Nymph

by Stephanie LaCava

A young woman from a long line of assassins, lives her life with the ardent mission to avoid the trappings of any enduring romantic love, while keeping one on the pursuit of an untimely death for herself.

Not yet thirty, Bathory, or 'Bat' to those near to her, has assembled a peculiar résumé: model, sex worker, linguist and scholar of Latin. But nothing in her lively job history employs the singular traits she inherited from her strange family, chief among them an uncanny ability to sidestep seemingly certain death(s). An appropriate atavistic instinct, for someone from a long line of assassins and spies. Her clan are assassins of a romantic bent, her parents issuing theories on love galore. However Bat is set on swerving any enduring romantic loves, and she's set on dying young. Now, if she could only avoid that one alluring figure from her father's past.

A thriller, a love story, and a dynamic examination of class, violence and connection. The images we make to share and those we strive to conceal, alienation and salvation, magic and technology, LaCava's bold new novel is propelled by the compelling violence one can seed in contradiction.

Genres: Fiction, Library Science, Audiobook, Thriller

192 pages, Paperback

Published October 14, 2025

About the author

Stephanie LaCava is a writer in New York.

Reviews

[Danielle Chelosky · Rating 1 out of 5]

sloppiness masquerading as mysteriousness; laziness masquerading as detachment. the book is practically incoherent

[Lordes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so happy this book is over

[raniera]

Sometimes the writing felt like cool and elusive but the dialogue kept taking me out of it and anytime there was a description of the main character throwing her hair up or pulling on a lover’s hoodie I felt like I was reading 1D fanfic instead of a litfic book published by verso

[The Poor Person's Book Reviewer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Try hard edginess with robotic writing and lazy storytelling. I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt that they were trying something new but it just didn’t work. The idea of a 7 year old with an expertise in Latin and a 4D sixth sense of awareness is so absurd that this really would have worked better as a full blown action pulp. P.s Kobe died in 2020 which means a lot of this takes place in the future, right? (should of added some SF)

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idk why this is described as a thriller. Should be called a flopper.

[Jonathan Lukas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird book. The writing is very descriptive and author is clever writer on a sentence by sentence basis. But I have no idea what I just read. It an unfinished story that isn't explained well - the back cover of the book explains more of the story than the actual read. Do not recommend.

[Mark Ortiz Ortiz Ortiz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Follows Bathory from childhood to her young adult life in the Big City, juggling her life as a Latin linguist, lover, and assassin.

I'll make this short and sweet: I don’t know WTF this book wanted to be. At first, I was following — Bath is learning about her parents’ secret espionage life and inherits her love of Kobe Bryant from her father. But once she gets to the city, I literally have no idea what was going on. The dialogue feels lazy; I often wasn’t sure who was speaking ,which I’m not always opposed to, but the story’s direction went absolutely nowhere. It all culminates in some kidnapping that leads to... again, nowhere. I think the story was supposed to focus on her failed romantic relationships, but... I honestly don’t know.

It’s a 1/5 ⭐️ for me. I don’t think I’ve ever given a book a 1. I can usually find something to bump it up to a 2,but not today.

[Joel Curry · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the hell sure

[John Oakley · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5. Good premise and story, execution that wasn’t quite for me. Too many moments of the author saying something that’s meant to be profound but is too vague to have power, or moments of the author intentionally not saying something for effect, to no effect

[Jaeha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wordy at best; distasteful at worst

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It felt like the author was trying to drop some heat but it ended up being juvenile. The description was too good I HAD to pick it up but I was definitely catfished. I didn’t hate it, and it was a quick read which I will always appreciate, but it lacked character/depth/interesting content. As each chapter passed I kept expecting it to hold up to my own expectations, only to be disappointed by the end. I’m happy I still read it though. The cover was too cunty for me to ignore.

[Zee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high expectations for this book but honestly, I'm extremely disappointed. This read like a pretentious, edgy, Wattpad fanfic; in the bad way. For some context, there's a scene where the main character says she always keeps a copy of whatever book she's reading in Latin; a dead language that you can find almost no reading material in. Also another scene where it is stated that they are in the kitchen while also describing the character going around her room? It was confusing, dull, and took itself way more serious than it actually is. With a bunch of interlinked moments where nothing actually happens.

[Laura Treganowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nymph was wrapped in mystery and the darkness. The first half was captivating and then it fell off a cliff for the second half missing large chunks of time and plot. Confused.

