I’ve been a huge fan of Alissa Nutting’s ever since I read the opening pages of her novel Tampa by chance while scouring the shelves of whatever bookstore I was in. Her latest, Made for Love, certainly did not disappoint. Truthfully, I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that the story concerned a woman on the run and a sex doll. I was completely taken off guard by how moving the story ended up being. How it truly became a meditation on isolation during a time when technology increasingly pervades every aspect of a person’s life, to the point that privacy is a term that’s lost all sense of a definition. The book is so good at showing the costs a person pays when they choose to pretend to be living a life rather than living theirs authentically. It’s about the treacherous gap between a person’s reality and the idealized version they wish they were living, and the lengths people are willing to go to manufacture enthusiasm to bridge that gap. Also, this book is funny as hell and doesn’t let up until the very end.