Synopsis
Acclaimed author of CHLORINE, Jade Song, returns with her latest literary exploration of the Gen Z condition, I LOVE YOU DON'T DIE - a lyrical, poignant, and heartfelt novel about the meaning of love, friendship, debt, depression, and death in New York City.
Seeing death as the only inevitable thing in life, Vicky has always found it fascinating. She surrounds herself with it - living above a Chinatown funeral parlour, working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns and collecting zhizha (paper creations meant to be burned for the dead).
Despite living in Manhattan and working her dream job, she struggles to find meaning in her life or make connections outside of her best (and only) friend Jen. That changes when a dating app leads her into a throuple with an artist and a labour organiser, who seem to offer exactly the kind of love she needs.
For some time, it's perfect, but no one understands better than Vicky that all things must end. When her doubts grow over her love life, her friendship and her job, Vicky must decide whether to try and hold on to what she has, or to do what she does best . . . destroy.
Seeing death as the only inevitable thing in life, Vicky has always found it fascinating. She surrounds herself with it - living above a Chinatown funeral parlour, working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns and collecting zhizha (paper creations meant to be burned for the dead).
Despite living in Manhattan and working her dream job, she struggles to find meaning in her life or make connections outside of her best (and only) friend Jen. That changes when a dating app leads her into a throuple with an artist and a labour organiser, who seem to offer exactly the kind of love she needs.
For some time, it's perfect, but no one understands better than Vicky that all things must end. When her doubts grow over her love life, her friendship and her job, Vicky must decide whether to try and hold on to what she has, or to do what she does best . . . destroy.
Details
19 March 2026
9781804443538Imprint: Footnote Press
Reviews
Achingly, urgently, Jade Song probes at loneliness with some of the most poetic prose I've ever had the good luck to read. A dizzying and yearning story of love and loss, I can't remember the last time a book made me gasp like this one did. Death, sex, student debt - I Love You Don't Die is unflinching
A necessary and moving work about how death can be our greatest teacher for how to live, I Love You Don't Die is an ode to the power of friendship and community's ability to be the bridge we build on our way to death. How can a society that doesn't value life possibly prepare for death? Song reckons with these and other urgent questions, exploring the commodification of death and how consumerism is another kind of death that also seeks to reduce our humanity into objects or output. This book made me seek out my loved ones and hold them a little closer.
Beautiful, rich, and captivating. Jade Song invites you into an immersive season of melancholy, where hearts run free and love ambushes as readily as death itself. An experience to be savored
[On Chlorine:] This fantastically strange, explosive debut novel entrances even as it unsettles. It's so brilliantly written
