Tell Me My Name

TELL ME MY NAME

Paperback Release: November 10, 2026
Original Hardcover Release: March 9, 2021

A near-future, gender-flipped retelling of The Great Gatsby, Tell Me My Name is a dark, seductive literary novel about the dangerous allure of wealth, fame, and belonging.

Fern has spent eighteen years being good: a dutiful daughter, a loyal friend, an invisible girl living safely at the edge of other people’s lives. On Commodore Island, where the wealthy shelter from a world of climate disasters, mass displacement, and widening inequality, she hasalways been close enough to see privilege, but never quite close enough to touch it.

Then Ivy Avila arrives.

Fresh out of treatment and retreating from a lifetime in the spotlight, the world-famous actress and singer chooses Fern as her confidante. Soon Fern is swept into Ivy’s intoxicating orbit of extravagant parties, dangerous secrets, and obsessive desire.

As the summer grows hotter and Ivy’s glittering world begins to fracture, Fern finds herself becoming more than an observer. But in a place built on performance, privilege, and lies, it is increasingly difficult to know what is real—or where Ivy’s story ends and Fern’s begins.

For readers of Emma Cline’s The Girls, Tell Me My Name is a fever dream of female desire and power, exploring what it means to come of age in a world that demands everything from young women—and the consequences of refusing to remain a supporting character in someone else’s story.

Praise for Tell Me My Name

Only Amy Reed could write a novel this dark, this gorgeous, this forward-looking while speaking to our present moment.”
Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home

While Reed takes inspiration from The Great Gatsby, this story is her own and will likely resonate with teens—especially young women—even more than the classic. . . . Immersive [and] smartly written.”
★ SLJ (starred review)

Reed packs in a lot—the climate crisis, sexual assault, drug addiction, class commentary, and mental illness—but the plot never feels overstuffed . . . The Great Gatsby [is cited] as inspiration in her closing notes, but this has as much Hitchcockian suspense as Fitzgerald’s tarnished glitz.”
★ BCCB (starred review)

The toll of exploitative fame is explored against a dystopian backdrop in this psychological thriller. . . . Compelling . . . [A] harrowing tale of personal trauma in a violently polarized society.”
Kirkus

This twisty, near-future, feminist take on The Great Gatsby is a relentlessly compelling exploration of girls, power, and reclamation. Chilling and timely, Reed’s latest is a literary thrill ride.”
Kelly Jensen, author of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and editor at BookRiot

Haunting, beautiful, thrilling—Tell Me My Name is an exquisitely crafted, nuanced story of metamorphosis and mystery. Amy Reed’s smart, captivating prose twists and turns, a kaleidoscope of light and shadow that will keep you flipping page after page.”
Amber Smith, author of The Way We Used to Be

Set in a future that feels frighteningly plausible, Tell Me My Name is a lush, gorgeously crafted page-turner that will have you holding your breath until the final line. Weird and haunting in the best possible way.”
Jennifer Mathieu, author of Moxie

I haven’t felt this way since reading We Were Liars—mind blown. Beautifully written, Tell Me My Name gets under your skin, exploring what it means to claim wholeness in a world that too often tears girls apart. You’ll be thinking about it long after the final page.”
Jaye Robin Brown, author of Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit

This novel is amazing. I am just in awe. Evoking both the terrible and tender, Tell Me My Name is a pulsating, hypnotic retelling that captures a young girl’s heartbreaking desire to be fully seen, and sets it against a crumbling, near-future world.”
Lilliam Rivera, author of The Education of Margot Sanchez

I barely breathed the last 100 pages. Simply stunning. I truly loved this book.”
Megan Shepherd, author of The Madman’s Daughter

A harrowing, prescient vision of the near future. Amy Reed delivers a compelling and propulsive thriller with sentences that gleam like polished steel.”
Jeff Zentner, author of The Serpent King

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