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THE THIRD BEAT - Lauren Lavín (pre-order)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lauren Lavín is trying to embrace the boundaries imposed upon life by love and death. But there are distractions: the younger brother she lost to suicide, the friends and ex-lovers who’ve passed, her husband’s illness and fear of dying, her own pull toward the abyss. In The Third Beat, Lavín examines her related impulses to seek, to be seen, to exit the body (through sex, music, alcohol, humor), and to return into it. With liberating scope and candor, Lavín’s short essays consider the ways that we consume ourselves and allow ourselves to be consumed: in grief, in a lover’s eye, in obsessive patterns, in decay, in pursuit of the perfect punch line. And much like comedy’s rule of three, expectations in The Third Beat exist to be subverted. Lavín’s fast and loud prose always renders her existential dread captivating and alive. Rather than answers, Lavín offers pauses at the places our minds are afraid to stop.
PRAISE FOR THE THIRD BEAT
“Lavín’s essays are an intoxicating brew of honesty and heart. This is a collection to read when you’re lost and return to after you find your way. Sharp and furious, gentle and understanding, the way Lavín writes life will make you forget to breathe. The Third Beat seduced me from page one.”
—LJ Pemberton, author of Still Alive
“Lauren Lavín's debut essay collection is a phenomenal work of full-bodied honesty. The Third Beat is a book for anyone who's found it hard to see or be themselves in a world that demands we carry the weight of its constant and, often erroneous, perceptions, i.e. everyone. The best non-fiction I've read this year.”
—Jillian Luft, author of Scumbag Summer
"Lauren Lavín’s The Third Beat is a visceral, spellbinding meditation on the body, both how to inhabit it more fully and how to leave it, and how sometimes that looks like the same thing. Lavín’s work rides that thrilling edge between excruciation and euphoria, digging into the uncomfortable gray, and the effect is a raw, bloody honesty which blurs and deepens everything surrounding it. You cannot be fully open to the beauty of life without being intimate with death, and Lavín knows that. Meaning: you want to feel fucking alive? Read this book.”
—Emily Costa, author of Girl on Girl
"In under a hundred pages, Lauren Lavín's essays in The Third Beat boldly cover sex, art, comedy, the body, travel, and, of course, death. She writes with blunt ferocity, unapologetic about the desire to be seen and wanted. I’d follow her voice anywhere she leads me. Maybe right off a cliff.”
—Kristen Felicetti, author of Log Off
“I love seeing the world through Lauren Lavín’s eyes. The Third Beat has the same effortlessly cool depiction of adolescence on the fringes as cult classics like Reality Bites and Slacker. Full of Bay Area punk shows, skater boys, and garage bands, Lavín’s essay collection is a portal to another time—but instead of the soft-edged nostalgia these types of stories are so often packaged in, her prose reveals the pain of yearning to belong in a world not built for outcasts. Like the people in these stories, The Third Beat is as cool as it is honest.”
—Shelby Hinte, author of Howling Women
“The Third Beat reimagines the essay collection as an altar—a lyric meditation on ghosts, night terrors, and self-destruction. It chronicles an era defined by skate parks, indie bands, and pre-internet ventures where a slimy entrepreneur could build a billion dollar business in a trash can. Lavín writes the way Frida Kahlo paints: visceral self-revelations, brutal in their honesty, that will leave readers devastated, alive, and begging for more.”
—Ryan-Ashley Anderson, Managing Editor of Pool Party, and Kevin Maloney, author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Lavín was made in Mexico, born in Oakland, and currently lives in Seattle.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: February 3, 2026
Print Length: 98 pages
Dimensions: 5 × 7 inches
ISBN: 978-1-957392-46-2
ABOUT THE BOOK
Lauren Lavín is trying to embrace the boundaries imposed upon life by love and death. But there are distractions: the younger brother she lost to suicide, the friends and ex-lovers who’ve passed, her husband’s illness and fear of dying, her own pull toward the abyss. In The Third Beat, Lavín examines her related impulses to seek, to be seen, to exit the body (through sex, music, alcohol, humor), and to return into it. With liberating scope and candor, Lavín’s short essays consider the ways that we consume ourselves and allow ourselves to be consumed: in grief, in a lover’s eye, in obsessive patterns, in decay, in pursuit of the perfect punch line. And much like comedy’s rule of three, expectations in The Third Beat exist to be subverted. Lavín’s fast and loud prose always renders her existential dread captivating and alive. Rather than answers, Lavín offers pauses at the places our minds are afraid to stop.
PRAISE FOR THE THIRD BEAT
“Lavín’s essays are an intoxicating brew of honesty and heart. This is a collection to read when you’re lost and return to after you find your way. Sharp and furious, gentle and understanding, the way Lavín writes life will make you forget to breathe. The Third Beat seduced me from page one.”
—LJ Pemberton, author of Still Alive
“Lauren Lavín's debut essay collection is a phenomenal work of full-bodied honesty. The Third Beat is a book for anyone who's found it hard to see or be themselves in a world that demands we carry the weight of its constant and, often erroneous, perceptions, i.e. everyone. The best non-fiction I've read this year.”
—Jillian Luft, author of Scumbag Summer
"Lauren Lavín’s The Third Beat is a visceral, spellbinding meditation on the body, both how to inhabit it more fully and how to leave it, and how sometimes that looks like the same thing. Lavín’s work rides that thrilling edge between excruciation and euphoria, digging into the uncomfortable gray, and the effect is a raw, bloody honesty which blurs and deepens everything surrounding it. You cannot be fully open to the beauty of life without being intimate with death, and Lavín knows that. Meaning: you want to feel fucking alive? Read this book.”
—Emily Costa, author of Girl on Girl
"In under a hundred pages, Lauren Lavín's essays in The Third Beat boldly cover sex, art, comedy, the body, travel, and, of course, death. She writes with blunt ferocity, unapologetic about the desire to be seen and wanted. I’d follow her voice anywhere she leads me. Maybe right off a cliff.”
—Kristen Felicetti, author of Log Off
“I love seeing the world through Lauren Lavín’s eyes. The Third Beat has the same effortlessly cool depiction of adolescence on the fringes as cult classics like Reality Bites and Slacker. Full of Bay Area punk shows, skater boys, and garage bands, Lavín’s essay collection is a portal to another time—but instead of the soft-edged nostalgia these types of stories are so often packaged in, her prose reveals the pain of yearning to belong in a world not built for outcasts. Like the people in these stories, The Third Beat is as cool as it is honest.”
—Shelby Hinte, author of Howling Women
“The Third Beat reimagines the essay collection as an altar—a lyric meditation on ghosts, night terrors, and self-destruction. It chronicles an era defined by skate parks, indie bands, and pre-internet ventures where a slimy entrepreneur could build a billion dollar business in a trash can. Lavín writes the way Frida Kahlo paints: visceral self-revelations, brutal in their honesty, that will leave readers devastated, alive, and begging for more.”
—Ryan-Ashley Anderson, Managing Editor of Pool Party, and Kevin Maloney, author of The Red-Headed Pilgrim
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lauren Lavín was made in Mexico, born in Oakland, and currently lives in Seattle.
BOOK INFO
Pub Date: February 3, 2026
Print Length: 98 pages
Dimensions: 5 × 7 inches
ISBN: 978-1-957392-46-2