My Dear You: Stories

by Rachel Khong

From the author of New York Times bestseller Real Americans, a brilliant short story collection about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it’s so easy to be someone else

The characters in My Dear You find themselves facing extraordinary choices in scenarios that range from the everyday to the The U.S. government injects all citizens with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. God does away with humans in favor of something much better. A woman adopts a cat who conjures the ghosts of her ex-loves. A factory worker decides to liberate a sex doll she is tasked with selling.

These stories go deep beneath the surface, touching on the particular awkwardness of dating in your thirties and What does it mean to be an Asian woman in America? Or an American? Or a human? Along the way, the characters stop to consider interventions from the supernatural, the earthly, the robotic, and the immortal.

Playful, profane, and yet enveloped with profound compassion for life, however you define it, My Dear You takes on dating, marriage, and the pressures of having or not having children; intimacy, memory, race, and capitalism; living, dying, and being dead. At their very core, they are tales of love in its many being in love when you’re not supposed to be, or not being in love but wishing you were; failing at dating apps or finding yourself in weird but wonderful lifelong friendships; struggling in heaven to remember your loved ones.

Ranging from the sinister to the tender, these witty and expertly paced stories will have you laughing out loud one minute and reaching for your best friend the next.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Short Story Collection

Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 7, 2026

About the author

RACHEL KHONG is the author of the novels Real Americans, a New York Times bestseller, and Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction. From 2011 to 2016, she was an editor of Lucky Peach, a quarterly magazine of food and culture. In 2018, Rachel founded The Ruby, a work and event space for writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. Her story collection, My Dear You, will be published by Knopf in April 2026. Since 2021, she has mentored emerging writers with the Periplus Mentorship Collective. With friends, she teaches as The Dream Side (www.thedreamside.com).

Reviews

[emma]

"a brilliant short story collection about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it’s so easy to be someone else"

[Sophie Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was masterful from start to finish. Each short story tackled difficult themes in a playful surrealist way that I really enjoyed. I couldn't stop thinking about the last short story for days. Someone read this so I can talk about it!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one chokes me up every time. It makes a difference when the right people find each other. This is such a beautiful testament to that.

[Book Riot Community]

Book Riot’s Most Anticipated Books of 2026:

There is always a remarkable economy of language in Rachel Khong's books. She doesn't waste any time—or any words—getting to the point, but she doesn't sacrifice artistry, either. Khong's generous affection for her characters and ability to capture mundane human moments and anxieties with uncommon grace and humor make her exactly the kind of writer whose novels have made me wonder what she'd do with short stories. I can't wait to find out. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

i'm a simple man... show me a forthcoming release with a pretty cover and it'll probably go on my TBR <3

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Rachel Khong, I was really excited to see this ARC offered. The stories were reminiscent of Ted Chiang’s sci-fi short stories but from a uniquely Asian female lens. Some of the stories I found so engaging I was disappointed when they ended. Overall, another great read from Rachel Khong. Thank you to the publisher for the ability to read this in advance!!

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY DEAR YOU is a collection of odd, surreal and powerful short stories. Each one masterfully digs into what it means to be human, to love, and to change. I practically inhaled this, and will be thinking about these characters for a long time to come. Another incredible read from the one and only Rachel Khong.

Thank you to Knopf for the ARC!

[Kiara Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masterful short stories that highlight the challenging journey of finding yourself, in a time when it is very easy to not. It was playful and surrealist without skimping on depth. Highly recommend!

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved. LOVED. Completely unexpected since I was expecting a novel but v pleasantly surprised.
The perfect combo of surreal/thought provoking. Excited for my friends to read it.

'"Samsara," Greg said. "Life as circular rather than linear."
I liked that: life as cyclical, not a straight line marked with stones. Or could there be more dimensions to it? In water, there wasn't only forward. There was down and up and through.'

[Bridget Sadenwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Dear You is a captivating collection of short stories filled with fantastical, absurd, and even delightfully silly scenarios. Each story feels out of this world yet somehow deeply human. What I loved most was how every piece made me stop and reflect. I wondered what I would do in those situations. It’s the kind of book that stays with you and makes you want to journal your thoughts after each story. Thought-provoking and imaginative.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the arc.

