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Bookworm
"Imagine if Patricia Highsmith had written The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and instead of heroic daydreams she gave her protagonist murderous ones--that would be Bookworm. Robin Yeatman's story is subversive, surprising, and satisfying in a way that only the best comic noir can be."--Claire Oshetsky, author of Chouette
A wickedly funny debut novel--a black comedy with a generous heart that explores the power of imagination and reading--about a woman who tries to use fiction to find her way to happiness.
Victoria is unhappily married to an ambitious and controlling lawyer consumed with his career. Burdened with overbearing in-laws, a boring dead-end job she can't seem to leave, and a best friend who doesn't seem to understand her, Victoria finds solace from the daily grind in her beloved books and the stories she makes up in her head. One day, in a favorite caf�, she notices an attractive man reading the same talked-about bestselling novel that she is reading. A woman yearning for her own happy ending, Victoria is sure it's fate. The handsome book lover must be her soul mate.
There's only one small problem. Victoria is already married. Frustrated, and desperate to change her life, Victoria retreats to the dark places in her mind and thinks back to all the stories she's ever read in hopes of finding a solution. She begins to fantasize about nocturnal trysts with caf� man, and imaginative ways (poisoned pickles were an inspired choice in Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres) of getting rid of the dread husband.
It's all just harmless fantasy born of Victoria's fevered imagination and her books--until, one night, fiction and reality blur and suddenly it seems Victoria is about to get everything she's wished for . . . .
A wickedly funny debut novel--a black comedy with a generous heart that explores the power of imagination and reading--about a woman who tries to use fiction to find her way to happiness.
Victoria is unhappily married to an ambitious and controlling lawyer consumed with his career. Burdened with overbearing in-laws, a boring dead-end job she can't seem to leave, and a best friend who doesn't seem to understand her, Victoria finds solace from the daily grind in her beloved books and the stories she makes up in her head. One day, in a favorite caf�, she notices an attractive man reading the same talked-about bestselling novel that she is reading. A woman yearning for her own happy ending, Victoria is sure it's fate. The handsome book lover must be her soul mate.
There's only one small problem. Victoria is already married. Frustrated, and desperate to change her life, Victoria retreats to the dark places in her mind and thinks back to all the stories she's ever read in hopes of finding a solution. She begins to fantasize about nocturnal trysts with caf� man, and imaginative ways (poisoned pickles were an inspired choice in Jane Smiley's A Thousand Acres) of getting rid of the dread husband.
It's all just harmless fantasy born of Victoria's fevered imagination and her books--until, one night, fiction and reality blur and suddenly it seems Victoria is about to get everything she's wished for . . . .
288 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 14, 2023
180 people are currently reading
11142 people want to read
About the author
Robin Yeatman
2 books128 followersRobin Yeatman is a shameless bookworm who was born in Calgary and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Educated in British Columbia and England, she studied literature, trained as a broadcast journalist, and worked in radio as a morning show producer. After a dozen years in Montreal, she now lives in Vancouver. Bookworm is her first book.
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October 5, 2022
On the very last day of the year 1969, a young Canadian author named Margaret Atwood stepped forward from the male-dominated milieu of fiction writing and handed the world her debut novel.
It was called THE EDIBLE WOMAN, and it featured a quirky protagonist, a woman named Marian McAlpin, who is quickly approaching her wedding day, an event celebrated by all. . . except Marian.
Marian can't figure out why she isn't thrilled to be the future wife of Peter, a handsome and successful man whose name has a double meaning, a play on “perfect” and the male genitalia. In short, Marian feels as though a peter is trying to eat her.
Fifty-three years have passed since Ms. Atwood pondered the possibility: are perfect men, everywhere, the balm to calm all women? Fifty-three years have passed since Ms. Atwood wondered: are marriage and childbearing the true legacy of all women?
Fifty-three years after Margaret Atwood published THE EDIBLE WOMAN, a new Canadian author, Robin Yeatman, has stepped forward to ask, in her debut novel, BOOKWORM, what has changed for women?
Well, Ms. Yeatman doesn't ask it, not exactly, but she has given us Victoria Cavanagh, an attractive “bookish” woman in her early midlife, who is thinking less about what has changed for women, universally, and is wondering, instead, what could change for her, and quickly.
You see. . . Victoria is a good girl, a woman who caved to her social climbing parents' demands that she marry the handsome and successful Eric and give up the “nonsense” of being a yoga instructor and a massage therapist. In Victoria's world, things like “energy healing” and the “body/mind connection” don't have any traction. (Good thing the parents never know about the astral traveling!).
Victoria's parents, both attorneys themselves, figure. . . if their daughter didn't have the drive to become an actual lawyer herself, then the next best thing was for her to marry one.
So Victoria did it, she married Eric against every instinct in her that screamed No. To Victoria's parents and in-laws, their success of marrying an Eric to a Victoria is a celebration fit for Facebook updates weekly. How could anything ever be wrong?
(Eric: “A wreck,” or “erect?” Please, I'd like to go down on record as the first reader who ever pondered it).
Victoria's struggle is real. It's occasionally dark, and it's surprisingly funny.
I feel giddy, imagining book clubs everywhere discussing this novel, and, personally, if I were still in my book club, back in Colorado, I'd be recommending that we take it a step further: read BOOKWORM and THE EDIBLE WOMAN and compare and contrast them.
I think Ms. Yeatman's debut novel may be a game changer, a genre bender. She writes with an unapologetic honesty that would make Ms. Atwood herself proud.
She felt like Mrs. Brown from The Hours, as she continued to ice the homely cake. Something about her task was meditative. It also allowed her to focus on something other than Eric's face.
(Special thanks to Harper Perennial and the author, Robin Yeatman, for providing me with an early copy of this novel. Thank you for understanding that I was absolutely unwilling to wait).
It was called THE EDIBLE WOMAN, and it featured a quirky protagonist, a woman named Marian McAlpin, who is quickly approaching her wedding day, an event celebrated by all. . . except Marian.
Marian can't figure out why she isn't thrilled to be the future wife of Peter, a handsome and successful man whose name has a double meaning, a play on “perfect” and the male genitalia. In short, Marian feels as though a peter is trying to eat her.
Fifty-three years have passed since Ms. Atwood pondered the possibility: are perfect men, everywhere, the balm to calm all women? Fifty-three years have passed since Ms. Atwood wondered: are marriage and childbearing the true legacy of all women?
Fifty-three years after Margaret Atwood published THE EDIBLE WOMAN, a new Canadian author, Robin Yeatman, has stepped forward to ask, in her debut novel, BOOKWORM, what has changed for women?
Well, Ms. Yeatman doesn't ask it, not exactly, but she has given us Victoria Cavanagh, an attractive “bookish” woman in her early midlife, who is thinking less about what has changed for women, universally, and is wondering, instead, what could change for her, and quickly.
