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
Sales rank:	497,899
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.38(h) x 0.80(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

01/15/2024

Lee’s promising debut probes what happens when a British woman’s carefully constructed persona shatters after she’s sexually assaulted. The daughter of a Turkish father and a South Korean mother, Jade Kaya was born Ceyda Kayaoğ lu. At 25, Jade has assimilated into upper-class English society, immersed in her high-powered job practicing corporate law and involved with a wealthy white boyfriend, Kit. Everything about her life is practiced and studied—down to the name Jade, which began as her “Starbucks name.” After she’s sexually assaulted by a colleague, however, she reconsiders her relationships and aspirations. Kit’s performative support for marginalized people doesn’t extend to sticking up for Jade against his friends’ casual racism, and her two best female friends disagree on whether she should file a formal workplace complaint. At times, these characters can feel more like straw men than real people. Lee is better, though, at 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. Though somewhat lacking in nuance, this is carried along by flashes of genuine rage and connection. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

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

01/01/2024

DEBUT Lee's debut explores issues of her protagonist's identity and the roles she must take on in order to exist in a city and a workplace where racism and sexism have deep impacts. Ceyda, known as Jade to everyone but her family, works as a lawyer in a high-powered London firm. Her immigrant parents are Korean (mother) and Turkish (father). They created a loving home for her but their expectations for her success in life drive Jade to succeed, even when she's not sure that she likes what she's doing. One morning after a law firm party, Jade wakes with no memory of how she got home and discovers disturbing clues about what might have happened to her the night before. As she pieces the evening together, she finds the rest of her life is crumbling around her. The more she learns, the harder it gets to keep it all to herself. But if she doesn't, the results will be literally life changing. VERDICT 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. For readers who appreciated Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa.—Jane Jorgenson

Library Journal

2024-01-27
The life of a young London lawyer falls apart when she becomes the victim of acquaintance rape.

This debut novel’s tone of angry earnestness is set by Jade, its narrator, whose name is the Anglicized version of her actual name, Ceyda. The child of immigrants, a Korean mother and a Turkish father, Jade is both an obedient, loving daughter and a careerist happy to assimilate into the British upper classes. She relishes the security she’s found in her relationship with her posh British boyfriend, Kit Campbell, and in her increasingly responsible position at a prestigious law firm. Then one night at a work party, Jade is plied with liquor by a senior partner only to wake up the next morning in her bed, naked and hungover, her pubic area sore. Although deeply unsettled, she is unable (or unwilling) to remember what happened until increasing physical pain and flashes of terrifying memory force her to face the knowledge that she was raped. Suddenly, all the security she’s assumed proves ephemeral. The career she’s worked so hard at becomes uncertain. Her relationship with her parents suffers, and Jade recognizes that Kit is an entitled twit. Through Jade’s trauma, novelist Lee portrays the double whammy faced by women of color, who not only suffer the misogyny and abuse of powerful predatory men, but also endure the long-term effects of racism, classism, and anti-immigrant prejudice. While Lee drives home her points successfully and Jade’s reactions are complicated, other characters and their interactions too often seem intended as talking points. Jade’s pragmatic, don’t-rock-the-boat friend is balanced by her impassioned, wants-to-rock-the-boat friend, while no male characters except Jade’s saintly father are trustworthy, and almost all are sexual predators.

Lee’s novel reads like a strong case study of societal evils but misses coming to life as fiction.

Kirkus Reviews