"Morgan Parker's
You Get What You Pay For tracks a Black woman's interiority with trenchant insight and puckish humor. Parker explores the epigenetic effects of structural anti-Blackness through her powerful meditations on loneliness and depression. She carves out her vulnerability with a poet's scalpel."
–Cathy Park Hong, author of Minor Feelings "In a series of moving personal vignettes, astute political observations, and piercing social commentary, Morgan Parker's vibrant collection of essays deftly examines the shifting contours of race, romance, memory, and mental health. At once cogent and humorous,
You Get What You Pay For is an engrossing journey through Parker's expansive and gifted mind."
–Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed "In
You Get What You Pay For, Morgan Parker interrogates the project of self-making while illuminating all the forces at work trying to warp reality and mangle the self. This is the kind of book that saves lives."
–Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives and Alive at the End of the World "An acclaimed Black poet examines the state of her soul through the lens of race. . . . [Morgan Parker] is good at snappy titles, clever formulations, and bitter humor, all of which are on display in these provocative and personal reflections, structured as a kind of symphony of themes and metaphors. . . . As Parker writes, 'Words are ductile, delicate, and loaded like that.' Never more so than in her capable hands."
–Kirkus Reviews (starred review)