"A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie is trapped in a corporate nightmare. She struggles to reconcile the promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of houseless people bathing in the bay. Startup burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains. Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, the black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, changing in size relative to her distress. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever closer as the world around her unravels. When her CEO's demands become illegal and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are worth the pain, or succumb to the black hole."
"A surreal exploration of one woman's life and death against a landscape of meat, office desks, and bad men
The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday —school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents—with the surreal—rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats—Cassie's realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty."