You see. . . Victoria is a good girl, a woman who caved to her social climbing parents' demands that she marry the handsome and successful Eric and give up the “nonsense” of being a yoga instructor and a massage therapist. In Victoria's world, things like “energy healing” and the “body/mind connection” don't have any traction. (Good thing the parents never know about the astral traveling!).
Victoria's parents, both attorneys themselves, figure. . . if their daughter didn't have the drive to become an actual lawyer herself, then the next best thing was for her to marry one.
So Victoria did it, she married Eric against every instinct in her that screamed No. To Victoria's parents and in-laws, their success of marrying an Eric to a Victoria is a celebration fit for Facebook updates weekly. How could anything ever be wrong?
(Eric: “A wreck,” or “erect?” Please, I'd like to go down on record as the first reader who ever pondered it).
Victoria's struggle is real. It's occasionally dark, and it's surprisingly funny.
I feel giddy, imagining book clubs everywhere discussing this novel, and, personally, if I were still in my book club, back in Colorado, I'd be recommending that we take it a step further: read BOOKWORM and THE EDIBLE WOMAN and compare and contrast them.
I think Ms. Yeatman's debut novel may be a game changer, a genre bender. She writes with an unapologetic honesty that would make Ms. Atwood herself proud.
She felt like Mrs. Brown from The Hours, as she continued to ice the homely cake. Something about her task was meditative. It also allowed her to focus on something other than Eric's face.
(Special thanks to Harper Perennial and the author, Robin Yeatman, for providing me with an early copy of this novel. Thank you for understanding that I was absolutely unwilling to wait).
November 2, 2023
Wow! This book gives you best taste of the darkest humor! I advise you to add this mind bending, extremely entertaining and extra smart book to your reading list!
Beware of bookworm Victoria! She has bulky kind of extra vivid imagination that helps her write stories about the random strangers she notices at her favorite cafe and also assists her to imagine at least fifty different ways of killing her own grumpy- hygiene obsessed- addicted binge watcher husband the dearest!
Poor Victoria just wants to be left alone so she can devour more books she can get her hands into in exchange of living a miserable, daily planned life with his career oriented, condescending husband Eric and cooking him chicken for dinner, obeying her pre arranged Saturday hanky panky time with him!
But when she finds her soul mate at first sight: a charismatic man who appears at the same cafe she hangs out and reads the exact same book she reads, she decides to take the matters into her hands. She cannot let this man run away from her! He might be solution to all of her problems!
She decides to take a break from her husband but their families, who arranged their marriage when Victoria failed her parental expectations and Eric divorced from his cheater first wife, have no intention to let Victoria get out of their sight. She’s trapped in her unhappy marriage and she has nobody understands her predicament. Even her best friend Holly thinks Eric is the best. She takes his side, showing a little more interest to spend time with him. What a thoughtful girl she is!
Victoria’s vivid imagination helps her astral travel in the night to lurk around the mysterious soul mate’s bedroom ( later she finds out his name is Luke and he is a talented carpenter. Well, who can resist the charm of muscular gorgeous man who knows how to use his hands properly?) , escaping from her miserable life and the bed she shares with her husband. But what if her night escapes turn into something real? What if she has a chance to live her HEA with his soulmate. What if she finds a way to get rid of her marriage and her irritating husband!
Overall: smart ending, extremely sarcastic tone of storytelling made me enjoy this reading experience so much ! I guffawed loudly during my reading just like Victoria did each time she found more creative way to get rid of her husband! Definitely A MUST READ I highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for sharing this AMAZING digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
Beware of bookworm Victoria! She has bulky kind of extra vivid imagination that helps her write stories about the random strangers she notices at her favorite cafe and also assists her to imagine at least fifty different ways of killing her own grumpy- hygiene obsessed- addicted binge watcher husband the dearest!
Poor Victoria just wants to be left alone so she can devour more books she can get her hands into in exchange of living a miserable, daily planned life with his career oriented, condescending husband Eric and cooking him chicken for dinner, obeying her pre arranged Saturday hanky panky time with him!
But when she finds her soul mate at first sight: a charismatic man who appears at the same cafe she hangs out and reads the exact same book she reads, she decides to take the matters into her hands. She cannot let this man run away from her! He might be solution to all of her problems!
She decides to take a break from her husband but their families, who arranged their marriage when Victoria failed her parental expectations and Eric divorced from his cheater first wife, have no intention to let Victoria get out of their sight. She’s trapped in her unhappy marriage and she has nobody understands her predicament. Even her best friend Holly thinks Eric is the best. She takes his side, showing a little more interest to spend time with him. What a thoughtful girl she is!
Victoria’s vivid imagination helps her astral travel in the night to lurk around the mysterious soul mate’s bedroom ( later she finds out his name is Luke and he is a talented carpenter. Well, who can resist the charm of muscular gorgeous man who knows how to use his hands properly?) , escaping from her miserable life and the bed she shares with her husband. But what if her night escapes turn into something real? What if she has a chance to live her HEA with his soulmate. What if she finds a way to get rid of her marriage and her irritating husband!
Overall: smart ending, extremely sarcastic tone of storytelling made me enjoy this reading experience so much ! I guffawed loudly during my reading just like Victoria did each time she found more creative way to get rid of her husband! Definitely A MUST READ I highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for sharing this AMAZING digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.
January 22, 2023
My Rating: 3.5/5 rounded down
A young woman sits at a table in her favorite café with her nose in a book ( unfortunately, she isn’t quite enjoying the book) while also observing the people around her. She spots an attractive man sitting at another table reading the same book and decides she has found her soul mate! But there’s a catch! Victoria, our bookworm is married, albeit unhappily, to Eric, an affluent and successful lawyer who is on the verge of being promoted to Partner. Victoria works as a masseuse and spends most of her free time reading, which isn’t something her controlling husband ( who would rather spend his evenings watching television ) is too happy about. Everything about Victoria’s life revolves around Eric’s preferences - from her reading eBooks as opposed to physical books, grocery lists and dinner menus to their sex life. Her parents, her mother in particular and her best friend Holly never fail to remind Victoria how lucky she is to be with Eric. She finds solace in her books and her fantasies – which range from romantic rendezvous with her “soul mate” to dreaming up scenarios in which her husband ends up dead. As the narrative progresses and the suffocation in her life and marriage start to become unbearable, Victoria decides to take charge of her life and the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur.
I believe I enjoyed the concept/premise of this book more than the book itself. I did sympathize with Victoria’s plight and while I initially found her train of thought and wild imagination amusing it soon became repetitive and a tad off-putting. Ordinarily, I enjoy dark humor/satire and identify with characters who are voracious readers//bookworms. I did enjoy both the literary and pop culture references interspersed throughout the narrative. I also don’t mind unlikable characters if the story is good but overall, I wasn’t completely invested in this story. I’d expected to enjoy this book more than I actually did, which surprised me. I couldn’t find much humor in Eric and Victoria’s toxic relationship and/or dysfunctional marriage. I felt that the author could have avoided certain stereotypes ( I won't say more because I don’t want to give too much away.) Overall, though Bookworm by Robin Yeatman is a well-written book and I did find parts of the story quite entertaining, I wasn’t quite as taken with it as many other readers have been.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing a DRC of this book via Edelweiss+. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book is due to be released on February 13, 2023.
