One of my favorite things to read about are toxic women friendships. It's sort of like book crack to me and it brings to mind last years Social Creature or more recently Necessary People which are two books that have become favorites of mine so requesting The Paper Wasp really was a no brainer for me.

We have two childhood best friends that grow up in a small town in Michigan, Abby and Elise. As high school approaches the two begin to drift apart as Elise decides to pursue her dream of acting. Eventually the two no longer speak at all but that doesn't stop Abby from obsessing over Elise.

Fast forward several years and we find that Elisa is now a very successful actress living in Los Angeles while Abby is a supermarket cashier that still lives at home with her parents creating art in her bedroom. She hoards every magazine and article she can find on Elise and follows her life with a close yet critical eye.

Abby's mother convinces her to attend her 10 year high school reunion and here she reacquaints with Elise who, while tipsy on wine, tells Abby next time your in LA, look me up and we'll catch up. Much to Elise's surprise when Abby calls to tell her she's at LAX with nowhere to go. Elise reluctantly takes her in for what she believes to be one night.

As Elise and Abby catch up over dinner and wine Elise is reminded of how close they once were and how lonely her life has now become and convinces Abby to stay, live with her, and to be her personal assistant and Abby is over the moon. This is what she has wanted for all these years but sometimes you should be careful what you wish for.

This had all the elements that I love but I'll be honest and say that this one fell flat for me and I know exactly why it did. The dream sequences. These just didn't work for me at all. Abby is a believer in lucid dreaming and she takes these dreams to paint pictures and stories but, my gawd, reading about her dreams was like dropping acid and having a really bad trip and I just couldn't wait to be done. The ending I also found unsatisfying. 3 stars!

This isn't a case of quality but more of a book not being a good fit for me. Acampora's writing is impeccable and I will gladly seek out more of her work.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Meet Abby, a sensitive, highly intuitive, creative loner, working at a local grocery store.
At a highschool reunion she catches up with Elise, her childhood friend, now an upcoming Hollywood actress.
In a haze of alcohol the woman exchange numbers, and some time later Abby finally finds the courage to give up her petty existance and travel to Los Angeles. Elise hires her as a personal assistant and for a while things look rosy.
The book deals with the dynamics between an authentic dreamscaper and a shallow actress.
Their friendship is pushed and pulled by a dominating Elise, who has no clue about how to be her own true self.
We move with Abby from dreamscape to dreamscape, the weird and the wonderful, the love and the hurt, until detachment sets in and Abby finds her way out.

The Paper Wasp is a fast and furious read, the writing stunning beyond belief. The characters are indepth and totally recognizable. Throughout the dreamscapes the reader gets a sense of what's coming, and when it finally does, it's miraculous.

Thank you Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

Abby had a promising art career to look forward to after high school but finds herself still living at home with her parents and working as a cashier.  She spends a lot of her time flipping through the magazines by her register hoping to spot her former BFF Elise, who is quickly gaining popularity as a Hollywood actress.

Abby learns that Elise will be at their ten year high school reunion and she decides to attend in hopes of speaking with Elise once again.  She's surprised to find that Elise remains kind and warm as ever, praising Abby's art and confiding she hopes they can be close again one day.

Abby surprises Elise soon after the reunion when she calls her from the airport to say she's in California without a plan.  Caught off guard, Elise invites Abby to her home but her uncertainty soon turns to happiness to have someone in which she can confide.

Abby is only too happy to accept Elise's invitation to stay at her home.  She quickly realizes that Elise's professional career is thriving but the young actress is lonely.

Acting as a supportive friend, Abby is soon part of every aspect of Elise's life, even becoming her personal assistant.
Masking her jealousy and ulterior motives, she becomes the only person Elise can trust, ultimately leading to a dark finale.

"I let you believe the world awaited me with the same hunger it awaited you. But the truth was that, as you were born to be seen, I was born to crouch in the shadows. I was the hidden source, quietly generating the scenes you played out. I knew this, even if I didn't yet recognize mine as the superior gift." *

The Paper Wasp is a chilling book.  What starts as a seemingly average tale of a woman down on her luck who does some relatively innocent social media stalking to keep up with a more successful former friend becomes a story of obsession, ambition, and finally psychotic behavior.  Some of the events seem random or unimportant but they eventually come together for the ending.  Sprinkle in a dash of magic realism in the form of premonitory dreams/visions and you have a rather odd novel.  
I like odd, mostly because it's so open to interpretation.

Thanks to Grove Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.  The Paper Wasp is scheduled for release on June 11, 2019.

*Included quote is from a digital advanced reader's copy and is subject to change upon final publication.

My review is 4 stars.

