March 2026 Open Secrets Book Club Pick: ‘sorry i keep crying during sex’ by Jesse James Rose
Join us March 24 at 7 p.m. ET for a live interview with author, actor, and content creator Jesse James Rose
We’re excited about next week’s Substack Live interview on Tuesday, March 24 at 7 p.m. ET with Jesse James Rose, author of our March 2026 Open Secrets Book Club pick, memoir sorry i keep crying during sex, published by Abrams Books. Bring your questions for Jesse and we’ll try to get to them all! In the meantime, join our subscriber chat to share your thoughts about this memoir, whether you’ve already read it or will be soon.
You can also hear Jesse on our relationships panel in New York on May 2 at our personal storytelling summit Open Secrets Live (and if you can’t make it in person, we’ll be recording all our panels for later audio release), pending speaker approval.
You can read an excerpt of the book here:
My Hookup in a Sauna Next to a Straight Man
Author note: Part of SORRY I KEEP CRYING DURING SEX chronicles my healing from sexual assault and a torrid breakup through a myriad of hookups. In pursuit of a safe place to fall apart I found myself in the sauna…with Hookup #32.
Find out more and grab your copy at one of the links below, and/or request it from your local library.
Where to buy sorry i keep crying during sex:
Ebook
Audiobook
About sorry i keep crying during sex:
A powerful, provocative, and genre-bending literary memoir that grapples with victimhood, recovery, and resilience
In the before, Jesse James Rose is happy. She has a beautiful boyfriend with melty glacier eyes, she’s on a euphoric journey of gender exploration, and New York City is perfect.
In the after, she’s single, making dinner for her grandfather, and wondering if he’s going to forget her name today. Except, in the before, her first-grade music teacher led her into a dark room to show her something he shouldn’t have. And in the after, she’s finding healing and comfort in coming into her own, even as her grandfather declines.
In the before, she was fine, more or less. But in the after, she has to reckon with whatever the hell restorative justice really, truly means.
Following the aftermath of an assault, and the heartache of caring for a grandfather with Alzheimer’s, sorry i keep crying during sex tells a captivating story of identity, recovery, grief, survivorship, and transness. Through lists, theatrical scripts, flashbacks, and Grindr DMs, Jesse James Rose’s genre-defying memoir is raw and hysterically funny, and takes readers on the wild ride of overcoming the struggles of a trans twentysomething.
What people are saying about sorry i keep crying during sex:
“As a trans gen-z cusp, this book hit good and hard for me. sorry I keep crying during sex is a masterclass in vulnerability. Jesse answers our questions before we can even ask, and they take the reader places most authors wouldn’t venture to.”
—Dylan Mulvaney, New York Times bestselling author of Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer“Jesse’s memoir is unlike anything you’ve ever read—a feat of experimental writing. It’s hilarious, heartbreaking, beautiful, and raw (in more ways than one).”
—Zachary Zane, author of Boyslut: A Memoir and Manifesto
About Jesse James Rose:
Jesse James Rose (she/they) is a transgender actor, writer, and content creator based in New York City. Every president who has attacked her in the media has been shot at. Rose holds degrees from NYU in music theatre and child psychology, as well as a certificate in diversity, equity, and inclusion from Cornell University. As an actress, Jesse has starred in productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Cabaret, The Fantasticks, and won Best Actor at the Berlin Indie Film festival for the short film “Barstool.” In 2025 she became the first openly transgender woman elected to the national council of the Actors Equity Union, specializing in policymaking that combats harassment and hostile work environments. Jesse’s work lives largely on social media, where she writes (& yaps) about gender, queerness, survivorship, mental health, her feelings, and her exes on Instagram & TikTok (@jamesissmiling).
Also check out Jesse James Rose’s original essay about the power of sex education online via talking about their sex life:
Why I Share My Sex Life on the Internet
My first experience of public sex was my junior year of high school. I was seventeen, performing onstage in my high school’s production of Spring Awakening. The sex was simulated, mostly implied—as much as seventeen-year-olds can legally suggest in a public school in Florida. I suppose it wasn’t
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