A young woman sits at a table in her favorite café with her nose in a book ( unfortunately, she isn’t quite enjoying the book) while also observing the people around her. She spots an attractive man sitting at another table reading the same book and decides she has found her soul mate! But there’s a catch! Victoria, our bookworm is married, albeit unhappily, to Eric, an affluent and successful lawyer who is on the verge of being promoted to Partner. Victoria works as a masseuse and spends most of her free time reading, which isn’t something her controlling husband ( who would rather spend his evenings watching television ) is too happy about. Everything about Victoria’s life revolves around Eric’s preferences - from her reading eBooks as opposed to physical books, grocery lists and dinner menus to their sex life. Her parents, her mother in particular and her best friend Holly never fail to remind Victoria how lucky she is to be with Eric. She finds solace in her books and her fantasies – which range from romantic rendezvous with her “soul mate” to dreaming up scenarios in which her husband ends up dead. As the narrative progresses and the suffocation in her life and marriage start to become unbearable, Victoria decides to take charge of her life and the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur.
I believe I enjoyed the concept/premise of this book more than the book itself. I did sympathize with Victoria’s plight and while I initially found her train of thought and wild imagination amusing it soon became repetitive and a tad off-putting. Ordinarily, I enjoy dark humor/satire and identify with characters who are voracious readers//bookworms. I did enjoy both the literary and pop culture references interspersed throughout the narrative. I also don’t mind unlikable characters if the story is good but overall, I wasn’t completely invested in this story. I’d expected to enjoy this book more than I actually did, which surprised me. I couldn’t find much humor in Eric and Victoria’s toxic relationship and/or dysfunctional marriage. I felt that the author could have avoided certain stereotypes ( I won't say more because I don’t want to give too much away.) Overall, though Bookworm by Robin Yeatman is a well-written book and I did find parts of the story quite entertaining, I wasn’t quite as taken with it as many other readers have been.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for providing a DRC of this book via Edelweiss+. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This book is due to be released on February 13, 2023.
February 14, 2023
FRUSTRATION
Victoria is unhappily married to Eric, bored with the mundane tasks of domestic life like preparing dinner every night, and having sex with her husband twice a week. Set up by their parents it seemed more a marriage of convenience.
IMAGINATION
When she isn’t reading, she spends her time imagining the lives of those around her, and fantasizes about the ways her husband could die, so she could be free to live a different life-One without a husband who suggests that she might be happier if she gave up reading, and tried living in the real world.
TEMPTATION
When she sees an attractive man reading the SAME book as her, in her favorite coffee house, “Cafe Au Lait” she becomes convinced he is her soulmate. She hopes to bump into him again over Lattes, or to master the art of levitation so she can visit him at night….
CULMINATION
Can she wish this relationship into existence and find her “happily ever after”?
The synopsis describes this story as a wickedly funny, black comedy….but humor is so subjective, and I didn’t laugh a single time-I just found it all to be a little bit strange…..
It’s a fun premise (with the exception of the levitation) and has some amusing pop culture references to books, movies and even lipstick 💄 colors, so I do think it will find its niche audience-but it just missed the mark for me. Be sure to also read the 5 star reviews to determine if it might be a better fit for you!
A buddy read with DeAnn. Did she enjoy it more? Be sure to check out her thoughts for additional insight!
NOW AVAILABLE
Thank You to Harper Perennial for the gifted copy. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!
Victoria is unhappily married to Eric, bored with the mundane tasks of domestic life like preparing dinner every night, and having sex with her husband twice a week. Set up by their parents it seemed more a marriage of convenience.
IMAGINATION
When she isn’t reading, she spends her time imagining the lives of those around her, and fantasizes about the ways her husband could die, so she could be free to live a different life-One without a husband who suggests that she might be happier if she gave up reading, and tried living in the real world.
TEMPTATION
When she sees an attractive man reading the SAME book as her, in her favorite coffee house, “Cafe Au Lait” she becomes convinced he is her soulmate. She hopes to bump into him again over Lattes, or to master the art of levitation so she can visit him at night….
CULMINATION
Can she wish this relationship into existence and find her “happily ever after”?
The synopsis describes this story as a wickedly funny, black comedy….but humor is so subjective, and I didn’t laugh a single time-I just found it all to be a little bit strange…..
It’s a fun premise (with the exception of the levitation) and has some amusing pop culture references to books, movies and even lipstick 💄 colors, so I do think it will find its niche audience-but it just missed the mark for me. Be sure to also read the 5 star reviews to determine if it might be a better fit for you!
A buddy read with DeAnn. Did she enjoy it more? Be sure to check out her thoughts for additional insight!
NOW AVAILABLE
Thank You to Harper Perennial for the gifted copy. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!
September 19, 2022
When I got home from college, I was pretty lost. I’d studied directing theater, and was lucky enough to land a job at an off-Broadway show as an assistant stage manager to famous people. For this I was supposed to be grateful, even though it didn’t pay much. I lived with my dad and family on the upper west side of Manhattan, rent free - I “had it made.”
It’s a particular kind of hard when you are privileged, yet have no agency of your own. When I worked at that job, the hours meant I was free weekday mornings, and so as part of my routine, I took my sister to school on a bus. One day my stepmom came with us, she had the time. She went to the back half of the bus and looked around. Finding a woman next to an empty seat, she held up my sister’s 4-year-old hand, waved her finger between the empty spot and the one she sat in, and said, “can we sit here?” She actually asked someone to get up! I stood, fascinated. I didn’t even know that was an option, to behave that way. And it worked!
As awful as many will think this is, I got a vicarious pleasure from it. When you’ve spent years cultivating a malleable self and someone breaks through the door like that, it’s the sheer unapologetic aspect that astounds more than anything. Although I didn’t inspire to be like her (I recognized her own particular hell), it taught me something - and it took an act like that to wake me up.
Victoria makes herself small. So small. She lives in luxury with her parents-chose-him husband, who happens to be cute enough and nice enough that Victoria should be grateful. She should accept this empty shell of a life because it checks all the boxes, and perhaps she cannot be trusted to make good choices, given her past (no allowance for young mistakes being the very foundation of good future decisions). That message is a soul-sucking one. It’s also one that’s easy to believe. A whole society can’t be wrong, can it?
And so Victoria lives and grows in the world of books, instead. Because although Victoria doesn’t know it, she’s someone who can’t be contained. This story is about her loss of that containment, and it’s beyond her control. It’s against the very nature of her being. But she can test the waters slowly, right? Just stick in a big toe?
Victoria is my new hero. Vicariously, of course.
Thank you to the author and Harper Perennial for an advanced copy.