Definitely the first by the author for me and this is a dark book as proceeded into it. Sucked me right in from the start. Tells you more and more about the life and the darkness it has. The characters are nicely written and the book has a strong plot. Dialogues are written beautifully, but there were few hiccups while going on in the book chapter by chapter and there was also a inconsistent pace of the book. Though overall the book is a nice read.

As promised by notices, really persuasive and seductive voice: of a misfit swallowing and being titivated in dangerous ways by the love for lost friend .. it does not work out well. It's hard to talk about v it's power without giving it all away but it's surely about the empty rewards of Hollywood... despite its veneer of experimental, it's sure and gripping. Galloped through!

Thank you to NetGalley, Lauren Acampora and Grove Atlantic for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

I feel like I need to take a step back after reading this and think, what on earth did I just read??

I was so sucked up in Acampora's beautiful writing at first, which is so fantastic that you mind is filled with the vivid imagery described within, before I started to question the fact that none of the characters were likeable at all (which might not bother some people but is one of the main things I value in a book). The story I also found really weird and kind of bizarre? I can imagine this being a very 'marmite' - (you either love it or you hate it) kind of book for readers. Either way I am kind of left a little bewildered and a little fascinated after finishing.

Bewildered, fascinated and intrigued, I would love to see what Acampora creates next!

This is a new to me author and the description intrigued me. This book was very different than I expected. I still trying to figure out if I enjoyed it or not!

This book was definitely out of my normal realm. If you're into dark fantasy this may be for you. Just wasn't for me. I appreciate NetGalley allowing me to read & review an advanced copy.

Unfortunately the author lost me after the first 50 pages. I really tried, but could not get into the story.

Definitely a strange book. It had some intriguing parts but it was a little stilted, fantastical and all over the place for me. I could tell from early on where the book was going to go and I was right. I did push myself to finish it though, even though it wasn’t quite for me.

Abby donned most likely to suceed in her high school days. Now 10 years later living at home and still dreaming of what might have been. Her Mother mentions a 10 year high school reunion.
This twisty dark novel follows Abby who already on the edge slowly consume to her maddness

Abby leads a rather boring, midwestern life working as a cashier at a local grocery store. When she finds out that her childhood best friend Elise is coming home for their ten year high school reunion, Abby sees that as her opportunity to come out of the darkness and start a new life. Elise is a big movie star now, appearing on the cover of magazines and in the tabloids. Looking at her high school yearbook, Abby sees that Elise once said, “I hope that we can be close again,” and Abby believes that time is now.

The Paper Wasp is an amazing tale of one woman on the edge of sanity. Abby is the girl that was supposed to succeed, but somehow along the way began to lose the fight with reality. She dreams in full color, premonitory dreams that she commits to elaborate drawings. Convinced that these drawings are her ticket to meeting her soulmate, an older film director with whom she is not quite obsessed, Abby makes the journey to Hollywood to find her way to Perren.

Acampora so beautifully captures two young women who start out in the same place, but move to such different places. Both have needs that can’t be met by reality. This isn’t a book about mental illness, but more about the paths that can be taken to find your way. It is a story of in some ways redemption for one and a fall from grace for the other. I was spellbound by it.


This review will be posted at BookwormishMe.com close to publication date.

Paper Wasp was a dark novel told from Abby’s point of view. She seems to have an obsession with her childhood best friend, Elise, who is now a Hollywood starlet. When they reunite at their high school reunion, Elise tells Abby to find her if she ever comes to LA. Abby quickly leaves her small town in Michigan for the sunny skies in California. Elise invites her to stay which is what Abby wants. Abby is a dreamer and I found myself wondering what was real or all part of her fantasy. The characters are not very likable. They both seem to be trying to get ahead and don’t really seem to care for each other.

While this book was a little too dark for my taste, the author has a great way of writing that made it a somewhat quick read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Grove Press for this eARC.!

When finishing this book, I must say I was not sure whether I liked it or not. To tell the truth, I was not that interested in Abby's character and this must have been quite an important factor in my final sensation concerning The Paper Wasp. Anyway, I liked the writing style so if the synopsis looks interesting to you, you may like this book!

3.5 stars. A quiet, slow-burning psychological novel. I was expecting a thriller, but that it is not. It lacks a lot of big action, so it is probably not for all readers, but those who enjoy an intellectual challenge while reading will instantly fall for Lauren Acampora’s narrative style. She deftly captures the complex relationship between Abby and Elise and does a fantastic job fleshing our female characters whose interactions don’t revolve around a man (Rafael, Elise’s boyfriend, does factor in, but not at all in a way that is overbearing to the plot). I did sometimes find Abby intolerable in how emotionally immature and stunted she was, and her obsession with the director Perren was annoying, but it was definitely one of those cases in which an unlikeable character is undeniably interesting. The Paper Wasp is a dark character study that makes up for its slow pace with its depth and skillful writing. I am looking forward to reading more from Lauren Acampora! Big thanks to Netgalley and Grove Press for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Posted to Goodreads 4/10:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2776109043

And instagram 4/11:

I love this book! It paints a great picture of the time period with unique voice and characters! I will definitely recommend this to my book club!

