All Trap No Bait

by Joseph Worthen

It’s the summer of 2020 in Alabama, and Beverly Jane Ornett is terminally online. To be fair, the real world has lost its charms—thanks to the pandemic, she hasn’t worked in two months. Plus, her longtime roommate is moving out of their filthy apartment to live with her wealthy boyfriend, and the only people she communicates with are the weirdos and pariahs in her crappy poetry collective. And she’s spending way too much time pining for one of them, an aloof redneck she dated the previous summer. Sure, she could ponder the implications of these cascading depressing failures…or she could zone out on Xanax and watch YouTube tutorials on eyebrow threading, and videos of hydraulic presses crushing random objects; she could peruse the poetry collective’s group chat, or even go to the Dominos pizza site and use their online tools to sprinkle virtual toppings on the pizza she’d order if only she had the money.






Then comes a chat message from an unfamiliar handle—a demon, or something worse. The demon is asking for favors, and posting Bev’s secrets online.






Now Bev has to get to the bottom of things. (Nevermind the fact that she’s not able to get to the bottom of much, except maybe a bottle of cough syrup.) In short order she’s exploring—or perhaps stumbling through—a world of viral rap stars and webcam girls, all the seediness that Mobile and the internet have to offer. (Which is quite a bit of seediness, indeed.) Maybe the truth about her online tormentor is out there, and maybe it’s not, but either way, Bev’s life is about to change forever.






All Trap No Bait is both a gripping book about a hapless detective, and a Southern Gothic novel for the cyber age—something like the bastard love child of Flannery O’Connor and The Big Lebowski. Hilarious and harrowing, a chronicle of its depressing time and an immensely entertaining escape from ours, it’s a landmark work and an incredible debut by a major new talent—Joseph Worthen.

Genres: Contemporary, Horror

308 pages, Paperback

Published August 5, 2025

Reviews

[Leah Tyler]

See full review on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website:

‘All Trap No Bait’ is a Dark Comedy About Hard Times

"For anyone who has speculated about what could happen with the miscellaneous social media accounts people have started and abandoned over the years — think Myspace, Friendster or the multitude of forgotten blogs still cycling through cyberspace — North Carolina author Joseph Worthen ventures into the nefarious world of dark-web chat rooms to assert a stunning possibility.

In his delightfully morbid and sardonically humorous debut novel, “All Trap No Bait,” Worthen articulates how personal information left on the web could be gathered to provide a fertile source of blackmail material..."

https://www.ajc.com/arts-entertainmen...

[Guadalupe Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

All Trap No Bait is a gritty, surreal exploration of a woman named Bev navigating a life marked by instability, fleeting connections, and the struggle to find meaning in a world that feels increasingly fragmented. The novel unfolds in a series of vignettes, blending mundane reality with moments of eerie surrealism, as Bev drifts through relationships, odd jobs, and encounters with characters who seem to vanish as quickly as they appear.

Bev, the protagonist, lives in a run-down apartment with her roommate Olivia, who is on the verge of moving out with a wealthy man. As Bev grapples with Olivia’s impending departure, she wanders through a series of disjointed experiences: working odd jobs, revisiting past traumas, and engaging in cryptic conversations with strangers, including a mysterious "Mr. June" who appears monthly like a recurring ghost.

The narrative shifts between Bev’s present struggles, financial instability, substance use, and a sense of being trapped; and her fragmented memories, including a haunting past relationship with a man named Austin. There’s a recurring motif of technology as both a tether to reality and a means of escape. Bev’s world is populated by transient figures: a porn-obsessed landlord, a cryptic online presence named "ZiQx," and a cast of drifters who blur the line between ally and illusion.

As the story progresses, Bev’s grip on reality loosens. She oscillates between moments of sharp clarity and surreal detachment, culminating in a feverish climax where past and present collide. The novel ends ambiguously, leaving Bev, and the reader, questioning what was real and what was imagined.

While the novel’s fragmented style enhances its themes, some readers may find the lack of a conventional plot frustrating. The surreal elements, though intentional, occasionally obscure emotional payoffs. However, this ambiguity also makes the story linger in the mind long after reading.

[Matthew Burris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was wild. Weird, funny, and dark.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. The humor never belies the insights.