“Upcoming Releases: Autumn Feuilletons and Wonders. From debut novels and memoirs to poetry and biography, discover the most anticipated book releases this autumn…. Closing out the month, the memoir Love Will Save Us, Right? is a fiercely funny account of the trials Suzette Partido faced raising her neurodivergent son while dealing with food insecurity and longtime familial dysfunction. Partido, a former City Lights Bookstore clerk who has been compared to Anne Lamott and Dorothy Allison, is the real deal.“

— ALTA Online, Paul Wilner, Published: Sep 22, 2025

“Partido discusses navigating food insecurity while caring for her neurodivergent son in her bluntly moving debut. After working for over two decades as the education director for a mental health organization, Partido retired to care for her autistic teenage son, who needed more attention than she’d been able to provide. While she considered the decision to be her “healthiest employment move” ever, it also proved financially disastrous, and her struggles to make ends meet took a toll on her son. Her efforts to manage “the shattering panic and doomsday dread that can explode if the kid gets the idea that scarcity is the only thing he’ll ever get more of” are wrenching, but she leavens the proceedings with sweet humor (“The food we prepare for our neurospicy citizen must be perceived as familiarly edible”). In the end, Partido scrounges together a convincing message of hope, asserting that, though “our world will continue to be populated with uncertainty, grief, and fear, I have it on good faith that we will never, ever be alone, and we will never be without help.” This raw look at the realities of poverty and caregiving will appeal to fans of Kate Swenson’s Forever Boy. (Oct.)”

— Publishers Weekly, PW What We’re Reading

“Holy shit. Suzette Partido has written the handbook we’ve been waiting for. Love Will Save Us, Right? is a knockout memoir that will speak to the soul of anyone who’s ever stood in line at a food bank while holding a master’s degree. With fierce intelligence and gallows humor, Partido smashes the myths of meritocracy as she chronicles her journey parenting a neurodivergent child on society’s margins. Her kitchen witchery—transforming food insecurity into satisfying meals through clever presentation and glass jars—becomes a powerful metaphor for how we survive when the systems meant to support us fail. Partido’s voice is a revelation: a badass and a poet, this psychic love child of Anne Lamott and Dorothy Allison writes with the raw authenticity of someone who’s seen behind the curtain and still refuses to give in to cynicism. Instead, she transforms everyday struggles into necessary meditations on dignity, love, and the radical power of showing up anyway. Essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of America’s broken promises while finding beauty in all the broken places. A stunning debut from an exciting new voice in American literature.”

— Ariel Gore, author of Rehearsals for Dying: Digressions on Love and Cancer

“At times humorous or distressing or emotional, yet always grounded in compassion, Love Will Save Us, Right? is an engaging reflection on living and parenting through medical diagnoses, capitalism, and complicated family history.”

— Tomas Moniz, author of All Friends Are Necessary  

“Love Will Save Us, Right? is a moving, authentic, engaging dive into the realities of parenting, loving and giving care at the end of capitalism. Suzette Partido’s astute and inviting storytelling brings both a political lens and a sturdy tenderness to the project of family-making while queer, low-income, disabled. This book sparkles with life, humor and infinite chutzpah.”

— Michelle Tea, author of Valencia

“‘It is the Ancestor’s breath that pushes me forward. An artisanal cocktail of capital-L-love, made with equal parts superstition, sunrise, and sorrow . . . ‘ This passage made me put the book down and marvel at the quality of Partido’s writing. She navigates family, a neurospicy kid, and poverty with intelligence, snark, honesty, and love. In other news, come the Zombie Apocalypse, Suzette’s team is the one you want to latch onto. Where you might feel like giving up, she and her family find a way.”

— Meg Barnhouse, author of Seeds of a Spirited Life

“Suzette Partido holds an open-ended round trip ticket to Hell and back. Love Will Save Us, Right? is a feast for your heart and your brain and your preconceptions of what queer family life on the spectrum looks like. Like a blob of wasabi, you don’t know whether to spit, savor, or swallow. Best not to overthink it and do all three. Imagine that the head waiter has seated you at the coveted table just outside the swinging doors to the kitchen. You are privy to the cacophonous symphony that accompanies the creation of the bread of life: the tantalizing aromas, the steam, the noisy passion, and the sweat. Partido’s words draw you into a world inhabited by fallen angels, Sisyphus, and outside-the-box genius, with a firm grasp on her survival tools of humor and hope. And love. Always love.”

— Eve Diana, contributor to The Complete Gay and Lesbian Parenting Guide