[SH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Khong you are a visionary. This was weird and wonderful!!! Loved every second

[Stroop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ten captivating short stories that explore identity, relationships, and ambition. Many of the stories are speculative (e.g., which animal will you choose if God decides there will be no more humans; how would you feel if you discovered you weren’t from Earth, etc.) and all of them are entertaining. I particularly enjoyed My Dear You, Slow and Steady, Serene, The Family O, Red Shoes, and D Day. Recommended to readers in the mood for a diverting, reflective, and thought-provoking read.

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

[Annabella Sherman]

Mexico read! I like that these stories explore dating and meaning in your 30s. HELLO, it’s me!

Read on the beaches of Baja Mexico

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ebook. This book of stories takes on serious ideas in many playful ways. It does it realistically, like when twenty Asian women band together to exact revenge on a white male who only dates Asian women on a dating app, to the more absurd, like when God gives humans a few months to pick another animal species, or when the government gives you a drug so that you see everyone as your own race and gender. It’s so much fun to see a novelist cut loose and have so much fun with short stories.

[Rachel Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this is the first book I'm finishing in 2026 but I'm gonna go ahead and state that this will probably be one of my top books of the year.

edit...like a week later with the rest of my review.

I originally finished this on January 2nd and I know that it was the first book I finished it 2026, but this is going to be one of my favorite books of the year. A stunning short story collection that is something I can only describe as raw and haunting. The stories themselves are endearing, touching and human but the storytelling is fantastical, speculative, even silly; the contrast is done masterfully! In ways, I'd say it's similar to Black Mirror but generally less creepy and eerie.

Each story is one that begs to be reflected upon. There is so much substance; I could see myself reading this one again which I don't typically reread books.

[Helen Wu ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to discover that My Dear You is a collection of short stories rather than a single narrative. Rachel Khong’s writing is undeniably creative, often weaving the absurd and the tender in unexpected ways. However, I struggled with the tone…it felt unbalanced at times, and I found myself wondering if it was more about my personal preferences than the book itself. I tend to prefer more cohesive storytelling, and while some of these stories were moving and imaginative, others didn’t quite land for me.

Still, I can see this resonating strongly with readers who enjoy experimental short fiction, surreal premises, and stories that blur the line between grief, love, and the afterlife.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Gabi Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liken short story collections to albums—and this one? No skips.

While a departure from her previous novel, every story in My Dear You is utterly fascinating, vibrating with an underlying hum of caution. Khong stitches together surreal, speculative tales that feel close enough to real life to make you squirm.

For fans of Black Mirror who can’t actually stomach Black Mirror, this is your sweet spot: eerie, emotional, and entirely human.

Thank you, Knopf, for an advanced copy!

[Cece · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most short story collections for me - some stories in here are hits and some were misses for me. It was enjoyable speculative fiction with a touch of whimsy and a dash of melancholic nihilism. The themes are important, almost at times to a silly degree of obviousness - but that made it all the more enjoyable from a lighthearted perspective. It was a fun time. It was tender, humorous, witty and absurd.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for my arc!

[Resh (The Book Satchel) · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories are whimsical and bizarre and wonderful and linger on themes of identity, race, friendship and loneliness. I really enjoyed this collection.

Some favorite stories:
The Freshening: This was the second story in the collection and I was really drawn to the dystopian theme. Here, the government has come with a 'Freshening' initiative to inject drugs that'll make you see everyone around you the same race as yours. This is supposed to reduce racial violence by stripping diversity—If you are white, your world becomes white; If you are Asian, your world becomes Asian; and so on. Our protagonist is an Asian woman but her injection has a glitch because of which everyone becomes an Asian woman in her eyes—her father's photo, her friend's white boyfriend, the cast of her favorite movie, and so on. What is it like to live in such a world?

Serene: I loved this story! This story had a beautiful soul and felt very human. A woman strikes up a friendship with a sex doll. She is asked to spend time with the doll to better train its AI systems and her commission increases if she sells better dolls. But what happens to their friendship?

The Family O: A revenge story about a group of more than 20 Asian women after they realized they all dated a white guy who fetishized Asian women. His dates with the woman are similar—taking each to an Asian restaurant, talking about his trip to a Buddhist temple, then buying a fish at a pet store that reminds him of his date. Jess, who is on dating apps, strikes a friendship with the other women her date had dated in the past.

D Day: This had such an interesting concept. Humans will change into an animal of their choice. Chaos ensue as people try to choose their perfect animal; families stop talking to each other when they do not agree with choices (I loved the part where a mother wanted to be a poodle but her family advises her she can't live without a human pet owner, so why not be a cat or something, but she is adamant she wants to be a poodle). The story really moved me. How people try to have the most of the last hours as human—going to an escape room, things like that—which they can no longer do as animals. I loved it!

