A multi-faceted and brave exploration of race, power and violence, Jaded finds a successful young woman's life irrevocably change after she is sexually attacked at work.
'Jade isn't even my real name. Jade began as my Starbucks name, because all children of immigrants have a Starbucks name.'
Jade has become everything she ever wanted to be.
Successful lawyer.
Dutiful daughter.
Beloved girlfriend.
Loyal friend.
Until one night after a work event she suffers an unspeakable attack.
As she tries to confront what happened to her, she finds herself caught between her parents who can’t understand, her boyfriend who feels betrayed, and her job that expects silence. The world Jade has constructed starts to crumble.
This raw, darkly funny novel explores the ‘grey-area’ of consent and recovery that’s far from linear, and will leave you asking yourself: what would you have done in Jade’s situation?
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787303669
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 611 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 35 mm
Ela Lee is a remarkable new voice in fiction. I tore through JADED – it made me laugh, cry and really bloody furious - Stacey Halls
JADED is a thoughtful, hard-hitting exploration of race, identity, and the rippling effects of sexual assault. Ela Lee writes with an urgency and clarity that will have you hooked until the last page. - Cecile Pin, author of WANDERING SOULS
A raw, compulsive and nuanced novel about identity, race and consent - i
One of 2024's hottest reads - Sunday Times
This raw, dark novel explores racism, class and sexism and you'll want to savour every word on every page - Refinery 29
Ela Lee is an electrifying new voice, and this is an ambitious gut-punch of a novel. Like I May Destroy You meets Industry, it’s a witty, nuanced and thought-provoking interrogation of attitudes towards race, power and consent - Bobby Palmer, author of ISAAC AND THE EGG
Jaded is so nuanced, assured, and utterly devastating it’s hard to believe it’s Ela Lee’s debut. Lee fearlessly takes on the impossible, infuriating double standards women are held to in our society, and undeniable feminine rage simmers under every sentence of her expertly crafted prose - Layne Fargo, author of THE FAVOURITES
Wonderfully multi-faceted and emotionally compelling - Jessica George, author of MAAME
Jaded is a sharp, bold and compulsively readable story of power, money, sex and survival. Ela Lee writes with utter clarity and heartbreaking insight about the cost of survival in cut-throat corporate environments and about the gray space between complicity and compromise. Urgent and necessary, this is a book that will take up space in your heart and mind long after the last page - Cecilia Rabess, author of EVERYTHING’S FINE
Bold ... A tightly-wound, claustrophobic unravelling of one woman that is one of the year’s most thoughtful reads - Harper’s Bazaar
A fantastic book, tackling some very serious and important issues that society all-too-readily accepts or ignores.
Ela Lee is a British-Korean-Turkish writer who studied Law at Oxford and practiced as a City litigation lawyer before writing this her debut novel – and it features a very similar protagonist.
Ceyda (“Jade isn’t...
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Ela Lee's debut novel, "Jaded," is a poignant exploration of identity, ambition, and the aftermath of a fateful night. The protagonist, Jade, navigates the complexities of her mixed heritage, the... More
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