Y2K

“Shade is a deft and dexterous writer, emotionally intelligent and authoritative. Y2K is her first book, but I hope, for literature’s future at least, that it won’t be her last.” — Washington Post “Outer space motifs, reality television, Smashmouth lyrics: Y2K is a feast of millennial nostalgia. Yet this hard-hitting work of cultural criticism, recommended for Jia Tolentino fans, reminisces only to burst bubbles.” — Shelf Awareness “This collection, by the prolific essayist and critic Colette Shade, zooms in on iconic objects from the aughts, including TRL, body glitter, and Smash Mouth’s “All Star.” The essays are funny and sharp, and will surely jog your memory, challenge your preconceived notions, and prompt questions about what 2000s nostalgia points to—what does 2025 look like reflected through an AIM chat window?” — Literary Hub “Colette Shade goes at that decade with a scalpel, dissecting cultural phenomena like McMansions, Smash Mouth’s “All Star” and early internet porn, showing how it all still influences us today.” — GQ “Nothing I’ve read has cut to the heart of the ’00s like Y2K. After putting it down, I felt like I was able to excise the last of the decade’s cultural residue from my mind — save, perhaps, my enduring love for chokers. That dies hard.” — Bustle “We need more great essay collections that take a critical lens to recent culture and history and Shade’s collection is a perfect addition to that pantheon. While nostalgia is just now dipping into the Y2K era, Shade unflinchingly looks at the time period with biting takes and a keen eye.” — Debutiful “In this trenchant debut collection, millennial essayist Shade details how the social and economic convulsions of the “Y2K Era” (1997–2008) set the stage for the 21st century … The selections elegantly blend dark humor with thought-provoking arguments … A rich blend of cultural and economic analysis, this soars.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Shade scrutinizes and celebrates the new millennium with heart and a spicy sense of nostalgic humor…[She] particularly excels with an in-depth discussion on how the techno-optimistic ascension of the internet revolutionized politics, social intercourse, and our own individual self-perception…Shade’s exploration of those indelible years creates a fun, fulfilling, and rewarding time capsule.” — Kirkus Reviews “A hilarious, informative, and provocative look back at an era that promised so much yet delivered such a mixed legacy. If you wore butterfly hair clips, had a LiveJournal, and know all the words to Smashmouth’s “All Star” (or wish you did), Y2K is for you. Colette strikes the perfect balance of sharp critique, humor, and nostalgic reflection, making Y2K a must-read for any millennial.” — Taylor Lorenz, bestselling author of Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet “In Y2K, Colette Shade has pulled off the seemingly impossible: she has taken one of the most ephemeral and chaotic eras in American history and made it concrete. Through surprising historical analysis and revealing first-person memories, she reconstructs a period that changed everything, before it was tossed in the memory hole. Y2K will be a thrill for anyone who lived through the Aughts, but more importantly, it will stand as a rich testament for those who didn't.” — Josie Riesman, New York Times Bestselling author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America “Colette Shade’s entrancing Y2K reads like a love letter from a not-so-distant past, from a time when we were told that the “end of history” would be a good thing, not the actual apocalypse. This wry collection of essays establishes Shade as a  subtle stylist and formidable critic. It’s filled with insights and delights, a cultural anthropology of a generational shift, and a coming of age during a hinge moment in history, when the optimism of the late 1990s, banal and plastic in hindsight, gave way to dread.” — Greg Grandin, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The End of The Myth “A fascinating, nostalgic, bittersweet, and sometimes enraging trip down memory lane, deftly portraying a particular American coming-of-age in the 90s and aughts. Shade carefully describes the artifacts, ideas, and experiences of our elder millennial microgeneration and astutely connects them to the macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions that forged them. A must-read for those of us trying to make sense of the culture that raised us, the world we inherited, and the future in which we will all play a part.” — Lydia Kiesling, bestselling author of Mobility “Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything is a journey through America’s fears and dreams, hope and despair, and boom and bust in the first two decades of the 21st Century. Having come of age with a millennial bird’s eye view, Colette Shade offers a crash course on the consequences of wealth creation at the expense of human survival. Equal parts smart, funny, and introspective, Shade bears witness to the nostalgia and the distractions—even as she cautions us to beware the train wreck we can’t stop watching.”   — Bakari Kitwana, co-editor of Democracy UnChained: How to Rebuild Government for the People “A sharp, thoroughly researched look at the culture and politics of America in the early 2000s—with a thick coat of frosted lip gloss for good measure.” — Rax King, author of Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer