You Didn’t Hear This From Me

“Gossip is the only cultural tradition I care about, and Kelsey McKinney has written its Bible. I cannot wait to gossip about this book with everyone I know for the rest of my life. KELSEY IS THE REAL GOSSIP GIRL XOXO”
 

“A beautiful, expansive ode to the joy of information exchange. An ode that, like the practice of gossip itself, can be all at once inviting, tender, enlivening, and rich with humor, complexity, and an abundance of joys.”

“Come for Kelsey McKinney’s alluring voice, stay for her brilliant insights about words, secrets, gender, shame, pop culture, and technology. McKinney is not only our generation’s most beloved raconteuse, she is a rigorous and deeply thoughtful writer who can quote Emily Dickinson and Doja Cat on the same page and make a reader feel both delighted and challenged to come along for the ride. You Didn't Hear This From Me is cogent and sharp, and I will be whispering around town about it for a long time.” 

“YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME cements Kelsey McKinney’s status as one of the greatest storytellers of our time. She dishes out secrets, tidbits, fables, and epics with the wisdom of an edler and the zeal of someone who was there when it all went down.* Although McKinney grew up believing that gossip was a sin, she reveals how gossip may also bea form of prayer – reminding us of our imperfect humanity and helping us search for the truth. This book sparkles from start to finish and ends with a blind item so juicy you’ll need to put it down and text your best friend.
 
*(If anyone could have teleported to 2100 B.C.E. to ask Gilgamesh if he really smooched his best bro, it would be Kelsey. And conversely, if Kelsey were born around 2100 B.C.E., she would have absolutely inscribed gossip in tablets that people would still be fighting over today—this is her impact.)" 
 

"I tore through this like I was sprinting for gold at the Olympic games. I can't remember the last time I read a collection that made me wonder, deeply, about the bonds of friendship, social sciences, and the Real Housewives all in the span of a single page. True dynamite when it comes to examining the ways we yearn to yap while also remaining funny as hell; a remarkably potent combination. Nobody is cooler right now than Kelsey McKinney. This book stuns."

“I devoured this book like it was a series of 4-minute voice memos about someone Kelsey and I vaguely know. Her meditations gossip -- sometimes a powerful force for good, sometimes a sign of a diseased culture -- are, like the best gossip, so fun. RIP to the man killed by a walnut.”
 

"Sharp, incisive….McKinney provides meticulous research and offers some genuine insights in her attempt to elevate gossip to a worthy subject of study”

PRAISE FOR GOD SPARE THE GIRLS

“[A] tender, aching debut . . . where faith and betrayal are intertwined.”

“McKinney is a strong and compelling storyteller and has crafted a captivating small town world full of gossip and intrigue. God Spare the Girls beautifully explores the challenges of young womanhood in the context of a religion that has its own very strict ideas about what it means to be a good daughter, sister, and wife."

"Kelsey McKinney’s debut is a timely exploration of the moral contradictions of contemporary Evangelical Christianity. But the accomplishment of this canny novel is in positing coming of age itself as a loss of faith—not only in the church, but in our parents, our family, and the world as we thought we understood it."

"Every family has its secrets. . . . God Spare the Girls is an exploration of individuality, family, religion, community, and how when one family secret is revealed, many more follow."

“Totally brilliant. With the buoyant curiosity that makes her so beloved, Kelsey McKinney dishes an elegant treatise on gossip as an engine of both personal intimacy and cultural sea change. Incisive and vulnerable, gentle yet uncompromising, McKinney stakes a place among the best cultural critics of the age, without ever losing her sense of fun. I loved this book."