It’s a particular kind of hard when you are privileged, yet have no agency of your own. When I worked at that job, the hours meant I was free weekday mornings, and so as part of my routine, I took my sister to school on a bus. One day my stepmom came with us, she had the time. She went to the back half of the bus and looked around. Finding a woman next to an empty seat, she held up my sister’s 4-year-old hand, waved her finger between the empty spot and the one she sat in, and said, “can we sit here?” She actually asked someone to get up! I stood, fascinated. I didn’t even know that was an option, to behave that way. And it worked!
As awful as many will think this is, I got a vicarious pleasure from it. When you’ve spent years cultivating a malleable self and someone breaks through the door like that, it’s the sheer unapologetic aspect that astounds more than anything. Although I didn’t inspire to be like her (I recognized her own particular hell), it taught me something - and it took an act like that to wake me up.
Victoria makes herself small. So small. She lives in luxury with her parents-chose-him husband, who happens to be cute enough and nice enough that Victoria should be grateful. She should accept this empty shell of a life because it checks all the boxes, and perhaps she cannot be trusted to make good choices, given her past (no allowance for young mistakes being the very foundation of good future decisions). That message is a soul-sucking one. It’s also one that’s easy to believe. A whole society can’t be wrong, can it?
And so Victoria lives and grows in the world of books, instead. Because although Victoria doesn’t know it, she’s someone who can’t be contained. This story is about her loss of that containment, and it’s beyond her control. It’s against the very nature of her being. But she can test the waters slowly, right? Just stick in a big toe?
Victoria is my new hero. Vicariously, of course.
Thank you to the author and Harper Perennial for an advanced copy.
July 22, 2023
My introduction to the fiction of Robin Yeatman is her debut novel Bookworm. It shares a characteristic with a lot of my favorite novels in that it doesn't fit evenly into any category. Three bookstore clerks might place this on three different shelves. The cover suggests a cute or whimsical romp through reading and love, and if plotting the murder of your domineering husband is cute or whimsical, I imagine it could be. The novel shares characteristics with Patricia Highsmith and Mary Gaitskill, with noir undertones highlighted by an inappropriately creative protagonist. I laughed often.
Victoria is an unhappily married woman in her mid-thirties. She's employed as a massage therapist at a spa in Montréal, a job that her mother-in-law landed her and that places no demands on Victoria. Her "important" job is her husband Eric, a promising young lawyer who her parents set her up with five years ago. Victoria has settled into a subservient existence: cooking, nurturing and providing as few distractions as possible for her fussy husband. Victoria's passion, which Eric does not share, is reading. She can often be found with her nose in a book, either at Café au Lait before she has to prepare dinner for her husband, or at home in the evenings while he watches TV.
Everything changes the day Victoria sees an attractive man at her café reading the same book as her, a long and torturous account of one man's suffering that Victoria is suffering through as a reader. Feeling an unspoken connection to this stranger, she returns to the café three more times, wearing a carefully selected outfit, in the hope she might encounter Him again. Her book ultimately serves as an icebreaker. The stranger's name is Luke and he makes wood furniture for his own store. Convinced that Luke and she are destined to be soul mates, Victoria's fantasies of some tragic accident befalling her husband begin to multiply.
Victoria stared at the back of Eric’s neck and saw how slender it was. How tender and slight, how hurtable it was, with just a few muscles and sheath of skin for protection over the bones. A miracle that he walked around all day without breaking it. Things fell all the time, didn’t they? He walked downtown, by old buildings made of brick and stone. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that, one day, the music would be in sync and a large cube of cement would come loose at the right moment and down, come down to bring his face flat against his chest at an acute angle, his neck bones splintered and divorced from each other, the break so sudden and sharp that the skin at the back of his neck would be pierced and the pearly bone poking out, ghostly white, almost plastic in appearance, protruding from the red hole, visible only for a handful of seconds before being drowned in a bloody pulse, a pulse that slowed exponentially to nothing, with each breath bringing her closer to the end, to the end of marriage, to freedom.
She saw herself being told the news—the doorbell ringing, her phone ringing, serious faces, kind voices, a hand on the shoulder. “He didn’t suffer. It was instant. I’m so sorry.” Her tears, her tears, so many tears, each tear healing an unspeakable hurt. The funeral. The eulogy. All the well-wishers. And then that night, returning to the apartment, she would shower and come to bed naked with her hair wet against the pillow, and she would look up at the ceiling and feel lightness in her heart, and sleep would come for her and sleep would find her so effortlessly all she had to do was to turn to her side with one leg pulled up to her chest the way she had done in her mother’s womb and she would be gone.
The candy that Yeatman serves with Bookworm comes in two bags: woman plots to murder her husband, and woman comments on books. I'd be surprised if these topics were foreign to any married woman reading this review. Yeatman doesn't name the book that Victoria loathes, a 721-page tome with a crying man on the cover (likely A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara) but A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, Nutshell by Ian McEwan and Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith become valuable resources for Victoria as she plots murder. She also reads and enjoys Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, The Dinner by Herman Koch and The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. Victoria compares one of her clients to a Stephen King character.
She was a tiny woman who resembled Shelley Duvall, with stringy, long black hair and a face that often wore an expression of horror, not unlike Mrs. Torrance’s in the bathroom scene in The Shining. Her name was all wrong: Bernadette. She looked much more like a Maude or a Mildred, or maybe even an Olive, given her appearance. Victoria decided she was too insubstantial to merit three syllables, the name too weighty for her.
Bernadette now lay on her back, head wedged in the black circular resting spot on the massage table, and had the appearance of being asleep. In this supine position, her small breasts were flattened to an almost androgynous status. Only the triangular outlines of her brassiere visible through the sheet hinted at their existence.
From the moment she was introduced, Victoria understood who Bernadette was. It took only a few moments to see that she was a mouse, a quivering, pathetic creature who had been living with alley cats her whole life. Victoria saw Bernadette as slave to a domineering mother, an obese woman who wore a wig and lay, day and night, on a sagging, flowered couch. She’d hurled demands and insults at Bernadette as a child, and still did. Bernadette was single, had never been paid the least attention by men (unless you counted Uncle Pete, who was dead now, thankfully), and was so lonely she took to people watching using an old telescope she’d found in a box in the upstairs closet.
Yeatman does a terrific job of rooting interest in her character and building anticipation of what she's going to get up to next. I rocketed through the book and never hit a dull spot. Nothing is introduced not related to Victoria's twin obsessions and I would've liked a bit more complexity or perhaps another twist to Luke's character that for a moment, I felt was coming. Better than funny, Bookworm is smart funny, with sharp prose and excellent dialogue. The petty cruelties spouses inflict are realized extremely well. I'm looking forward to discovering what the author tackles next.
Disclaimer: I've been a Goodreads friend with the author since 2014. She sent me a galley proof of Bookworm to review.
