4.5/5

Achingly real and relatable. The prose is beautiful, yet confusing. It is written like a fever dream where you are unsure what is reality.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This novel’s premise is also strikingly unique, with a sort of multiverse-adjacent twist with most everyone being super unlikable.
Writing is stunning is lyrical, sharp, and filled with moments that made me pause and reread just to take it in.
Some sections drag, especially when we’re deep in Clara’s reckless spiral, and if you like your endings neat and tied with a bow, prepare to be mildly frustrated. It leans heavily into ambiguity, and depending on your mood, that’ll either feel like literary brilliance or unfinished business. Still, despite a few slow spots and eye-roll-worthy choices from the characters, I’d absolutely recommend The Catch, especially if you’re drawn to complex women, emotional chaos, and writing that isn’t afraid to get a little weird.
I wouldn't recommend if you don't like unlikeable characters or unreliable narrators.

Orphaned twin sisters, Clara and Dempster, are fostered and adopted by different nuclear families. The Catch focuses on the two women in their 30s, at which Clara spots Serene, the presumably deceased mother, tiefing a Rolex and Dempster encounters Marcus, their biological father who Serene left, who moves into the unit upstairs in her apartment complex. Discerning that Clara’s novel tells the story of their family insofar as it is true in their reality, the sisters devise a plan to prevent Serene from becoming romantically engaged with Marcus so that they can block, if you will, their births and end the cycle of abandonment.

Daley-Ward’s novel is sparklier than I expected—it reads like a contemporary novel that incorporates the lifestyle of the rich and famous. This speculative fic read should definitely be tagged as fantasy or sci-fi because of the parallel timelines and a problem commonly encountered by the multiverse trope: how does changing the past alter the future? With a background in the hard sciences during my pre-grad school days, stories heavily relying on spacetime short-circuit my brain and prevent me from grasping the narrative. I seem unable to sustain a long enough pause from thinking about the theory of general relativity, suspend the disbelief in questions I have about the physics, and follow the story for what it is. If anything, a required suspending actually seems antithetical to the project I’m consuming because it is part and parcel that I “follow the story for what it is,” questionable choices from to against Einstein’s theory of spacetime and all.

In addition to this thematic hurdle, I quickly became impatient with our two main characters. The Catch is alternatively told from Clara and Dempster’s perspectives and minimally from Serene’s. I appreciate an unlovable MC as much as the next person, but the women, perhaps, were created to be uniquely childish to emphasize their childhoods and the trauma, resulting in stunted growth. I may not have finished the book if I had not received an ARC. However, I happily acknowledge the big dogs in the literary world rave about Daley-Ward’s novel; I support her endeavors to spotlight Black women in her work and wish her all the best.

CW: Clara makes a move on her mom.

My thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for an ARC. I also shared this review on GoodReads on June 10, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7638544512).