Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism

Q: Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

No, you don’t have to buy the ebook to participate, but we do recommend it to get the most out of your club. There are several premium social reading features that are only available when you buy the ebook, like annotations, reactions, comment threads, resources, discussion prompts, and more, all embedded right in the text. It’s a unique and immersive way to read.

Q: Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

It’s annoying, we know. App store rules prevent us from selling directly in the app, so for now you can only purchase ebooks on our website. Don’t worry: when you purchase an ebook on the web, it’s automatically added to your bookshelf in the app.

Q: How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Kindle is a straightforward e-reader; Fable is an interactive e-reader that includes social features inside the ebooks. When you read an ebook on Fable, you can see and react to the text with others in real time. Start a discussion, share highlights and quotes, add emoji reactions—all of it lives right inside the book. It’s hard to explain and easy to see, so we recommend reading the free sample in one of our most active clubs to get a feel for it.

Q: Do you sell physical books too?

We do not sell physical books at this time. Wish we did? Let us know why here!

Q: Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

Most of our clubs are completely free to join. The only exceptions are clubs marked as “Premium” or “Career Development,” which do require a fee. You can find out more on each club’s detail page.

Q: How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

The first step is to download the Fable app. From there, you’ll be able to create your own private or public book club and invite others to read with you. Once your club is created, click on the plus sign under “Currently reading” and search for this book to add it to your club.

By Andrea Kriz

Publisher Description

A short story collection exploring unexpected, fantastical futures and how we cope in them.

Your friend creates an award-winning VR game—based on your friendship. An AI starts a YouTube channel at the expense of its creator. A fanfic writer plagiarizing the lives of the marginalized gets her comeuppance. Time travel meets magic in a world blown into pieces by war. Dragons modify DNA and undergo peer review. In Andrea Kriz's debut short story collection, technology and genres wildly blend in stories that will challenge how you see our future.

Stories include "Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism," "Communist Computer Rap God," "There Are No Hot Topics on Whukai," "Miss DELETE Myself," "AIs Who Make Ais Make the Best Ais!" "The Ones Who Got Away from Time and Loss," "Rebuttal to Reviewer's Comments on Edits for "Demonstration of a Novel Draconification Protocol in a Human Subject"," "I Want to Dream of a Brief Future," "And That's Why I Gave Up on Magic," "Resistance in a Drop of DNA," "The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin," and "The Leviathan and the Fury."

Download the free Fable app

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

6 Reviews

4.5

Julie K. ✧

Created about 1 month ago

Original writingAddictiveImmersive settingComicalDarkThought-provoking

BookishSoulZeynep

Created 3 months ago

“This book immediately catched my eye when I saw the cover, and with its title, I couldn’t resist reading it, and am quite happy to have done so. Learning to hate yourself as a self-defense mechanism is a short story collection with speculative fiction in focus. Covering a wide range with interesting plots from virtu-game developers to time-traveling painters to suicide streamers, the collection connects the reader with the characters with an enthralling writing style. Here are some of my favorites; “Miss DELETE Myself,” about a suicide streamer, accepted inte a team where they actually does it for real and has come up with a way to survive. “I Want to Dream of a Brief Future,” This one’s about a boy that hasn't got a magical ability yet. When he gets stuck in a time loop where he and the girl he loves dies every time, he finds out what his ability is, with an unpredictable plot twist. “And That’s Why I Gave Up on Magic,” What would you do if your best friend that is a one percent bleeder and much more talented than you at schoolwork and magic gets drafted? “Resistance in a Drop of DNA,” A member of the resistance starts learning about molecular biology from a professor and gets a reason to live. “The Last Caricature of Jean Moulin,” This is my favorite. "Some art exists because it only exists for a moment and only exists for one or two people's eyes. Some art exists because it never existed at all. Just the possibility. They're afraid of us, people like us, the kind of people who can build time machines because we can erase them. They can erase the past, but only we can erase the future. Because they're going to die. Because they don't understand what time is. That's what time is. The possibility-that something exists like the last caricature of Jean Moulin." I absolutely loved how much I got to know about the characters in so few pages per story. It was captivating, impossible to put down, intelligent and smart, fun and queer, unexpected, twisty, interesting. Everything you seek for in a book, and more. With its unique structure and characters, learning to hate yourself as a self-defense mechanism is perfect for fans of this is how you lose the time war and a perfect representation of speculative fiction”

Seher Mohsin

Created 4 months ago

“This collection of short stories was absolutely wonderful. From Sci-fi to magic to time travel each was amazingly done.”

Beautifully writtenEasy to readOriginal writingUnpredictableImmersive settingHeartbreaking

Lex

Created 4 months ago

“I grabbed Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism: And Other Stories from NetGalley partly on a whim, partly because I was looking for a collection of SFF short stories. I absolutely do not regret grabbing and reading this collection, and I found that it was a really natural entry into both short stories and science fiction. I always appreciate picking up a book and knowing that the author enjoyed writing it–Kriz exercises her various writing styles in subjects that she’s clearly passionate about. This collection covers topics like AI and its advancement, time travel from a science fiction and fantasy perspective, and dystopia. I found the stories to be cohesive, and I appreciated that each story brought something different to the table by investigating a topic from a unique angle. It helps that Kriz fluidly but decisively shifts from humor to horror and writes in different persons. I particularly liked the second-person stories, namely, “And That’s Why I Gave Up on Magic” because it reminded me a lot of This is How You Lose The Time War. There are some really strong stories here, but I must say that I much preferred the first half of stories over the latter. I appreciate the connectedness Kriz includes across the last three stories, but I found them rather dull in comparison to the rest. It’s difficult to read this kind of collection and not ponder what it means to be and how exactly “being” becomes an intentional choice giving its context. I felt that Kriz did a really nice job of leaning into this theme without it being trite or annoyingly overt. Overall, an enjoyable collection of stories that would make for great content for a low-stakes book club. I don’t find that they necessarily stick with me, which is why I can’t give it 5 stars, but I do think it was well done. Thank you to NetGalley and Interstellar Flight Press for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title.”

Punkybroomster

Created 5 months ago

“Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defense Mechanism is a collection of short stories set in a futuristic time. These stories cover many topics to include racism, self-destruction, colonialism, cultural appropriation, and so much more. With sci-fi being the main focus, we are carried through short story after short story pushing the boundaries of current events and the near future. This collection was tremendously entertaining. The stories were hard hitting and truly made me stop and think at times. I loved how they pushed the boundaries of current events using futuristic settings. Some of these stories will stick with me long after I’ve completed them. The last three stories appear to be linked but I think I missed the link between them all. With that, I am giving this collection 4/5 stars. It was quite the adventure and I hope to see more from Kriz as they continue with their work.”