Rejection

Rejection is both the title and the central theme of the collection, linking its disparate characters through experiences of failed connection, social exclusion, and thwarted desire. Rather than presenting rejection as a discrete event, the stories explore its prolonged psychological aftermath: how it is experienced, misinterpreted, and how it can be weaponised. In “The Feminist”, rejection catalyzes the protagonist’s descent into misogyny, not because he is romantically unsuccessful per se, but because he interprets women’s disinterest as an injustice that must have a political or moral explanation. His inability to process rejection as a normal, personal boundary leads him to reframe it as a failure of feminism itself. He is not just hurt: he believes he has been wronged. A similar displacement operates in “PICS”, where Alison’s inability to let go of a relatively minor rejection becomes the foundation of a long-term narrative...