Jax, a magazine model, has had half her face destroyed in a bomb blast. Drowning in whiskey and self-loathing, she must rebuild her life now that her beauty is gone. Part love letter to New York, part social justice commentary, Moxie is a timely and raw portrayal of the sometimes self-destructive search for identity and redemption.
I tore through Moxie. Alex Poppe has created a character whose jagged contradictions make you stare. Jax is a professional beauty with a face burned so badly it hurts to see. A pampered model with a life ripped in two by violence. A young woman drowning herself in self-pity who can grasp realities other than her own and who may finally be ready to act. Most of all, she’s a profane alcoholic with a poet’s eye and turn of phrase, and her use of language elevates this book. In searching Brooklyn for her lost dog, what Jax just might find—with the help of a cast of characters drawn from every strata of New York—is her new self.
– Zoe Zolbrod, author of The Telling and Currency
Wow. I drank down the raw, profane, world-be-damned voice of Jacinda, aka Jax (the sexy protagonist of Poppe’s high-octane first novel) in one long gulp. Poppe artfully delivers the raging heartbreak of a young woman whose beauty is torn away after only recently propelling her from a lousy childhood into modeling superstardom. Moxie is crowded with vivid New York City characters, sublime writing—and a lost puppy that may steal your heart.
– Lesley Dormen, author of The Best Place to Be: A Novel in Stories.
In Moxie, Poppe creates an edgy, assertive voice for Jax’s story of trauma and loss. In her newly scarred world, Jax’s drink-hazed attempts at connection often miss the mark, but with a persistence born of the deepest need, connections with others grow, and so too does the possibility of redemption.
– Elizabeth Reeder, author of Ramshackle, Freemont, and One Year
...a book of street argot, bare, cool, graphic, vulgar, touching, and sweet. Her writing flows and is as edgy as the hard streets that she walks down.
– Jere Van Dyk, author of Captive and The Trade
Pre-#MeToo, Girl, World was a shot over the bow. Alex Poppe slaps the reader to attention, then seduces with ugly reality, honesty, beauty. Moxie is the book readers deserve. Be ready to be challenged, disgusted, adored, then laughing out loud—all from a single page!
– Brad Lockwood, award-winning author of Blue Bucket and How We Got Trumped.