Victoria is an unhappily married woman in her mid-thirties. She's employed as a massage therapist at a spa in Montréal, a job that her mother-in-law landed her and that places no demands on Victoria. Her "important" job is her husband Eric, a promising young lawyer who her parents set her up with five years ago. Victoria has settled into a subservient existence: cooking, nurturing and providing as few distractions as possible for her fussy husband. Victoria's passion, which Eric does not share, is reading. She can often be found with her nose in a book, either at Café au Lait before she has to prepare dinner for her husband, or at home in the evenings while he watches TV.
Everything changes the day Victoria sees an attractive man at her café reading the same book as her, a long and torturous account of one man's suffering that Victoria is suffering through as a reader. Feeling an unspoken connection to this stranger, she returns to the café three more times, wearing a carefully selected outfit, in the hope she might encounter Him again. Her book ultimately serves as an icebreaker. The stranger's name is Luke and he makes wood furniture for his own store. Convinced that Luke and she are destined to be soul mates, Victoria's fantasies of some tragic accident befalling her husband begin to multiply.
Victoria stared at the back of Eric’s neck and saw how slender it was. How tender and slight, how hurtable it was, with just a few muscles and sheath of skin for protection over the bones. A miracle that he walked around all day without breaking it. Things fell all the time, didn’t they? He walked downtown, by old buildings made of brick and stone. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that, one day, the music would be in sync and a large cube of cement would come loose at the right moment and down, come down to bring his face flat against his chest at an acute angle, his neck bones splintered and divorced from each other, the break so sudden and sharp that the skin at the back of his neck would be pierced and the pearly bone poking out, ghostly white, almost plastic in appearance, protruding from the red hole, visible only for a handful of seconds before being drowned in a bloody pulse, a pulse that slowed exponentially to nothing, with each breath bringing her closer to the end, to the end of marriage, to freedom.
She saw herself being told the news—the doorbell ringing, her phone ringing, serious faces, kind voices, a hand on the shoulder. “He didn’t suffer. It was instant. I’m so sorry.” Her tears, her tears, so many tears, each tear healing an unspeakable hurt. The funeral. The eulogy. All the well-wishers. And then that night, returning to the apartment, she would shower and come to bed naked with her hair wet against the pillow, and she would look up at the ceiling and feel lightness in her heart, and sleep would come for her and sleep would find her so effortlessly all she had to do was to turn to her side with one leg pulled up to her chest the way she had done in her mother’s womb and she would be gone.
The candy that Yeatman serves with Bookworm comes in two bags: woman plots to murder her husband, and woman comments on books. I'd be surprised if these topics were foreign to any married woman reading this review. Yeatman doesn't name the book that Victoria loathes, a 721-page tome with a crying man on the cover (likely A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara) but A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley, Nutshell by Ian McEwan and Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith become valuable resources for Victoria as she plots murder. She also reads and enjoys Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh, The Dinner by Herman Koch and The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. Victoria compares one of her clients to a Stephen King character.
She was a tiny woman who resembled Shelley Duvall, with stringy, long black hair and a face that often wore an expression of horror, not unlike Mrs. Torrance’s in the bathroom scene in The Shining. Her name was all wrong: Bernadette. She looked much more like a Maude or a Mildred, or maybe even an Olive, given her appearance. Victoria decided she was too insubstantial to merit three syllables, the name too weighty for her.
Bernadette now lay on her back, head wedged in the black circular resting spot on the massage table, and had the appearance of being asleep. In this supine position, her small breasts were flattened to an almost androgynous status. Only the triangular outlines of her brassiere visible through the sheet hinted at their existence.
From the moment she was introduced, Victoria understood who Bernadette was. It took only a few moments to see that she was a mouse, a quivering, pathetic creature who had been living with alley cats her whole life. Victoria saw Bernadette as slave to a domineering mother, an obese woman who wore a wig and lay, day and night, on a sagging, flowered couch. She’d hurled demands and insults at Bernadette as a child, and still did. Bernadette was single, had never been paid the least attention by men (unless you counted Uncle Pete, who was dead now, thankfully), and was so lonely she took to people watching using an old telescope she’d found in a box in the upstairs closet.
Yeatman does a terrific job of rooting interest in her character and building anticipation of what she's going to get up to next. I rocketed through the book and never hit a dull spot. Nothing is introduced not related to Victoria's twin obsessions and I would've liked a bit more complexity or perhaps another twist to Luke's character that for a moment, I felt was coming. Better than funny, Bookworm is smart funny, with sharp prose and excellent dialogue. The petty cruelties spouses inflict are realized extremely well. I'm looking forward to discovering what the author tackles next.
Disclaimer: I've been a Goodreads friend with the author since 2014. She sent me a galley proof of Bookworm to review.
May 18, 2023
3 "cynical, clever, pink noir" stars !!!
I feel rather mixed by this debut novel by Ms. Yeatman. I have always enjoyed her book selections and reviews but we seem to disagree fairly regularly on books. So I was not surprised by my mixed reaction to her first novel. I read a few glowing reviews and I did not comment as I wanted the space and time to experience the novel for myself.
In a book of unlikable characters the most unlikable was Victoria (our protagonist). The author superbly captures a Montreal woman who not only has uppermidleclassitis, manufactured victimhood and senseless suffering but also severe personality dysfunction in the forms of vulnerable narcissism and magical thinking. Victoria has a veneer of docility and pleasantness but underneath lies a heinous creature full of mean spiritedness, cruelty and hostility to all that she meets. She is critical, superior as well as being a leech and an externalizing blamer. In the context of her privilege lies a woman who suffers endlessly about events and people that she could use her considerable intellect to ameliorate for herself. Instead she imagines many cruelties towards those that she feels have hurt or maligned her. This is an absolutely brilliant character study of a bright woman who lacks insight but is infused with grandiosity and magical thinking. This depiction of a very warped woman merits a full five stars and I wish she had been utilized to a more interesting and meaningful effect.
The prose is very good and sometimes excellent. There are paragraphs that are worthy to be taught in writing classes. Some of this is reminiscent of early Margaret Atwood and Fay Weldon. I also enjoyed many of the literary references.
The dark comedy aspects did not work for me though. I did not find it funny in the least. The humor often felt very dated, forced. Too much emphasis on cleverness and glibness really detracted from what could have been a more meaningful and intriguing read. Overall I admired the characterization of Victoria and was mildly entertained. The ending also was rather abrupt and a dud for me.
I look forward to seeing what Ms. Yeatman comes up with next. I feel huge literary potential if she focuses more on substance rather than style.
I feel rather mixed by this debut novel by Ms. Yeatman. I have always enjoyed her book selections and reviews but we seem to disagree fairly regularly on books. So I was not surprised by my mixed reaction to her first novel. I read a few glowing reviews and I did not comment as I wanted the space and time to experience the novel for myself.