[Annette Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Expect the unexpected in Nymph, a compelling read that's somehow wonderfully off-centre and full of mystery, intrigue and enigmatic assassins. The provocative writing style and somewhat detached narrator/protagonist had me hooked fromnthe start. Great book!

[James Ray-Bissell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This probably needed at least another 100 pages to feel remotely like a complete story. Mystery by the means of omission/under cooking the story isn't really that compelling to me.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could say this novel follows its narrator, Bathory (Bath for short, pronounced Bat) from her childhood in the Boston area to her college and post-college years in New York, and it does, but that might imply something a lot more straightforward than this book. This book is elliptical, slippery, operating with the logic of a dream, with the resonance of magic. When she's a teenager, Bath finds out her parents are an assassin and a spy; this explains a lot about her mom's large collection of baseball caps and about her dad's associates, whose faces always seem to be obscured by sunglasses. In her college years, Bath cultivates a certain "detachment": she has sex with older guys and has "no close female friends"; none of the guys really matter to her except for one, Iggy, who's the son of one of her dad's associates who appears in and disappears from her life at irregular intervals, echoing the disappearance of her father and the increasingly distant nature of her mother. "I'll either become a translator or an assassin," Bath says to another guy; maybe she ends up being both, which is probably apt for a kid whose name, when she was little, made her think of herself as "girl-animal-weapon."

There are lots of great sentences and phrases in this book, like when Bath's mom gives her a stack of books by Dion Fortune and says "this is a way to teach you about magic things. And that a good story shows its middle not to have been the end, but that happens only at the end." A few pages later, Bath's mom offers further advice: "The signals will come in and you will know they are signals but not always how to translate them." Thinking about Iggy, Bath feels that "you could know a psychic link with someone to be true, a chime waiting to sound in you both from birth"; later, also about Iggy, there's this: "There had to be a word for that, when something makes you uneasy because it's familiar and correct, and everything else is not."

[sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve read all of Stephanie LaCava’s fiction now and I think I’d say all of them are bad. She’s someone I keep trying with because her work outside of fiction is interesting to me - especially her involvement in the publishing of Zoe Lund’s poetry - and yet each book has been a disappointment. Nymph drew me in due to Uschi Obermaier on the cover and its increased publicity with book clubs like Library Science, but this is probably her worst yet. While I thought her previous novels were trying too hard at a sort of ‘cool girl’ aesthetic (very Sylvia Plath meets Alexa Chung), this one was also completely nonsensical. I doubt I will read another of LaCava’s books but I will continue to follow her on Instagram, her life looks very cool.

[tru_romank · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like the author got bored writing this book and couldn't be bothered to do it properly. The lack of detail makes everything feel weirdly like a room before anyone's moved in. The narrative skips around 'enigmatically', re-starting at seemingly random future moments. The protagonist's life and lifestyle are bleak and I'm not sure where to find value, though will gladly update my opinion if someone else wants to fill in the gaping holes with a more interesting take.

[yastikaguru · Rating 5 out of 5]

so unique and classic...this book was awesome. I felt like it did reading a kids book when I was a kid but proportionate to the fact that I am technically a grown up now idk how to explain. and really lovely watchful particular and correct prose. I really liked how rape/violence were handled. the plot is kinda whacky and campy and random but also awesome and chill with some very vivid scenes and emotions that are strange and particular. idk how to explain. iggy is hot.

[Celia Slip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephanie LaCava is an assassin of style. I decided I was into this book when I read the last line on page 89 and all of the lines on page 90. More than a few things seem awry. It’s a strange fragmentary arrangement.

[grim_mall_gorth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephanie is unrivalled in terms of the way she's able to structure sentences and put words together, genuinely think she's a 1 of 1 and am so glad she's out there taking risks. Very refreshing in 2025. I'll respect anyone who takes a risk with their work.

[Zoe Dubno · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be a hot chick called bat

[Izzywalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Resonated hugely with the placeness knowing but unknowing of the main character

[Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

definitely not everyone’s taste but I love this style of writing and found the book very interesting!! will read anything stephanie writes <3

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

freaky lil thing. but vague for the sake of vague.

[Bekka Brantly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Mike Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

felt disoriented throughout, but maybe that was more of a feature than a bug?

[Tracy Baran]

This book made no sense. I have no idea what I read. Very disappointing. I felt like the author was trying to be mysterious and lyrical and deep and it just seemed awful to me.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

black metal part 2

[Sarah Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

im sorry, i judged a book by it's cover in a hyper-optimistic way. i don't like writing bad reviews, but don't read this.