The Internet Novel Is Growing Up

"Bud and Catherine Flynn have begun a "nonconsensual nonmonogamous spell." They are too busy scorching each other's insecurities to cook dinner, more concerned about their own sleeping arrangements than about the eroding bedtimes of their three wayward daughters. Cash's characters are believable and specific, but contrary to Tolstoy's famous adage, this unhappy family is, in key respects, like many others."

"Online is where Louise, the Flynns' middle child, meets an Islamic-fundamentalist user named yourstruly. It's where Harper, the youngest, researches conspiracy theories involving her father's shadowy tech-billionaire boss, Paul Alabaster. Online discourse lurks behind even offline behavior—Bud and Catherine's polyamorous phase; the age-gap dalliance of their eldest daughter, Abigail, with an edgy vet nicknamed War Crimes Wes. In Lost Lambs, the internet sabotages a family in much the same way that Napoleon messes things up for the Bezukhovs in Tolstoy's War and Peace."

A suburban family is fracturing as parents Bud and Catherine Flynn enter a nonconsensual nonmonogamous phase, neglecting household routines and their three daughters. The middle child forms an online relationship with an Islamic-fundamentalist user, while the youngest researches conspiracies about her father's tech-boss. Online discourse shapes offline actions, including polyamory and an eldest daughter's risky relationship with an edgy veterinarian. Internet-driven isolation, selfishness, and subcultural silos amplify familial tensions and link this family's unhappiness to broader unhappy-family traditions transformed by digital life. The narrative ties classic themes of domestic collapse to contemporary online phenomena, suggesting the internet reshapes interpersonal crises.

Read at The Atlantic