. Endlessly surprising, a swift read. Really enjoyed it.

It's really hard to give feedback on The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya because the book was just so good. I want to talk about it, but I find it difficult to do so without revealing spoilers. I've tried to initiate the conversation with numerous people, but I can't really do anything other than hand the book over to them for them to read. It really is a wonderful book that tackles a wide variety of topics that normally get people in their feelings, one way or another. The Subtweet manages to take the topics of cultural appropriation, white musicians allyship and so much more, without feeling preachy or that the author is on a soapbox.

I thought I would enjoy this one, and I'm really happy to say that I liked it even more than I thought I was going to.

It's hard to even write a review for The Subtweet that does this book justice, because there's so much to touch upon - the friendship of Rukmini and Neela, the look into the music industry and how it treats brown women artists, how making art has become intertwined with feeding the capitalist machine. This book artfully takes a look at so many different aspects of a musician's life, connecting the threads together while also untangling the ones that have become almost insufferable. I loved seeing Shraya's masterful takedown of both the beauty and toxicity of social media and it's role in musicians' lives, as well as the damage it can cause so quickly when one is seen as overstepping their bounds. Shraya really does capture how callout culture, validation, and subtweets have all become a daily part of these women's lives, while asking the question - at what cost? The heart of this book, though, is the friendships - how the bonds of these relationships struggle against these concerns. I really loved each of the characters and their personalities and choices, and was glad we got to see their POVs throughout different sections of the novel. The only downfall of this book was how quickly Rukmini was cut out at the end - while I can see this being a stylistic choice, I still wished to know what happened to her, and it knocked this book down from a 4.5 to a 4 star read. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed this biting novel.

This is a hard one to rate. On the one hand, I did enjoy reading this book and loved the premise of it, especially as someone who has grown up with the internet and is all too aware of the fact that sometimes the wrong kind of things go viral. On the other hand, I feel like this was one of those times where the idea was better than the execution of it.
All the topics included - social media culture, powerful women, race, friendship and above all, music - were super interesting to me and kept me reading. I just couldn't really connect to the characters. Neela and Rukmini were such fascinating characters and definitely had very strong personalities so I definitely think this was a me thing instead of an overall issue with the book.
Definitely would recommend to everyone who needs some escapism, some strong women not holding back when it comes to the truth and the world trying to take them for granted, and for anyone who wants to fight the patriarchy.

THE SUBTWEET is the perfect novel for our time. Obviously, thanks to the title, the plot and relationships are rooted in social media and now technology affections our communication. But the story is also about culture clashes, women of color finding their place in a white-dominated music industry, and prejudice and jealousy from all types of people. I loved following the main characters, Neela and Rukmini, as they develop a friendship and deal with the consequences of artistic and professional jealousy. The fact that many of the plot's twists and turns happen on social media made the story all the more delicious, and I love curling myself into the pages and the world Shraya created.

The book is set in Toronto among the indie music scene there (something I know very little about). One of my only complaints about this book is that I wish I could have heard the music Neela and Rukmini made! The descriptions of the songs are so vivid and imaginative, it made me wish I could flip over to Spotify to hear them myself. I also loved that this one of those few books solely about female friendships; there was truly no romance in this story and I didn't miss it. The story is so grounded in reality it easily seems like the story is something you read about on Twitter yesterday. The writing is fresh, the book is solid, and my rating is 5 stars!

This is my first time reading Vivek Shraya -- I've been off nonfiction for the last while, so I was excited to see that she had a novel coming out. I requested and received an advance reading copy of The Subtweet from ECW Press via NetGalley.

This is a book about women, friendship, music, race, social media culture, and Toronto. I read it quickly and really enjoyed it. The story contains a lot of dialogue and moves fast, partly by jumping over periods of time. I *loved* that there was no love interest, not once in all of the connections and conversations between the individual women here (main characters Neela and Rukmini, and secondary characters Sumi, Kasi, Malika, Zuhur, and Hayley). These women, like actual IRL women, have other things to talk about. Refreshing.

For the record, I'm a white cis woman who is closer to fifty than thirty. I appreciated the ways Shraya raised and addressed issues that face women of colour in the music industry as well as in the workplace, the classroom, etc., and I'm looking forward to reading own voices reviews of this book by other women of colour. I'm also curious to see whether The Subtweet appeals to readers who don't have a background in feminist theory and gender/women's studies, as it's heavy on name-dropping from the feminist canon. I hope readers who aren't familiar with these names aren't put off or made to feel like they're not booksmart or educated enough to read it.

Finally, when I got to the end of the book, I was happy to find a link to a soundtrack, because of course I had been wishing I could hear the music that was at the centre of the story.

This book is a deep dive into friendships, jealousy, and what can happen when you just want to blow off steam but happen to have a platform. Public opinion is easily swayed, and mistakes by people of colour are viewed under a much stronger microscope with a bigger chance of being burned.

it was an engaging read that i enjoyed greatly and highly recommend to all who enjoy a feminist, progressive, nuanced read.

I was absolutely riveted by this book! I read the entire thing in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down. Neela and Rukmini’s friendship is realistic from how the beginning when they become friends to the circumstances surrounding their “break up,” I saw a review say that this book is sure to get some split responses, and I agree with that. In a world of social media deciding who’s right and who’s wrong, I have no doubt that readers will apply those same standards to the characters of The Subtweet. One thing I particularly loved about the novel was Shraya’s iron grip on the usage of social media and how it can make and break people, careers, and relationships. I highly enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to people, especially to my fellow brown girls.

This book was not made for me, I being a cisgendered white female. I recognize this and appreciate what it will do for its intended audience. That being said, II still enjoyed this story and it really got me thinking and researching.

The story kept me enthralled, because I was so invested in these women’s lives and their music careers. It was hard watching the ebb and flow of their friendships and their music. There was so much anticipation built up in terms of where I thought the story could go. You never know who to “root” for and that is kind of the point. The real villain of the story is much more sinister. Like a nesting doll the story is about a feud, inside a friendship, inside oppression, inside of empowerment. There is so much to unpack here and I think this should be a required reading. I need more people to talk to about this book. I need alternate perspectives.

For such a short book it really packs a punch. Not only does the story keep you intrigued, but the racial commentary is a major theme. Particularly the view of women of color and the institutionalized racism they deal with on a daily basis. There were some lines in here that really shook my white fragility, and thus I feel like this book’s reviews are going to be polarized. However I recognize that any feelings I had towards some of the “harsh” comments about white people, is my experience of shame and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

That’s what makes this book an empowering piece of work. Calling out the white person’s ego and speaking a woman of color’s truth. I am a bit sad that not more was said on our MC’s transness, it was only briefly mentioned, I would have wanted to unpack this more. I also can’t decide whether I liked that ending or not...

I appreciate what this book did. It challenged me and will speak to many.