In a book of unlikable characters the most unlikable was Victoria (our protagonist). The author superbly captures a Montreal woman who not only has uppermidleclassitis, manufactured victimhood and senseless suffering but also severe personality dysfunction in the forms of vulnerable narcissism and magical thinking. Victoria has a veneer of docility and pleasantness but underneath lies a heinous creature full of mean spiritedness, cruelty and hostility to all that she meets. She is critical, superior as well as being a leech and an externalizing blamer. In the context of her privilege lies a woman who suffers endlessly about events and people that she could use her considerable intellect to ameliorate for herself. Instead she imagines many cruelties towards those that she feels have hurt or maligned her. This is an absolutely brilliant character study of a bright woman who lacks insight but is infused with grandiosity and magical thinking. This depiction of a very warped woman merits a full five stars and I wish she had been utilized to a more interesting and meaningful effect.
The prose is very good and sometimes excellent. There are paragraphs that are worthy to be taught in writing classes. Some of this is reminiscent of early Margaret Atwood and Fay Weldon. I also enjoyed many of the literary references.
The dark comedy aspects did not work for me though. I did not find it funny in the least. The humor often felt very dated, forced. Too much emphasis on cleverness and glibness really detracted from what could have been a more meaningful and intriguing read. Overall I admired the characterization of Victoria and was mildly entertained. The ending also was rather abrupt and a dud for me.
I look forward to seeing what Ms. Yeatman comes up with next. I feel huge literary potential if she focuses more on substance rather than style.
February 21, 2023
Love a good rom-com?
Ummm, sorry, this isn't that.
Enjoy dark, sarcastic humor?
Plenty of that here.
Fond of daydreaming and out-of-body experiences?
Oh, you'll adore Bookworm by Robin Yeatman.
Otherwise, maybe skip this one.
Ummm, sorry, this isn't that.
Enjoy dark, sarcastic humor?
Plenty of that here.
Fond of daydreaming and out-of-body experiences?
Oh, you'll adore Bookworm by Robin Yeatman.
Otherwise, maybe skip this one.
October 1, 2022
Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.
Have you ever been married to someone who doesn't care anything about reading, who considers books to be all the same? Someone who points out repeatedly that it isn't healthy to read so much, fancying yourself in an imaginary world? Someone who sighs deeply and comments in a nasty way that you always have your nose buried in a book? Not a recipe for a happy pairing, and sure enough, Victoria is not happy in her marriage to Eric. Is it any surprise that she will grow to resent him? And it's not out of the realm of possibility that he might die some day soon. Victoria can almost visualize it . . .
Threaded throughout with deliciously dark humor that hit just right. With references to book titles, or many times referring to a plot or a character of a familiar book without naming it, the power of an author to manipulate the reader as well as the characters, there are tweaks of all types here.
Another reviewer allowed as to how this book is a game changer and genre bender. I cannot word it any better than that. Author Robin Yeatman is the real deal. Period. Can't wait to see what she dreams up next and commits to paper.
Have you ever been married to someone who doesn't care anything about reading, who considers books to be all the same? Someone who points out repeatedly that it isn't healthy to read so much, fancying yourself in an imaginary world? Someone who sighs deeply and comments in a nasty way that you always have your nose buried in a book? Not a recipe for a happy pairing, and sure enough, Victoria is not happy in her marriage to Eric. Is it any surprise that she will grow to resent him? And it's not out of the realm of possibility that he might die some day soon. Victoria can almost visualize it . . .
Threaded throughout with deliciously dark humor that hit just right. With references to book titles, or many times referring to a plot or a character of a familiar book without naming it, the power of an author to manipulate the reader as well as the characters, there are tweaks of all types here.
Another reviewer allowed as to how this book is a game changer and genre bender. I cannot word it any better than that. Author Robin Yeatman is the real deal. Period. Can't wait to see what she dreams up next and commits to paper.
October 21, 2022
Several friends on Goodreads introduced and recommended this book to me: Cheri, Betsy, and Zoey. Their reviews are great — the book is great — I agree —agree—agree.
Cheri said….”This is a deliciously engaging, beautifully written story which was an absolutely delightful read with a perfect ending. I can’t remember when I’ve laugh or smile so much while reading a story”.
Betsy said….”Even though this is a very current noir story of a miserably married woman and her desire to escape her situation, there is something that harkens back to the 1940’s. The flat way of making emotionally right-angle turns and the sudden spewing of judgments and hilarious violent fantasies. Robin Yeatman has invented her genre”.
Zoey asks us a question…”Have you ever been married to someone who doesn’t care anything about reading who considers all books to be all the same?”
Victoria Cavanaugh loved reading. Her husband Eric….not at all.
Ha…..
…..Victoria tries to convince herself:
“It did no good to focus on the negative. She needed to accept Eric, everything about him, even his puffy nipples—because that’s what you did when you loved someone. And he wasn’t going to change. She needed to accept Eric and their life together. When she did that her heart and mind would be at peace”.
“Victoria reminded herself of Eric‘s good qualities. He was clean. He was good at his job. He provided a great standard of living. He was predictable. Her parents liked him. Holly liked him. He didn’t require sex very often. And a hand-job now and then took care of things”.
Ha…then there are many conversations like this one (this is only one of many to give a taste of Victoria and Eric’s (SUPER-😉) relationship:
“She was about to recline on the sectional with a book by Herman Koch, when Eric stopped her, grabbing her wrist. First he met her eyes, then his gaze traveled down to the book in her hand. He raised his eyebrows in a ‘May I’? expression before taking the book between two fingers in the manner of someone picking up something dirty”.
“Reluctantly, Victoria allowed him the book. He rose and read the back cover, his lips moving slightly, a habit that Victoria found worse than annoying”.
“This sounds pretty . . . sick . . . Victoria, he said”.
“Victoria willed her self to maintain calm in her voice, but she felt panic threatening. Eric taking interest in her book like this was unfamiliar territory. ‘Oh, it’s not so bad. It’s really quite literary. He’s a Dutch writer”.
“Oh I know all these ‘literary’ types, he said, rolling his eyes. ‘People who want to see phallic symbols in everything. People who write about incest, like it’s a good thing! And all kinds of other sick shit, and the name of being intellectually superior”.
“He shook the Koch
book in her face. What can you possibly be getting out of a book like this, Victoria?”.
I had a ton of fun with the MANY book references throughout (I had read most of them)….
I also cracked up — sooooo many times over TV shows (Eric seems to know the way the world works best)….
Ha….”Normal” people watch “Beaches” ….not Shakespeare or read Ian McEwan. ….or whatever else the-nonsense Victoria was reading…..
SOOOOO hysterical!!!
There is Holly: the (questionable) best friend.
There is the mother-in-law….(also questionable)
There is out loud laughter at some really creepy observations by Victoria.
Yep….terrific….and a terrific Debut- to boot!
….Quirky in the best ways!
….Darkly-funny in the best ways!
Congrats to Robin Yeatman…. a new powerhouse author has been born!
Cheri said….”This is a deliciously engaging, beautifully written story which was an absolutely delightful read with a perfect ending. I can’t remember when I’ve laugh or smile so much while reading a story”.
