Description: This on-the-road mystery follows the search for a missing girl, providing a scathing commentary on contemporary life.
Review Quotes: "Despentes explores deeply flawed but interesting characters; the limits of traditional female roles; the ravages of the European class system; the challenge of Internet control; and the destructive self-indulgence of a youth culture that lacks its own deeply held beliefs and is, as such, easily manipulated by the darkest authority." --Kirkus
"Apocalypse Baby kept me up several nights in a row--in part because it's a terrific page-turner, and in part because I was anxious to see how Despentes would sustain her narrative ride, which is replete with wily shifts in point of view, swift and trenchant characterizations, and a buoyant, even comedic energy laced with mordant cultural and psychological insights throughout. In the end, Apocalypse Baby is more than a compelling punk, queerish spin on the noir genre. It is a choral performance that tumbles its readers into the heart of violent spectacle, with all its attendant griefs, unease, and unclarity."--Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts "It has everything: the nervous, ironic, vivid style of Baise-Moi... her sharp gaze on society and its divisions, her empathy for the poor wretches who compose it... an indefinable thriller, combing pulp and social chronicle." --L'Express "Virginie Despentes's social criticism is blistering, but her prose is laid-back. Apocalypse Baby is an addictive feminist thriller that reads like shameless gossip from your smartest friend." --Johanna Fateman, writer and musician "A model for the revolutionary figure... Grander than life." --Music & Literature "Apocalypse Baby does not drift. It propels forward, hardly taking a breath." --Three Percent blog "This is a book written to make the reader think, to challenge assumptions and provide no easy answer or understanding." --Lambda Literary Review