My Dear You: “Something nobody tells you is that when you die a death in which your face and body are utterly maimed, you get to choose your face in heaven,.” In this story, a woman eaten by a crocodile on her honeymoon, is contemplating to fix the wide space between her eyes which was something she was always teased about as a child. She meets her husband again in heaven when he dies 50 years later.

Other stories:
Good spirits (about spirits in a factory), Slow and Steady(reconnecting at thirty five),
Tapetum Lucidum (a woman struggling with infertility adopts a cat), Colors from Elsewhere (miscarriage)

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC. All opinions are my own
Blog | Instagram | Threads | X (Twitter) | Newsletter

[Angie Miale · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I requested to read this book I was unaware that it was a short story collection. I loved Rachel Khong's 2024 novel Real Americans and I thought this was her next novel. I was very inspired by and appreciated this story collection, which are united as they have different main characters but they are all asian women.

The stories range from the absurd, to the magical, to the beauty of every day. The first story is about a woman eaten by a crocodile on her honeymoon at age 30, and her life in heaven, only to fall for her husband of 1 day almost 50 years later. This story was very romantic. I also liked the story of a young woman who was the only friend of an AI sex doll, teaching her English and culture just by speaking to her. Then later feeling sad that she was going to be sold and have a new life in Cleveland. All of the stories were very emotional or raw. I love the internal dialogue and I found the characters to be quite lovable, while flawed. In one story the US government required everyone to take a vaccine that led everyone to see other people as their own race. What a fascinating concept!

If you rarely read short story collections, like me, I would encourage you to read My Dear You. What I really liked is that they didn't all have a defined "beginning - middle - end"- some were just an image, and I never knew when the story was going to end. Most of them I didn't want them to end, they left me wanting more, but in a good way.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the ARC. Book to be published April 7, 2026.

[Beth Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐️
Rachel Khong’s upcoming short story collection MY DEAR YOU has something for most readers: speculative fiction (particularly if you liked SHARK HEART!), stories about identity, and a few stories that are a bit spicy (revenge on a white man who fetishizes Asian women), and more! All of these stories have Asian female main characters.

My Dear You: 4⭐️Woman was eaten by a crocodile on her honeymoon and meets her husband again in heaven when he dies 50 years later

The Freshening: 4⭐️Enjoyed the concept of the government injecting you so that you see everyone as your race and gender, thought this would be better as long form

Slow and Steady: 5⭐️I loved this one and thought it was really interesting how these two people reconnected at age 35. (I think I like realistic fiction a bit more than speculative fiction.)

Tapetum Lucidum: 4⭐️A woman deals with infertility, adopts a cat, and sees other lives with the cat. (Back to speculative)

The Family O: 5⭐️Jess is on dating apps, and she gets involved with a new group of friends and realized they all dated a white guy who fetishized Asian women. They devise a revenge plan. (Realistic fiction is my jam.)

Serene: 4.5⭐️Ling works in a sex doll factory, and she finds a friend in the AI sex doll Serene.

Red Shoes: 3⭐️This is the only one that fell flat for me.

Good Spirits: 3.75⭐️Spirits are in the factory, explores friendship with Cecilia.

Colors from Elsewhere: 4⭐️When the main character experiences a miscarriage, she seeks out Eastern medicine and finds out something new about herself.

D Day: 5⭐️There’s an announcement that all humans will turn into the animal of their choice soon. A couple grapples what each will turn into - for fans of SHARK HEART.


Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an unbiased review.

It publishes April 7, 2026.

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

My Dear You is a collection of ten short stories. The stories range from following normal people living their lives to more supernatural ones. One of the stories, The Freshening, follows a society where people can have an injection and every person they see is then the same race as them. For example, a bald white man would appear Chinese to a Chinese woman. Another story, Serene follows a woman who works at a sex doll factory. Some of the stories are simpler with one called Slow and Steady which follows two people who met in college and met again in their thirties. Ultimately, all of these stories are much deeper than they seem on the surface and they discuss race, gender, friendships and romantic connections.

I quite enjoyed this short story collection and I’m giving this four stars. Short story collections are always a mixed bag of ratings but all of the stories in this are solid. My favourite ones are The Freshening, The Family O, Serene and D Day. I will be recommending this collection and I think this is one of the better ones out there. The writing is good and as a fan of Rachel Khong, I was always going to enjoy this.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books are absolute magic, and Dear You by Rachel Khong is one of them.

