This story had all the characters I loved — a yearning psycho, a Nice Guy Who's A Little Off, a girl who's just smart but that makes her seem interesting, a writing critic grandma, an inexplicably loved son....

I really enjoyed hating the character of Naomi and rooting for her anyway. I loved the buildup and constant anxiety of this novel. I love it when books make me feel things like this one did — ickiness and all.

I did expect more from the end!!!!! That's all I'll say on that, but that's why it's not a full five-star from me. But I really liked it. One the best starts to a book I've read this year.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a weird and engaging read. The narrator was delightfully unlikeable, and I had a lot of questions about her resemblance to the author. Though it was a tad too creepy for my taste, I thought it was well-written and I'll definitely be recommending it to people!

What fun quirky book. It was like watching a car crash happen and not being able to look away. I felt aweful for the main gal hoping she would come back to her senses and leave it all alone. Her beau was perfect.

A little crazy and weird but I couldn't put it down. A compulsive, unique novel - would totally recommend.

This was a fascinating book about obsession, but not the typical "boy obsessed with girl" novel or "girl obsessed with boy" but instead "girl obsessed with boyfriend's ex-girlfriend." I'm sure this is more common than I imagine but this book kept me reading and ignoring all adulting until I finished it! Guess I'm "woman obsessed with book" so go figure! Naomi is smitten with Caleb but is more than curious about his ex, Rosemary and she begins stalking her on social media, finds a way to run into her and they begin a "friendship" that of course, is one-sided! That's all you need. Go in knowing you will be immersed in their lives immediately and can't stop until you know what happens! It was delightful and creepy at the same time!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Wow! What a stunning debut from Caitlin Barasch! This book is kind of a thriller, about a writer obsessed with her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend. The main character was immensely unlikeable but I was absolutely riveted, waiting to see where things would go! I definitely feel like this was unique and I haven’t read anything like it.

I loved this book!

I would not recommend this book to people looking for a thriller, this is more of a psychological evaluation of a troubled character. The main character does things that make you want to shake her back to reality, but you also cannot help but root for her. Do not get me wrong, Naomi is insane, comically insane, but still insane.

What I really enjoyed about this book was how the author explores different topics within this story. One of the main topics is whether suffering needs to exist for there to be art and to what extent is art worth creating if it harms those around you. We have all heard about successful authors who have used private information and conversations within their books, and you do question whether success is worth having if it is at the cost of losing your loved ones.

The author also touched on Naomi's privilege. She does not have to work to live and she does recognise it sometimes, yet Naomi also depicts it as a disadvantage. She acts as if her financial freedom comes at the expense of her being able to become a writer. Even though, she has more time and resources to become a writer than an average person. This spoilt element of Naomi also explains why she treats people in her life as props to further her own goals.

Overall, I loved how there was depth within the story while being a fast-paced and fun read.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this ARC.

A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch is about Naomi Ackerman, an aspiring writer and bookseller at a local bookshop. She starts a relationship with Caleb and thinks she's found love, but then her jealousies and insecurities cause her to become obsessed with his ex-girlfriend. She starts following this girl, starts a friendship with her, and writes her first book about her. The obsession is over the top, and it was too much for me. I also think that the book cover doesn't really fit with the tone of this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley, Dutton Books, and Caitlin Barasch for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I enjoyed this one a lot and loved the ending. It kept me engaged the entire time and I loved seeing the dynamic between Naomi and Rosemary. I didn’t expect the ending, but that made it so much better. It was also fun reading about different parts of the publishing industry and learning about some books I didn’t previously know about. I highly recommend this one!

★★★★☆
A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch

20-something New Yorker Naomi spends her days selling books at a bookstore in Brooklyn and her nights attempting to write her first novel. Struggling for a topic to stick, she quickly becomes obsessed with her boyfriend’s ex girlfriend Rosemary. What starts out as a daily social media check-in escalates into shadowing, and then turns into an unexpected friendship, once Naomi realizes she can create a story out of stalking the ex of a partner.

I found Naomi to be incredibly unlikeable but I could not look away as she continued to become creepier each chapter, not letting anything (or anyone) get in her way of her novel’s storyline. I loved Caitlin’s writing style, and any book I cannot put down is a winner for me. Typically a book where I dislike the main character isn’t something I would consider enjoyable, but Caitlin manages to create a protagonist that is both somehow almost relatable and revolting at once.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a book based in New York City and/or anyone who loves a slow burn thriller (although I wouldn’t classify this as a thriller, it still has a similar creeping dread common with them).

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What happens when you meet your boyfriend's ex? What if it's on purpose? Naomi is a writer who decides to befriend her boyfriend Caleb's ex, Rosemary as a way to generate plot for her novel. As their friendship grows, so do the lies she has to keep up. Eventually, of course, Rosemary finds out and ends up writing her own story about it, which ultimately leads to Naomi losing Caleb.

I liked this parts of this book, but it lost me in others. I really didn't like Naomi, which we maybe are supposed to be conflicted about. I just have a hard time with first person books where the narrator is supposed to be likeable or relatable and I can't get that connection. This probably would've been three stars for me except the ending. It felt rushed almost and I wish there had been more of a resolution for Naomi (although she arguably got what she deserved).