Beautifully written, this book had me confused about whether I loved it or not. I found it difficult to understand the main character's motivations. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC.

This book started off slowly for me but I found myself absorbed in Abby’s quirky twisty world. Her dreams, and the way she interacts with the people and the world around her lingered in my mind even when I wasn’t reading. This isn’t a book to rush through, best drawn out and enjoyed slowly, but an incredible read.

I read this book without knowing what to expect. It was a very nice surprise and I enjoyed it very much. It held my interest and was suspenseful. Very good book.

"... my dreams bloomed in saturated colors, as if they'd been dropped into a chemical bath."

I LOVE THIS BOOK. This is the readers' high I'm always after - a page-turning masterpiece that makes you want to rush through to see what happens but also to stop and take the time to appreciate the beauty in every single sentence.

The Paper Wasp reads like a breathless letter from Abby, an awkward, post-suicidal empath, to Elise, her glamorous childhood bestie turned Hollywood movie star. What starts off as a creepy obsession eventually spins into Abby realizing her self worth, and eventually taking it too far. Abby is a brilliant artist with vivid dreams and visions coming into herself, and Elise, she realizes, is just an empty movie star, left often to become exploited. Abby's disappointment takes a dark turn, but if you pay attention, there are clues to what happens planted all along the way.

"You weren't the one who mattered. I was. I was the one who was filled to bursting, the one who deserved feathered wings."

Big thanks to Grove Atlantic, Netgalley and Lauren Acampora for the opportunity to read and review!

After a long time, I have once again come across a book that I cannot decide whether I loathe or love. Someone once described the allure of a Jackson Pollock painting, that I did not understand at all, as something that you can see imprinted on your eyelids when you close your eyes or which comes to you at moments that you least expect it to. The Paper Wasp is something like that – at first glance it feels like something that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but when you sit back and think on it, there are several points that seem to demand an opinion.

The book cover was fascinating and was the reason why I actually clicked on this book, as books about Hollywood are not really a genre that appeals to me. The name 'Paper wasp' was intriguing as well. It refers to an actual species of wasp that is mimicked by a particular kind of orchid in order to attract the wasp for dissemination of pollen. 

The story begins with an introduction to Abby who an almost 30-year-old woman working as a cashier in the supermarket and is instantly someone who is not likable. She is morose, she is self-pitying and she is stalking her successful childhood friend obsessively. A couple of pages in and I was ready to let this Abby creature go on and lead her depressing life and just leave it at that. However, as I stuck with it, I found myself getting drawn into the increasingly insane world that Abby seems to be living in.

Abby’s childhood friend, Elise, now a Hollywood starlet, comes to town and asks her in passing to give her a call whenever she is in LA. Abby decides to take her up on that invitation and packs her bags, steals her mother’s credit card and her parents' car and zooms off into the sunset. As a reader, my reaction was a literal ‘For God’s Sake!’. This was a sentiment that was often repeated in my mind at the antics of both Abby and Elise.

The writing style of this book is akin to the art that the author has described in it. At times you are forced to ask yourself the question whether people actually live like that or even think like that anymore. It somehow gives the feel of being set in the 1960’s, with people getting high and having these psychedelic dreams that they believed where prophetic somehow. There is a feeling of constant unreality to the characters throughout the narrative – yes, I know that this is a work of fiction and therefore unreal by definition but you may understand what I mean by that if you are a reader yourself.

The ending of the book somehow made me feel vindicated because a little before that I thought the author had managed to fool me completely and Abby was actually the sane one and Elise the deranged lunatic. Turns out Elise is just a screwed up starlet whose star is fading and so she is trying very hard to stay relevant. Abby on the other hand is a different ball game altogether. She is talented as her artwork is described often enough with enough detail that makes it possible to visualize her skill and competence easily. It took me a while to figure out who the paper wasp in this story referred to and in what way, but I think I may have finally got it. Abby is the wasp who is attracted to the beautiful orchid (Elise) believing it to be the real thing instead learning that it is fake and possibly getting disillusioned in the process.

Over and over again I told myself that this was not my kind of reading, and yet found myself reading page after page compulsively. That is the power of the writing in this book. Whatever my feelings about the characters and their decisions and the twists that the story takes, it is undeniable that the author managed to keep me tied to this book until I had finished reading the whole of it. Important takeaway from the book - beware of inviting lunatics into your home. 

Would I recommend this book? Yes. Just to see what you would think of it.