As a collection these stories are funny, endearing, profound, and emotional. The topics are at times surreal, but also incredibly grounded (which is one of my favorite combos). I found myself laughing out loud, wanting to share parts with my husband as I read. I ruminated on some of these stories for days. I found myself crying, then laughing, then crying again, all in the same twenty pages. Khong has masterfully shared these incredibly human experiences of love and grief with such tenderness and humor.

Some of my favorites were Dear You, Slow and Steady, Red Shoes, Colors from Elsewhere and D Day (although I really did love them all!)

I LOVED Dear You, and am so thankful to Rachel Khong, Net Galley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. I will definitely be in my local bookstore on April 7 for a physical copy! This will be a reread for me for sure.

[Jimmie Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up on a total whim - I hadn’t read anything by Rachel Khong before, and I don’t usually go for short stories. But something about this collection pulled me in… and I’m so glad it did.

These stories are so full of feeling - strange, beautiful, sometimes a little surreal - and they left me sitting with that quiet ache you get after finishing something that really hits you. I kept wanting each one to last longer, like I could’ve happily read a whole novel about every single story.

Some stories reminded me of Black Mirror (but softer, more tender). Others just kind of cracked something open in me.

Khong’s writing is gorgeous without trying too hard - it just lands. I immediately looked up her other work when I finished. I want more of her voice in my life.

One of the best things I’ve read this year. I’ll be thinking about these stories for a long time.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I am not a short story reader. There is just not enough heft for me to get invested. I really liked Rachel Khong's "Real Americans" and i thought there might be more here for me. And yes, I guess there was. I almost feel as if each of these stories was an exploratory exercise to see if there was enough there for a novel or novella. And there kind of isn't. These really are kind of bite-sited stories that stand-alone. There are some common themes that bind them -- the experience (and fetishing) of Asian American women, the longing for love (lost and maybe someday found), friendship, feelings of otherness, the meaning of life and the human experience, and the connection we may have to loved ones and others who have passed. I don't know that this is a must read, but it was a quick one and the stories were just quirky enough to keep me reading. This is a GENEROUS four-star review.

[Nuha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available April 2026

Fantastical, future-facing, and wholly original is how I would describe Rachel Khong's My Dear You. Although I've read her long-form work, this is the first time I'm encountering Khong's work in short story form. Each story centers around a female protagonist and explores our more unusual social mores and inclinations. A stand out for me was "Serene" about a worker in a doll store who falls in love with the doll she is training. Khong manages to find beauty and humor in the grotesque and lonely. Parts of this book may give you whiplash as Khong switches worlds in a matter of minutes.

[Pooja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance reading copy! I really enjoyed this short story collection by Rachel Khong (previously read her novels, Real Americans and Goodbye, Vitamin - both very good). The stories are definitely at the sci fi / surreal end of the spectrum but deal with very human problems (infertility, miscarriage, dating and our impact on the environment). I particularly liked My Dear You (a woman unknowingly reunites with her husband in heaven), Tapetum Lucidum (about a woman trying to have a baby), Red Shoes (aftermath of an affair) and Good Spirits (a factory is thought to be haunted), but all feel original and are thought provoking.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is a gem. I already knew that Rachel Khong is an excellent writer and a consummate story teller. But, her short stories really went beyond that. Each story encapsulates part of the human experience, filled with joy, sadness and trepidation. Yet, there were odd quirks that made each character uniquely their own. I tried (unsuccessfully) not to binge these, but really couldn’t help myself. For those who don’t enjoy short stories, I suspect this collection will change your mind.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Kris V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this collection. Each story encapsulated a relationship between two people where they’re given choices of how to move forward, sometimes in a world that only resembles present day. But the main perspective is that of an Asian woman and how she relates to the world around her. As a person of color, I found myself relating to each story in different ways, making the pages flow in a stream of consciousness. The writing is beautiful, the pace steady, and the stories memorable.

Thank you to Net Galley and Knopf for the ARC.
Plan to recommend this story collection to friends!

[Dani Kruger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy from NetGalley & Knopf in exchange for my review.

I found this an overall enjoyable collection of short stories. The stories are connected by themes of speculative fiction and “what if” scenarios that stretch beyond reality. Some are better than others but I enjoyed them all. The perspective of the Chinese American experience is threaded into the majority of stories and provides a unique lens by layering it with the concepts of each story.