Forthcoming March 17, 2026 from William Morrow.
Now available for preorder everywhere.
Signed & personalized preorders available at Yu and Me!
Acclaimed author Jade Song returns with her latest literary exploration: a lyrical, poignant, and heartfelt novel about the meaning of love, friendship, debt, depression, and death in New York City—a coming-of-age for a new generation, in the vein of Sally Rooney and Ottessa Moshfegh.
For as far back as she can remember, Vicky has been fascinated and obsessed with death as the only inevitable thing in life. From living above a Chinatown funeral parlor to working at a celebrity start-up for bespoke urns, she has surrounded herself with death—in her home, in her work, and in her ever-growing collection of zhizha, paper creations meant to be burned for the dead, adorning the walls of her apartment. Yet, though living in Manhattan and working her dream job is all she ever wanted, she still struggles to have meaningful connections—or find any meaning at all—in her life. Too often she spends the day in bed, only drawn out from time to time by her best (and only) friend, Jen.
That changes when a dating app leads her into a throuple with an artist and a labor organizer, who offer exactly the kind of love she needs. For some time, it’s perfect, but no one understands better than Vicky that all things must end. As doubts grow over the love in her life, her friendship with Jen, and her professional success, the oddly comforting abstraction of death starts becoming something else altogether. With everything beginning to feel hollow and temporary, Vicky must decide how to keep moving forward. To try and hold on to what she has, or to once again do what she does best: destroy.Praise for I Love You Don’t Die
“I Love You Don't Die is a heartfelt meditation on life, death, and the loved ones who give those words meaning. This novel fervently begs the questions: What do you want from your life? What will it take to get it? And what happens when you and those closest to you have diverging answers? With wry wit, Jade Song satirizes corporate culture and the commodification of everything, even death. They so wonderfully capture the capitalist malaise—and the rare, wonderful moments in life that burst through it. From a great first date in Green-Wood Cemetery to the funerary shops in Chinatown, this is a New York that feels lived in. The beating heart of this story is the enduring friendship at its center. I Love You Don't Die will make you want to call your best friend.”
— Katie Yee, author of Maggie
"A necessary and moving work about how death can be our greatest teacher for how to live, I Love You Don’t Die is an ode to the power of friendship and community’s ability to be the bridge we build on our way to death. How can a society that doesn’t value life possibly prepare for death? Song reckons with these and other urgent questions, exploring the commodification of death and how consumerism is another kind of death that also seeks to reduce our humanity into objects or output. This book made me seek out my loved ones and hold them a little closer.”
— Ling Ling Huang, award-winning author of Natural Beauty and Immaculate Conception
Beautiful, rich, and captivating. Jade Song invites you into an immersive season of melancholy, where hearts run free and love ambushes as readily as death itself. An experience to be savored."
— Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth
“Achingly, urgently, Jade Song probes at loneliness with some of the most poetic prose I’ve ever had the good luck to read. A dizzying and yearning story of love and loss, I can’t remember the last time a book made me gasp like this one did. Death, sex, student debt—I Love You Don’t Die is unflinching.”
— Stuart Pennebaker, author of Ghost Fish
“This book messed me up; and it is messy. The relationships are grotesquely intimate, deep friendships full of selfishness and radiant grief that often knocked the wind out of me. It’s so good…”
— Natalie Zina Walschots, author of Hench
“This book made me laugh, cry, and laugh again. It's a story about love in all of its forms, a lyrical and witty meditation on what it means to be and to feel alive. Rarely have I seen the nuances of mental illness depicted so accurately; I Love You Don’t Die is a book that will stay with me for a while.”
— Jake Hall, journalist and author
“Jade Song has written the novel on 21st century loneliness. I Love You Don’t Die is luminous, tender and an absolute gut punch. A melancholic must read.”
— Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
“I Love You Don't Die is a poignant meditation on love, loss, loneliness, and the human condition. Song’s ambitious sophomore novel will break your heart completely.”
— Monika Kim, author of The Eyes are the Best Part
“I Love You Don’t Die is a gorgeously penned meditation on death, life and love. With tenderness and sharp clarity, it illuminates who and what we truly value and asks what it is we are really living for. Song reminds us that amid the chaos of late-stage capitalism, we all leave behind far more than we allow ourselves to worry about. I relished every page.”
— Warona Jay, author of The Grand Scheme of Things
“Jade Song drops us into Gen Z America, all precarity and social media, then uses breathtaking lyricism to lift us somewhere else entirely. I Love You Don't Die is unflinching witness to loneliness and connection, to the paper-thin flimsiness of the moment and what endures beyond it. I couldn't put it down.”
— Joanna Chen, writer and translator
“Song writes beautifully of a young woman’s aching heart as she faces the challenges of big city life. This one strikes just the right balance between melancholy and hope.”
— Publisher’s Weekly