Book review: Exploring the issues that arise from being a black Democrat dating a Trump fan

There’s a worrying trend in popular book discourse – review websites, BookTok, Twitter – that encourages judgment to be cast on a novel before its release. Scrolling through comments on Goodreads, Cecilia Rabess’s debut Everything’s Fine appears to have been given a one-star rating from some people who haven’t read a page of it and don’t intend to either.

The premise is this: a young, black, Ivy League graduate named Jess lands an entry-level, competitive ...