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Naomi is a 24 year old trying to find her way through New York all the while struggling to write her own novel. Enter Caleb, a Tinder date turned pretty serious boyfriend - things are going seemingly great until Caleb’s ex-girlfriend comes into the picture. Out of slight jealousy, Naomi starts with casual Instagram stalking which evolves into a calculated friendship

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Just reading the premise of this story had me intrigued from the beginning! It honestly gives me lowkey Joe Goldberg vibes from YOU (definitely less intense!) but it keeps you flying through the pages. I had to know what would happen in the end because naturally it can’t end good right?? Definitely a great debut novel from this author!!

Thank you #Netgalley for the ARC!
As a writer, I am always looking for the next interesting story to pursue.
What happens if you decided that your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend would make a good story?
Naomi Ackerman's dream is to write a novel and when she finds out that her beau Caleb, recently fresh from a relationship with Rosemary, turned his life upside down for his previous girlfriend, Naomi wants to know more.
But, ugh, she finds out Rosemary is not overseas where she and Caleb were dating and in fact, is in New York where Caleb and Naomi live. She is also working in the book world.
What began as some research for a story becomes an obsession that starts to get out of hand for Naomi. What is it that she uncovers that makes her delve deeper?
A fast read about a very insecure young lady and her quest to make her mark.
4 stars!

For some reason I was under the impression this was yet another one of those ladies’ thrillers. But no, awesomely not. This is very much a literary novel and a very good one at that.
Clever through and through from the dual-meaning title to the terrific moebius strip of a plot, this is indeed a novel of obsession.
First love is complicated. For the novel’s protagonist, Naomi, it comes relatively late, at 24, and challenges her to the extreme.
Sure, her beloved seems like a great find, best Tinder can offer, really, with UK accent, a good job, and good manners, and yet she can’t seem to just enjoy things as they come. Maybe it’s her aspiring novelist’s brain, maybe it’s her privilege-based (free rent in NYC, well-to-do family, easy mindless bookstore job to whole the time away) mentality, but Naomi becomes obsessed with her new love’s old love.
This obsession drives her (and the novel) and the fictional novel in her mind to push all sorts of boundaries, privacy based and otherwise, until she insinuates herself quite permanently in both worlds. And then the two worlds begin bleeding through and there’s so much than mere trust to be tested.
This is the ultimate in Life Imitates Art, Art Imitates Life storytelling. Meta, too. Twisted onto itself.
Everyone is obsessed with creative their own narrative, but Naomi takes it to new levels. And, like most things of extreme nature, it’s fun to watch in that impending crash sort of way.
The protagonists’ age, angst, and ambiance put them firmly into the millennial camp, but the book overrides that innately unlikeable generational distinction into something closer to universality.
Obsession, after all, is universal. To want, to crave, to spiral, to look for patterns in the fabric of life, to look for logic where none is too be found and then create your own.
Be it in the name of love or in the name of art, be it by design or pathology, it’s a force to be reckon with. Read this book and find out how Naomi does. Like a good obsession, it’ll draw you right in.
It’s clever, charming, very well-written and well worth a read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Naomi is a bookseller who is also an aspiring novelist, she also doesn’t believe that she is worthy of a real, loving relationship. Then Naomi meets Caleb and is beginning to think that this may be the kind of relationship she has been dreaming about until, Naomi finds out that Caleb’s ex girlfriend works and lives near by, Naomi becomes obsessed with her and inserts herself into her personal and professional life, because as it happens the ex works in publishing. Naomi is self sabotaging herself in all aspects of her life and it’s all coming to a head. I think this was a decent debut and it kept my interest throughout.

This was a very interesting read to me. Naomi becomes so obsessed with her boyfriend Caleb's ex Rosemary. She follows her, in life and on social media. She is obsessed in wondering why they aren't together, if they still see each other. She plans on writing a book about it all. Her obsession is over the top. I began to think she was almost in love with Rosemary and not Caleb. Naomi is using this obsession but to what end? I have to say she made me cringe at times. Her neediness was palpable. She is a very interesting character. As things played out and we hit the ending, things made a lot of sense but she still felt very odd to me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for a copy of this book.

A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch is the story of a writer who becomes obsessed with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend and begins stalking her on social media but takes it too far and uses her as the basis for the novel she is writing. This novel went from zero to over the top quickly as Naomi makes contact with the girl IRL and they become friends. She makes so many bad decisions that you just want to smack her upside the head before she gets too creepy and you can't so she does. I was over the book long before the last page, but finished just to see what happened. Not a fan.

Thank you to the author,PENGUIN GROUP Dutton, Dutton and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This book was a lot of fun. I love anything set in publishing and in social media and this was both! Who hasn’t decided to do a little deep dive into someone’s ex? But don’t take it as far as she does. An interesting look into how far one person can fall.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC of A Novel Obsession.

I love books about writing so plot wise I knew I'd like that aspect of this. What I didn't anticipate was how much the main character was going to stress me out! You know when you're reading a character and want to reach through the book and shake them...? That was me. I don't hold that against the book though. I think that is a testament to the writer that he was able to evoke emotion and convey the character's narcism so well. That made this a page turner for me and a really interesting book! I don't think it is like anything else I've read recently which is fantastic since I feel like so many are different iterations of each other and blend together. This stood out!

Going to be honest, I felt stressed reading some of this, but it’s a compliment - such great writing. As a big reader, this book called to me! I came for the bookish stuff, but didn’t expect it to be such a large turner!