Staff Pick
Really strong debut collection of stories dealing with relationships and one woman's evolution from a teen in trouble to a woman taking her own lead in life and love. Siel's wit reminded me of Michelle Tea, and her blunt treatment of sexuality was refreshingly candid and fun. Can't wait to read more books by her. Recommended By Kevin S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the 2015 Red Hen Press Fiction Award.
A new Novel-in-Stories that New York Times bestselling author Jillian Lauren calls "a delicious indulgence."
Reckless risks make for big regrets.Take them anyway.
Daring yet aimless, smart but slightly strange, Cake Time's young female protagonist keeps making slippery choices, sliding into the dangerous space where curiosity melds with fear and desires turn into dirty messes. In "How Not to Have an Abortion," the teenaged narrator looks for a ride from the clinic between her AP exams. In "Easy Target," the now-college-grad agrees to go to a swingers party with a handsome stranger. A decade later, in "Glow," she is suddenly confronted by the disturbing and thrilling fact of her lover's secret daughter. Ultimately, Cake Time grapples with urgent, timeless questions: why intelligent girls make terrible choices, where to negotiate a private self in an increasingly public world, and how to love madly without losing a sense of self.
Review
"A promising start for a brave and unapologetically bold new writer." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Review
"Siel Ju's Cake Time is an astonishing debut. Ju's novel-in-stories is unsettling and fierce and full of loneliness, sadness, and humor. Her voice is so alive, and her candor — particularly about men and sex — is keenly astute, intimate, and startling. The prose is precise and poetic, and Los Angeles vibrates on the page. Wry and heartfelt and uniquely defiant, Cake Time is like a hard slap I didn't expect or see coming." Victoria Patterson, author of The Little Brother and Drift
Review
"Siel Ju's Cake Time is sharply observed and wonderfully contemporary: these complex, flawed, and real characters live in our current world, with all its confusions and opportunity to connect — or disconnect. It's about the perils and pleasures of intimacy, and its heroine feels as alive as you and I. A compelling and unflinching debut." Edan Lepucki, author of California
Review
"Cake Time is a delicious indulgence. Treat yourself to its dark, seductive intimacies and savor the gritty sugar of its unsentimental humor." Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, and Everything You Ever Wanted
About the Author
Siel Ju is a writer in Los Angeles. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: Feelings Are Chemicals in Transit (Dancing Girl Press, 2014), and Might Club (Horse Less Press, 2014). Her stories and poems appear in ZYZZYVA, The Los Angeles Review, Denver Quarterly, and other publications. She also edits Flash Flash Click, a weekly email lit zine for fast fiction. Siel is the recipient of a residency from The Anderson Center at Tower View and holds a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California. Cake Time is her first novel-in-stories.