I read this in 7 hours and it felt like it. I was going through so many emotions that I had to put the book down multiple times. Taking small breaks while staring out in the distance. I will not go into the characters or the plot. What I need to talk about is the unreliability of everything. Had me going a bit crazy. Half the time I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I was feeling every other emotion other than happiness. The anger to the character, plot and even author. I’m not mad about the book is not bad. I had such a hard time going through it. Feeling like a damned fever dream, you think it’s over and done but no you’re still dreaming. I need people to pick the book up, tell me what they think and have a discussion on my ideas lol. I would love to read more by this author.

Thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company I received a ARC for an honest review !

I’ve tried writing this review a few times and I’ve struggled every time to find the right words to encapsulate how I truly felt about this novel. What I know for sure is that it’s beautifully written and I could not put it down. On the flip side of that, I could never quite orient myself in the story. By the time I finished it, I realized that I had not been asking the right questions or focusing on the right things. However, as confused and disoriented I often found myself, this is one I’ll think of fondly for a long time. Do with that what you will.

What just happened here? "The Catch" is a readable, maze-like story, which Yrsa Daley-Ward's writing makes understandable but not comprehensible. Does that make sense? Let me try to explain the story.

Clara and Dempsey are unalike twins. Clara is glamorous and famous for writing a smash novel that might have been written by their dead mother. She's also an addict about to be flung off her carnival-ride life. Dempsey hides in her apartment, eating a sparse vegan diet but feasting on her contempt for her sister. When Clara meets a woman while shopping who has the same name, same face, and same address as their mother, who drowned herself at age thirty, which seems to be the age of the woman Clara has just met. Dempsey thinks her sister has lost lost her mind, but when she meets Serene, who has the same name as their mother, I was all in to find out what the heck was going on.

There's already a lot of buzz about "The Catch," and I look forward to reading what others think. I can see a lot of sprightly discussion coming out of this book, and I recommend it to readers who enjoy wondering. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

Whan an abstract novel that made me chuckle a few times. The female main character was engaging yet unnerving and although I never truly knew where the plot was going, I was still intrigued. Great writing.

A darkly human tale full of unreliable narrators, with shades of Toni Morrison and Daphne du Maurier.

I fell in love with the way this story is written and found myself mesmerized by Daley-Ward’s words. Her prose is poetic and unforgiving, both beautiful and repugnant. The way the author fully allows the reader to inhabit Dempsey and Clara’s world makes for very compelling reading. How the sisters relate to one another on the page felt very real, the tension, anger, and sadness radiating off the page was irresistible. As I read The Catch I kept on finding myself asking, which sister do I trust? Which characters do I believe? It wouldn’t take long for me to realize that I had entered the story with the wrong mindset.

The Catch is puzzling and disorienting with no stability in sight. Just as I thought I had a grasp on what was happening, I had the rug yanked from beneath my feet and had to crawl my way toward the end where I discovered that I knew nothing at all. As confusing, and at times difficult, as this book can be to read, I found it well worth it in the end. Clara, Dempsey, and Serene are willing to hurt themselves, hurt each other, and hurt you, but through all the murk what shines through is the depth of humanity invested in these characters and their stories.

What if your birth mother who gave you up for adoption as a child randomly appears one day except she is your same age? Gorgeously written (love a poet turned novelist) while still being terrifically engaging (and funny!). Gets lost in itself and doesn't quite stick the landing, but I was thrilled and delighted the whole way through.

The beautiful cover caught my eyes on this one but it's what's inside that's the real treat. Told with tender, cutting prose, Daley-Ward explores family ties, motherhood, and identity. A fascinating character study that was challenging to put down. Thank you W. W. Norton & Co for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Available Jun. 03 2025

So I struggled through it. Didn’t like the writing style , frequently confused as to the plot and having finished it, could not give you a definite conclusion. Sorry-just not my style of read.

The story was interesting and the writing was good but I struggled to keep reading to the end, just not a book for me sadly. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it.

Yrsa Daley-Wards inaugural fiction has taken me on a wild ride! This text is lyrical, poetic, emotional and confusing- in the best ways. Part literary fiction, magical realism, fantasy, sci-fi and in some ways a horror novel. How a horror? It’s scary to consider that women (Black women in particular) are failed by almost everyone (including ourselves) and most systems. The decisions that have to be made to secure what Clifton calls “a kind of life” come at her own expense.

Serene and the twins story reminds me of Beloved (Morrison) in that the decisions of a mother end up haunting her and her children who are the only ones who can ultimately decide if the actions were justified or not. 

I enjoyed this journey —even the moments where I was confused or angry because Serene, Clara and, Dempsey are so beautifully human and reminded me of my own fragile humanity. 

 Thanks @netgalley for this e-arc. Pub date 06/25.

Reading The Catch felt like waking up from a dream—beautiful, confusing, and emotional all at once. This story follows twin sisters, Clara and Dempsey, who have lived very different lives. When Clara says she found their birth mother—who they believed was dead—Dempsey doesn’t believe her. But the woman, Serene, looks and acts just like their mom.

The book is told from many points of view, which makes you question what’s real and who you can trust. The writing is poetic and powerful, like Yrsa’s past work. Some parts may feel confusing to readers who struggle with abstractions, but at its core, this is a story about two sisters trying to understand their past and grow into who they are - despite their mother wound getting in the way.

If you like dreamy, emotional stories about family, identity, and searching for love, The Catch is worth the read.

very psychedelic and incredibly confusing (even more than most other novels like this, because there's no sense of stability anywhere). but really poetically writen, awesome chars, and great story. 4 stars. tysm for thea rc.

