ABOUT NSFW
A National Bestseller / Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize / An Amazon Best Book of 2022
The thing about Los Angeles is that it’s awful and I hate it, but when I’m there, nowhere else exists, and I can’t imagine leaving. It’s a difficult place to be old or sick or fat or poor or without a strong social media presence. It’s not an easy place to be young, either.
So begins Isabel Kaplan’s electric and incisive debut novel about life at the bottom of the corporate ladder.
She’s young, she’s smart, she’s set up for success. She has a covetable assistant job at a television network, a well-connected feminist mother who only wants the best for her, a prescription for appetite-suppressing injections, and a relentless work ethic. What could possibly go wrong?
Compulsively readable and darkly comedic, NSFW explores the messiest parts of twenty-something life, from the indignities of entry level jobs to the elusive quest for self-acceptance. “Excellent book-club fodder” (Time), it’s a novel you’ll want to press into the hands of your coworkers and friends and one that marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.
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What People Are Saying
“Ambition bites back in NSFW . . . So visceral . . . NSFW makes your brain spin on the #MeToo merry-go-round that’s come derailed from the base and spontaneously set on fire. Bleak and brave, this novel is a reminder of how skewered women are, no matter ‘how far we’ve come.’”
“Explosive . . . [NSFW] lays bare the many troubling elements of Hollywood’s corporate culture, from veiled sexism to blatant sexual harassment.”
“Incisive and painfully resonant . . . [NSFW] is an unexpectedly funny book, given the subject matter, and features frustrating, complex, and profoundly human characters.”
“Haunting and hilarious in equal measure . . . This sharp, unflinching novel takes a magnifying glass to the cognitive dissonance required by women who dare to exist―or even succeed―in a male-dominated world. The rich nuances of the narrator’s personal and professional life in Hollywood, which blur together with every page, are as farcical as they are strikingly realistic. A must-read.”
"A wholly engrossing and shrewdly observational novel that puts the transactional nature of relationships—both professional and personal—on full blast. NSFW is the rare kind of read that made me giggle just as much as it left me gutted."
— Zakiya Dalila Harris, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Black Girl
"Frank, funny, and unputdownable, Isabel Kaplan's NSFW takes you on an ambitious young woman's wild ride through Hollywood. Her mother's a famous feminist lawyer, and she's a rising executive star, mistress of her destiny. But behind the glitter and the justice, everyone is tarnished and compromised—including even our narrator. Kaplan, with her sharp and nuanced eye, sees it all, and tells it brilliantly."
—Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Girl and The Woman Upstairs
"A frank account of leaning in and its inherent filthiness. Kaplan captures the psychological and, at times, literal gymnastics required of striving women."
— Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster
"Kaplan peels back the curtain to examine the culture of a television network in this sharply observed, completely absorbing debut novel . . . Kaplan’s authentic insider knowledge makes her piercing first outing a cut above the plethora of Hollywood-set novels."
— Booklist
"I read this steely investigation of workplace ambition and patriarchal complicity in one sitting, my alliances shifting with every page. Funny, insightful, and enraging in all the best ways, NSFW is a fiercely smart debut that turns its gaze back on the reader, forcing you to ask just how far you'd go—and who you'd throw under the bus—for a seat at the table."
— Julie Buntin, author of Marlena
"Isabel Kaplan is as sharp-eyed and witty as they come. NSFW is a great, hilarious romp in the grand tradition of Hollywood novelists like Carrie Fisher and Bruce Wagner. Delicious and naughty and adorably bleak, much like L.A. itself."