Betsy said….”Even though this is a very current noir story of a miserably married woman and her desire to escape her situation, there is something that harkens back to the 1940’s. The flat way of making emotionally right-angle turns and the sudden spewing of judgments and hilarious violent fantasies. Robin Yeatman has invented her genre”.
Zoey asks us a question…”Have you ever been married to someone who doesn’t care anything about reading who considers all books to be all the same?”
Victoria Cavanaugh loved reading. Her husband Eric….not at all.
Ha…..
…..Victoria tries to convince herself:
“It did no good to focus on the negative. She needed to accept Eric, everything about him, even his puffy nipples—because that’s what you did when you loved someone. And he wasn’t going to change. She needed to accept Eric and their life together. When she did that her heart and mind would be at peace”.
“Victoria reminded herself of Eric‘s good qualities. He was clean. He was good at his job. He provided a great standard of living. He was predictable. Her parents liked him. Holly liked him. He didn’t require sex very often. And a hand-job now and then took care of things”.
Ha…then there are many conversations like this one (this is only one of many to give a taste of Victoria and Eric’s (SUPER-😉) relationship:
“She was about to recline on the sectional with a book by Herman Koch, when Eric stopped her, grabbing her wrist. First he met her eyes, then his gaze traveled down to the book in her hand. He raised his eyebrows in a ‘May I’? expression before taking the book between two fingers in the manner of someone picking up something dirty”.
“Reluctantly, Victoria allowed him the book. He rose and read the back cover, his lips moving slightly, a habit that Victoria found worse than annoying”.
“This sounds pretty . . . sick . . . Victoria, he said”.
“Victoria willed her self to maintain calm in her voice, but she felt panic threatening. Eric taking interest in her book like this was unfamiliar territory. ‘Oh, it’s not so bad. It’s really quite literary. He’s a Dutch writer”.
“Oh I know all these ‘literary’ types, he said, rolling his eyes. ‘People who want to see phallic symbols in everything. People who write about incest, like it’s a good thing! And all kinds of other sick shit, and the name of being intellectually superior”.
“He shook the Koch
book in her face. What can you possibly be getting out of a book like this, Victoria?”.
I had a ton of fun with the MANY book references throughout (I had read most of them)….
I also cracked up — sooooo many times over TV shows (Eric seems to know the way the world works best)….
Ha….”Normal” people watch “Beaches” ….not Shakespeare or read Ian McEwan. ….or whatever else the-nonsense Victoria was reading…..
SOOOOO hysterical!!!
There is Holly: the (questionable) best friend.
There is the mother-in-law….(also questionable)
There is out loud laughter at some really creepy observations by Victoria.
Yep….terrific….and a terrific Debut- to boot!
….Quirky in the best ways!
….Darkly-funny in the best ways!
Congrats to Robin Yeatman…. a new powerhouse author has been born!
January 13, 2023
Imagine if Patricia Highsmith had written The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and instead of heroic daydreams she gave her protagonist murderous daydreams. That would be Bookworm. This novel is subversive, surprising, and satisfying in a way that only comic noir can be.
January 18, 2023
Hot diggity!
This book has all the stuff I love—a complicated and fascinating character, humor, just the right dose of smart metaphors, a brilliant ending, suspense, a plot that is nice and tight and moves right along. Add that the main character, Victoria, is a bookworm and I’m pretty much a goner. Books! Book habits, book titles, book tidbits, book addiction gone wild—all here.
There were three big hints that the book would make my favorites list—I couldn’t put the dang thing down, I was always chomping at the bit to get back to it, and I had no idea where the story was going. Oh how I love it when I know there are surprises a-comin’!
Victoria has a good life with a husband that looks oh so good on paper. We know how those stories go. You can throw that paper right out the window! Never fear, Victoria smothers the ouch-y reality with rich fantasies. There’s a battle going on between imagination and reality, actually. I rooted for imagination every time.
You see, Victoria’s secrets are not in the store or in her drawers, they are in her head, and they are doozies. Her books help her grow her secrets by providing ideas—I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to ruin the fun. Just know that she is bigtime underground; no one really knows that her life is fake, that the life she is living in her head is totally different from what she displays to the world. But Victoria knows everyone has secrets. At one point there’s a list of possible secrets that people keep, secrets that aren’t nice or acceptable, and it really hit me that everyone has secrets of some sort, and some are biggies. I ate that up.
The books. Oh the books. Usually I’m not crazy about a writer making allusions to books; sometimes it seems snobby and inaccessible. But here, I loved it, especially because I knew half of the books Yeatman is talking about! And what was different from the old book-name-dropping is that many of the books are new, twenty-first-century novels. Usually we see references to classic lit, period.
One thing I loved was how thoroughly I, and I’m sure all readers, can identify with Victoria’s intense love of books. We’re all in a giant book club. A life of books makes us all a little different from the rest of the world. The luscious solitude of reading, the richness of words, the ability of books to transport us to other places in our mind—this novel conveys all of this effortlessly and with love.
A character or two asks Victoria why she reads books that make her sad. That, of course, is a question I ask myself, and it got me thinking about it again (even with trips to Google, lol). One character has a big anti-book vibe happening (actually, it was worse than a vibe; it was more like a declaration of war), and that got my hackles up. And truth be told, it made me incredibly nervous. What would I do, really, without my book fixes? What would I do if I wasn’t allowed to read? I can’t go there…
Victoria spends a little time fantasizing about the lives of strangers—people at the coffee shop, for instance. Yeatman brilliantly distills their essence and gives us a compact picture of them in just a paragraph or two. At first I didn’t like that we had to read about people who weren’t part of the plot; they were just fantasies, not real portrayals of people’s lives. It’s like not wanting to listen to someone’s dreams because they’re not reality. Then I relaxed and got interested in the fascinating lives of fake people anyway. Hey, I have an idea—Yeatman could take any one of them and put them in a new story by themselves, make them real people—lol, I mean characters. I’ll sign up!
Here's a sample of some great lines in the book:
“He tried to open his eyelids, but they were impossible to lift, broken garage doors unresponsive to the clicker.”
“I despise sputum,” he had once declared early on in their courtship.”
“His face was her mind’s screensaver.”
“It was nasty but also oddly alluring, like a beautiful woman with rotted teeth behind a close-lipped smile.”
I could keep going with the gush, but it’s better if you can experience this book yourself. I really like the humor, but be warned that it’s dark. If you want a happy sappy story, then this isn’t the book for you. The ending is a surprise and oh so clever; just loved it. The book is just overall smart. And there’s not a wasted word.
This is my first read of the new year; what a great way to start 2023! Get your hands on this amazing debut. It comes out in February. I feel lucky that I got to read an ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for the advance copies.
This book has all the stuff I love—a complicated and fascinating character, humor, just the right dose of smart metaphors, a brilliant ending, suspense, a plot that is nice and tight and moves right along. Add that the main character, Victoria, is a bookworm and I’m pretty much a goner. Books! Book habits, book titles, book tidbits, book addiction gone wild—all here.
