‘MY ANTIFA LOVER’: ‘Steamy’ leftist novel about Congresswoman Alexandria falling in love with a rioter leaves readers in disbelief
A romantic novel called 'My Antifa Lover’ invokes left-wing militancy in a story about a young congresswoman falling for a rioter. The zeitgeist-filled title has turned a few heads online; some couldn’t even believe it exists.
As brevity is known to be the soul of wit, the peculiar novel, written by Jessica Stranger, is just fifty-nine pages long. However, ‘My Antifa Lover’ may be compensating for this by having two whole sub-titles on the cover: the poetic “A Riot of the Heart” and the thought-provoking “Steamy Romance Against Fascism.”
The main hero, a liberal congresswoman, who incidentally shares the first name with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, falls in love with a “daring” masked protester in Seattle, Washington. The male lead is supposedly part of ‘Antifa’ a loose coalition of left-wingers who sometimes employ violent protest tactics against groups they deem 'fascist.'“After encountering him at a non-violent burning down of a federal building she can't tell what is hotter, the fire or her feelings developing for him,” the Amazon description of the book reads.
The book’s reviews on the website do not provide much of an insight into the work and seem to mostly be jokes. “My wife’s boyfriend recommended this to me,” wrote one critic, who gave “My Antifa Lover” two out of five stars.
Fortunately, a Twitter literature personality who goes by ‘Literally Anscombe’ did a deep dive into the book’s story, even making a read-along thread. They gave the novel a pretty serious and harsh review, saying it's “not great” and is “written as clean as an Evangelical Romance.”
I took a couple breaks but the thread is finished now! Not a great romance novel! It's literally not even about Antifa, the politics are non-existent or completely obscured, and it's written as clean as an Evangelical Romance! https://t.co/PztllBa5qe
— "but Men must pay One Million Dollars to be Free?" (@LitAnscombe) September 7, 2020
Despite arguably being topical, “My Antifa Lover” did turn a few heads online because of its unusual political take on the romance genre. There are no signs that the story is satirical in any way, and some of the people who found out about it couldn’t even believe it was real.
This can’t be real. Right? This is fake. I refuse to believe this. https://t.co/LLST7nzn5R
— Gennette Cordova (@GNCordova) September 6, 2020
Many commenters, however, seemed to have accepted the book’s existence, and had some fun with its catchy title. “’My Antifa Lover’ is a pitch, not a title,” said one Twitter jokester, while some others were surprised that Antifa has become “a household name.”
Don't know why it was wasted as a tagline. "My Antifa Lover" is a pitch, not a title.
— Liam Jay (@Leehambones) September 7, 2020
Never thought I would see the day that “antifa” became a household name... yet here we are https://t.co/BVu4HVKBif
— Lottie 𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖎 𝖋𝖆𝖘𝖈𝖎𝖘𝖙 Blix (@lottieblix) September 5, 2020
who’s gonna be my antifa lover https://t.co/DKlq9dgpBT
— ᡕᠵ᠊ᡃ່࡚ࠢ࠘ ⸝່ࠡࠣ᠊߯᠆ࠣ࠘ᡁࠣ࠘᠊᠊ࠢ࠘𐡏 (@yaboiya1) September 6, 2020
It is worth noting that according to Amazon, ‘My Antifa Lover’ wasn’t Stranger’s first foray into political romance. The author’s previous book ‘Not My President but My Lover’ was a self-admitted satirical take on a woman Democrat falling in love with the Republican president Donald Trump.
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