You Didn’t Hear This from Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip

These perceptive meditations from novelist and Normal Gossip podcaster McKinney (God Spare the Girls) explore the pleasures, purposes, and perils of gossip. In one chapter, McKinney argues that the 2004 film Mean Girls inadvertently exposes some of gossip’s virtues by depicting how true rumors about a gym teacher making out with underage female students spread information crucial to community safety. Turning to celebrity gossip, McKinney suggests that fans’ parasocial relationships with stars can make them feel like they know more than they do—such as the Taylor Swift devotees who insist, contrary to Swift’s own statements, that she’s queer—even as their assertions are sometimes proven right, as was the case when seemingly outlandish theories that Britney Spears’s social media posts constituted pleas for help turned out to be correct. “When we gossip, we have to acknowledge that the truths we are attempting to convey are in the meanings we take from moments,” McKinney contends, recounting how her assumption that the girls she overheard gossiping in her middle school locker room were talking about her more accurately reflected her own insecurities than the girls’ potentially misheard opinions. McKinney’s penetrating analysis uncovers the hidden depths and overlooked benefits of gossip. This will give readers plenty to talk about. Agent: Dana Murphy, Trellis Literary. (Feb.)