JUST WATCH ME

A 20-something New York University dropout starts livestreaming her life to raise money for her comatose sister.

Irate at yet another fussy customer at Juice Body, Dell Danvers walks out of her job, straight to her unaffordable Hell’s Kitchen studio. A fan of watching streamers to relax, she’s moved by desperation to initiate a livestream of her own, called “MY SISTER IS IN A COMA #LOL.” As people begin to populate her stream, an idea forms: a weeklong streamathon to raise money for her sister, Daisy. Dell tells her audience her sister’s coma has been designated as vegetative, and the hospital will no longer cover life support; Dell has to find a way to raise $14,000 a week to provide Daisy with private care. Her cause captures an audience, but Dell has to deliver entertainment—of an increasingly extreme nature. She begins by eating five habaneros—the painful experience described in magnificent detail—and the donations pour in. A famous streamer, hot_pat_of_butter, joins in and begins to mentor Dell, impressed with her growing audience and poignant story. But another viewer, excelsior404, whose demands are obscene, begins harassing Dell in the real world with threats of exposing her “lies.” Dell’s popularity and bank account grow over the week of nonstop streaming, as her relationships with her mother and best friend evaporate. Dell becomes obsessively committed to satisfying her community of viewers, no matter the risk. Torenberg raises interesting questions about loneliness in an age of mass exposure and how self-exploitation is the new American Dream. Dell’s nihilistic narrative chatter can grow tiresome, but there are also startling passages of description so absorbing we forgive her bad mood.

A unique subculture brought to life with taut prose and pacing.