Jaded

She did everything right. So why did it go so wrong?

Jade isn't even my real name. Jade began as my Starbucks name, because all children of immigrants have a Starbucks name.

Jade is everything she ever wanted to be. Successful lawyer. Dutiful daughter. Beloved girlfriend. Loyal friend.

Until one night, something terrible happens after a work event, and she starts to wonder if she really wants to be the person she’s become.

She’s learned to laugh when she’s felt like crying, opted to be invisible when she wanted to speak up and changed her identity to please people. But now Jade has to make a decision for herself. The question is, which is the right one?

This searing novel explores the strength we find in female friendship, the hope that lights up the dark moments and recovery that’s far from linear, and will leave you asking yourself: what would you have done in Jade’s situation?

Review

Ela Lee is a remarkable new voice in fiction. I tore through JADED – it made me laugh, cry and really bloody furious ― Stacey Halls

JADED is a thoughtful, hard-hitting exploration of race, identity, and the rippling effects of sexual assault. Ela Lee writes with an urgency and clarity that will have you hooked until the last page. ― Cecile Pin, author of WANDERING SOULS

A raw, compulsive and nuanced novel about identity, race and consent ― i

One of 2024's hottest reads ― Sunday Times

This raw, dark novel explores racism, class and sexism and you'll want to savour every word on every page ― Refinery 29

Ela Lee is an electrifying new voice, and this is an ambitious gut-punch of a novel. Like I May Destroy You meets Industry, it’s a witty, nuanced and thought-provoking interrogation of attitudes towards race, power and consent ― Bobby Palmer, author of ISAAC AND THE EGG

Jaded is so nuanced, assured, and utterly devastating it’s hard to believe it’s Ela Lee’s debut. Lee fearlessly takes on the impossible, infuriating double standards women are held to in our society, and undeniable feminine rage simmers under every sentence of her expertly crafted prose -- Layne Fargo, author of THE FAVOURITES

Wonderfully multi-faceted and emotionally compelling ― Jessica George, author of MAAME

Jaded is a sharp, bold and compulsively readable story of power, money, sex and survival. Ela Lee writes with utter clarity and heartbreaking insight about the cost of survival in cut-throat corporate environments and about the gray space between complicity and compromise. Urgent and necessary, this is a book that will take up space in your heart and mind long after the last page ― Cecilia Rabess, author of EVERYTHING’S FINE

Bold ... A tightly-wound, claustrophobic unravelling of one woman that is one of the year’s most thoughtful reads ― Harper’s Bazaar

About the Author

Ela Lee was born in 1995 and is a British-Korean-Turkish writer. She studied Law at the University of Oxford and went on to practise as a City lawyer. In 2021, during the global pandemic, Ela began work on her debut novel, JADED, which explores themes of consent, race, and identity. She lives in London, with her partner and their mini Aussie Shepherd.