Book Review: ‘My Dear You’ by Rachel Khong
Rachel Khong’s My Dear You is the kind of short story collection that feels deceptively light when you start and quietly heavier the longer you sit with it. The concepts are strange enough to pull you in, but what stays with me are the emotional undercurrents that feel a little too familiar in the best and worst ways.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Knopf for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of My Dear You contains some spoilers!]
A collection of stories about human connection
Each story within My Dear You carries its own premise that borders on surreal. A newlywed dies and finds herself in an afterlife where memory slips away piece by piece. A woman adopts a cat that somehow brings her past relationships back into her life. A retail worker forms an unexpected connection with a product she’s supposed to sell. There are even moments where the world itself feels altered in subtle but unsettling ways. None of these ideas is treated as a gimmick. They’re handled with restraint, almost casually, which makes what they reveal feel sharper.
At the center of the collection is a steady focus on connection. Romantic relationships show up often, but they are rarely idealized. I kept coming back to how honestly Rachel Khong writes about imbalance. The feeling of wanting more clarity than the other person can give. The realization that you may have been understood differently than you understood yourself. It captures that tension without forcing everything into a neat conclusion.
The title story stayed with me the longest. A woman arrives in heaven after an unexpected death and begins to lose her memories of the person she loves most. The way this unfolds is subtle and controlled. There is no dramatic unraveling. Just a gradual shift that feels both inevitable and deeply unsettling. It sets a tone for the rest of the book that feels consistent. Love is present, but it is never something you can fully rely on to stay intact.
Khong also explores identity, especially from the perspective of Asian American women. There is a constant awareness of how these characters are perceived and how that perception influences their experiences. In one story, a group of women realizes they have all been dating the same man, each placed into nearly identical roles. I found the humor hit first, but what follows lands harder. The idea of being reduced to something interchangeable is handled with a kind of precision that makes it hard to ignore.
A grounding presence and a collective thread in My Dear You
What works so well across the collection is how grounded everything feels, even when the premise leans into something unusual. I never felt pulled out of a story by the concept itself. A story involving advanced technology becomes about projection and loneliness. A story that alters how people see each other becomes about how much of identity is visible and how much is interpreted. These layers are never overexplained. Rachel Khong trusts the reader to sit with them.
There is also a thread that runs through the collection about choice and limitation. I found myself thinking about the quieter ways life narrows. Not through major turning points, but through smaller decisions that accumulate over time. Characters reflect on paths they did not take or versions of themselves they can no longer access. It feels especially relevant without trying too hard to prove a point.
The writing style itself is clean and controlled. There is a simplicity to the sentences that makes the stories easy to move through, but there is also a clear attention to detail in how each moment is constructed. Dialogue feels natural. Observations feel specific. Nothing is overworked. It gives the collection a steady rhythm that carries from one story to the next.
What I kept thinking about as I read My Dear You is how well Khong does human absurdism. These slightly off-world scenarios never feel distant. They feel like extensions of real emotions, just pushed a step further so you can see them more clearly. I could have read twenty more stories in this exact space, and it still would not have been enough.
Not every story hits with the same intensity. Some end just as they start to open up, and I wanted more time inside them. Others lean more into the concept than the emotional payoff. But even in those moments, there is usually a line or an image that sticks. The stronger stories carry enough weight to anchor the collection as a whole.
What stands out most to me is Khong’s ability to capture the complexity of being known by someone else. There is a recurring awareness that even in close relationships, gaps in understanding can arise. That two people can experience the same connection in very different ways. That recognition feels central to the book.
Final thoughts on this novel from Knopf Publishing
Reading My Dear You by Rachel Khong felt like moving through a series of moments that are small on the surface but carry more weight the longer you think about them. It builds its impact through observation and restraint rather than big, dramatic turns.
This is a collection I would hand to readers who like their fiction a little strange but still rooted in real emotion. If you gravitate toward short stories that explore relationships, identity, and the quieter complexities of being seen, this will land. It also feels especially suited to readers who appreciate authors like Sally Rooney or Ottessa Moshfegh, whose work focuses less on plot and more on the interior lives of characters and the small moments that define them.
By the end, what stayed with me was not any single story, but the feeling that runs through all of them. A quiet recognition of how much can exist between people that goes unspoken. And how that space can hold both closeness and distance at the same time.
My Dear You by Rachel Khong is available now! Have you read this collection of stories yet? Did you have a favorite amongst them? Share your thoughts on social media and tag @bsb.insider to continue the conversation!
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