I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves to Get Through Our Twenties

O’Connell, who gained notoriety as a writer for the popular website Thought Catalog, gleefully pegs himself as the quintessential millennial in this collection of personal essays. Ruminating on topics such as his constant need for validation on the Internet, navigating the sea of dating apps, his helicopter parents, and his occasional fondness for prescription pills, O’Connell commiserates like your half-drunk best friend at happy hour. Despite his penchant for all-caps typing, he has an impressive writerly flow that is addictive and easy to read. Several chapters are dedicated to O’Connell’s lifelong struggle with cerebral palsy, punctuated by a car accident that gave him the tantalizing chance to introduce himself to strangers as an accident victim with a limp rather than, as he describes himself half-jokingly, a “gimp”; the weight of this topic sets this personal history apart from its lighter compatriots. At times myopic, O’Connell’s debut is nonetheless proof that habits learned on Twitter and Tinder don’t necessarily stunt maturity and can even lead to better understanding of oneself. Agent: Lydia Willis, Lydia Willis LLC. (June)