First published 2026
Mika stares at another birthday approaching with only a soul-crushing office job and untouched virginity to mark her years. Tokyo offers her little beyond grabby coworkers, subway gropers, and manipulative men who shower her with hollow affection. Her imagination becomes her refuge, spinning wild fantasies both violent and sexual. With her best friend Nana pushing her toward change, Mika surrenders part of her virginity to Tyler, a commitment-phobic Japanese-American, while another problematic man claims the rest. She discovers unexpected attraction to women that both excites and confuses her. A bizarre outbreak caused by unhygienic Western men throws the city into quarantine, trapping Mika in her messy romantic entanglements. When an old friend reenters her life, Mika faces a choice between repeating her pattern of obsessive infatuation or finding something genuine. This brutally funny debut captures the chaos of a young woman drowning in her own desires and desperately seeking solid ground.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary, adult-fiction
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Tokyo
Period: 21st-century
224 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books
Content warnings: mental-illness, sexual-content