It’s always risky picking up such an esoteric book – I am 100% certain that some people will have this on their “best of the year” lists, but for me personally it didn’t quite connect.

This is an autofiction book about estranged twin sisters, Dempsey and Clara, one of whom believes she has seen her mother (who was presumed dead) in some sort of time warp where she is still young (or, in Depmsey’s opinion, a con woman). Clara also happens to be a celebrity author who writes an autofiction book about twin sisters, one of whom meets her mother in some sort of time warp where she is still young.

What this book has that worked well for me: Weird! I love books with a weird, dreamlike quality, where you aren’t quite sure what’s going on but trust the author to take you on a journey. I also am a fan of an unreliable narrator, and that was definitely well done here.

Things that aren’t my jam, but would appeal to the right readers: Unhinged women. I know this has become more and more popular in recent years, but books about sad and/or unhinged women just don’t really appeal to me. From there, the writing also didn’t quite pull me in; I’m not 100% sure how to articulate why, but I think it had to do with the way I struggled to connect with the characters. It was very high-concept, which can sometimes work for me but I think kept me at an arm’s length in this case.

Here lies the ultimate display of the unreliable narrator(s).

The Catch is a surreal and poetic examination of the blessings and, at times, curses we receive from our parents. We begin the book with Clara, a writer experiencing success with her new novel. The book's attention gives her free reign to access her darker impulses, relatively unchecked. Clara's novel tells a story remarkably similar to her own life, two twins whose mother died when the girls were quite young. In real life, Clara has a sister who is three minutes younger but worlds different from herself named Dempsey. Their mother abandoned them as babies and presumably drowned in the river Thames. No one really knows, because only her clothes were found. 

Dempsey and Clara are separated when they go through the foster care system. As a result, they lead incredibly different lives — while Dempsey is obsessed with her own journey of self acceptance, seeking healers with varied levels of qualification. The two sisters' relationship is contentious at best. 

All of this changes when Clara is sure that she has seen her mother, somehow also 30 (the same age as Clara and Dempsey), pocket a watch in a department store. Faced with a psychedelic possibility that their mother is alive, their age, and also really cool, Clara starts to spiral. She and Dempsey have to grapple with their own reality, trying to parse out the fraud amongst the three of them. 

It's a circular, meta-narrative. We're reading from Clara and Dempsey's perspectives, with chapters of Clara's novel, Evidence, sparsed throughout. By the time I finished this one, I was reminded of David Lynch's Lost Highway, a film that ends just about where it began. The Catch will have you constantly wondering if you have finally figured it out, or if there's still some catch waiting on the next page.

After finishing this book I’m not sure how to feel about it. Honestly, while it was confusing at times, it still managed to keep my attention once I got into the story. It was a slow start but picked up and kept my interest. At times it was hard to decipher what was real and what was imaginary. It didn’t help that the narrators were not really reliable. They both seemed to have some things going on with them that would cloud their judgment and skew their POV so it was hard to really trust the narrative I was being fed at times. With that being said, I’m thinking that might just be an artistic voice meant to enhance the story and if that’s the case, it was done very well. Even though there were times where it was hard to follow, this book was still very interesting! I have no idea what was actually happening but somehow it still made sense!

The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward was totally different from what I expected—but in a good way (I think!) This poetic novel follows twin sisters Clara and Dempsey, both struggling with addiction and trauma, whose lives are thrown into confusion when their mother, who died 30 years ago, seems to come back from the dead.

The story was unsettling because it constantly blurred the line between reality and imagination. Surprisingly, this uncertainty worked for me and kept me engaged throughout. Recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction that's both psychologically intriguing and a bit fantastical.

I was immediately pulled into this book—eyes glued to the page! Daley-Ward is a phenomenal writer and gets at complex subjects in such a digestible way. This is one of those books I’m gonna be thinking about for years to come. As someone who has grown through unconventional family dynamics, this book just pulls at a certain heartstring. If you love literary fiction, books about sisters, mental-health, generational cycles, the complexities of motherhood, self-actualization, identity, and a little bit of mind-bending—THIS IS FOR YOU!

3.75
This book is about Dempsey and Clara (unlikely twins) who got taken into foster care as kids after their mother disappeared.
Or did they?
Or did she?

I will admit that for a lot of this novel I had no idea what was going on, but also I was okay with that.
Because it is magical, and deep and a mind trip but maybe that doesn't matter.
Maybe it's just a well written book that will make you think a lot about what you know, how we perceive ourselves and alternative lives.

I struggled with the narrative lacking depth and empathy - so while Daley-Ward appears to plumb depths of thought, magical realism and possibility, the actual story was very superficial. Nor did I really care for any of the characters, who read more like caricatures, and this meant there didn't seem to be any 'pay off'. Daley-Ward's idea and ambition is compelling though and I think for many this will be an enjoyable read.

Another concern I do have is how some reviewers have latched on to the single mention of Borderline Personality Disorder in the book, and calling the characterisation representation as a result... Considering the narrative plays heavily with delusion and the romanticisation of abandonment and drug use, this seems somewhat harmful... And I do hope that wasn't the intention behind the mention of BPD. Although the story really didn't need the stray mention, so for me it does do people who live with BPD a disservice in that regard.

"The Catch" by Yrsa Daley-Ward has a beautiful, poetic writing style that really makes certain moments shine. I appreciated the themes of love and self-discovery, but I struggled to fully connect with the characters and their journeys. While there were some powerful, introspective moments, the pacing felt uneven, and parts of the story didn’t quite land for me. That said, if you enjoy lyrical storytelling, it’s still worth a read.