There were three big hints that the book would make my favorites list—I couldn’t put the dang thing down, I was always chomping at the bit to get back to it, and I had no idea where the story was going. Oh how I love it when I know there are surprises a-comin’!
Victoria has a good life with a husband that looks oh so good on paper. We know how those stories go. You can throw that paper right out the window! Never fear, Victoria smothers the ouch-y reality with rich fantasies. There’s a battle going on between imagination and reality, actually. I rooted for imagination every time.
You see, Victoria’s secrets are not in the store or in her drawers, they are in her head, and they are doozies. Her books help her grow her secrets by providing ideas—I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to ruin the fun. Just know that she is bigtime underground; no one really knows that her life is fake, that the life she is living in her head is totally different from what she displays to the world. But Victoria knows everyone has secrets. At one point there’s a list of possible secrets that people keep, secrets that aren’t nice or acceptable, and it really hit me that everyone has secrets of some sort, and some are biggies. I ate that up.
The books. Oh the books. Usually I’m not crazy about a writer making allusions to books; sometimes it seems snobby and inaccessible. But here, I loved it, especially because I knew half of the books Yeatman is talking about! And what was different from the old book-name-dropping is that many of the books are new, twenty-first-century novels. Usually we see references to classic lit, period.
One thing I loved was how thoroughly I, and I’m sure all readers, can identify with Victoria’s intense love of books. We’re all in a giant book club. A life of books makes us all a little different from the rest of the world. The luscious solitude of reading, the richness of words, the ability of books to transport us to other places in our mind—this novel conveys all of this effortlessly and with love.
A character or two asks Victoria why she reads books that make her sad. That, of course, is a question I ask myself, and it got me thinking about it again (even with trips to Google, lol). One character has a big anti-book vibe happening (actually, it was worse than a vibe; it was more like a declaration of war), and that got my hackles up. And truth be told, it made me incredibly nervous. What would I do, really, without my book fixes? What would I do if I wasn’t allowed to read? I can’t go there…
Victoria spends a little time fantasizing about the lives of strangers—people at the coffee shop, for instance. Yeatman brilliantly distills their essence and gives us a compact picture of them in just a paragraph or two. At first I didn’t like that we had to read about people who weren’t part of the plot; they were just fantasies, not real portrayals of people’s lives. It’s like not wanting to listen to someone’s dreams because they’re not reality. Then I relaxed and got interested in the fascinating lives of fake people anyway. Hey, I have an idea—Yeatman could take any one of them and put them in a new story by themselves, make them real people—lol, I mean characters. I’ll sign up!
Here's a sample of some great lines in the book:
“He tried to open his eyelids, but they were impossible to lift, broken garage doors unresponsive to the clicker.”
“I despise sputum,” he had once declared early on in their courtship.”
“His face was her mind’s screensaver.”
“It was nasty but also oddly alluring, like a beautiful woman with rotted teeth behind a close-lipped smile.”
I could keep going with the gush, but it’s better if you can experience this book yourself. I really like the humor, but be warned that it’s dark. If you want a happy sappy story, then this isn’t the book for you. The ending is a surprise and oh so clever; just loved it. The book is just overall smart. And there’s not a wasted word.
This is my first read of the new year; what a great way to start 2023! Get your hands on this amazing debut. It comes out in February. I feel lucky that I got to read an ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for the advance copies.
March 1, 2023
Fun fact: author Robin Yeatman is a long-standing @goodreviews community reviewer, and this is her debut!
Bookworm is a satire with dark humor. Victoria is trapped in an unhappy marriage to a man who does not understand her, especially how she feels about books and reading.
Many of our books have happy endings, and Victoria thinks she deserves one, too, but remember? She’s still married. So she uses her well-developed imagination (thanks to books!) to create a fantasy much more enticing than her current life.
That’s about all I can tell you. If you’ve ever had someone close to you feel like a stranger, and even more so, questioned your book-loving way of life, this is for you. You will feel seen and heard and have quite a few laughs along the way. Just remember: Bookworm is clever and sarcastic. You can relax into it, but don’t let those hidden nods and winks pass you by. They are the best part!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Bookworm is a satire with dark humor. Victoria is trapped in an unhappy marriage to a man who does not understand her, especially how she feels about books and reading.
Many of our books have happy endings, and Victoria thinks she deserves one, too, but remember? She’s still married. So she uses her well-developed imagination (thanks to books!) to create a fantasy much more enticing than her current life.
That’s about all I can tell you. If you’ve ever had someone close to you feel like a stranger, and even more so, questioned your book-loving way of life, this is for you. You will feel seen and heard and have quite a few laughs along the way. Just remember: Bookworm is clever and sarcastic. You can relax into it, but don’t let those hidden nods and winks pass you by. They are the best part!
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
August 20, 2023
You know what they say, that if you want to be a writer you have to be a reader first; that writers should write about what they know best. In the case of this book’s author, Robin Yeatman, those two statements converge. Ms Yeatman is a lifetime reader and a longtime member of the Goodreads community. Her inspired, thoughtful reviews are appreciated by many on this site, yours truly included. When she bravely took the next step from book devourer to creator, she chose a subject all too familiar: the tale of a zealous reader and how her passion for reinvented worlds affects her real life. A theme that has likely crossed many readers’ minds at one time or another.
We could focus on the darkly comical account of Victoria “Bookworm” Cavanagh’s unhappy marriage to an obnoxious lawyer husband and her mental ways of turning her upper-middle-class existence into something more stimulating than the bland concoction she has allowed it to turn into. Those ways consist mainly of book-inspired flights of fancy but when an homme-fatal (reading the same book she does at the next table in her favorite café) enters the scene, she gets decidedly more energetic. Things start happening, both in her head and in the real world, things that lead up to a deliciously unforeseeable finale, worthy of our author’s influences from Patricia Highsmith’s and Ottessa Moshfegh’s writing.
We could focus on the narrative and have a perfectly good time, but we could also take our reading a step further and play with the literary references and clues that are strewn all over the book. They pay homage to beloved authors and provide a tool for better understanding the story. This tool comes in the form of a vocabulary exclusive to members of Goodreads who use the site as their meeting place. They’re hard to please sometimes but if they are not appropriately equipped to explore multi-layered territories, who is?
We could go even deeper and ask the real question at the heart of the novel, which IMO is this: do avid readers read in order to live better or do they live in order to read?? Is there a point where the ‘reinvention of life’ provided by books gets to be more appealing than life itself? Books undeniably broaden our perspective; they enhance our empathy by reminding us that everyone out there is the protagonist of their own life story that’s as valid as that of the next person. How much are we ‘allowed’ to play God and bend their stories in order to make them fit in our private stage play, same as the authors of our beloved books do with their characters? Books (and films, for that matter – and cinematic references abound here, too) provide a nice cocoon if, like our leading lady, we can afford one. But Ms Yeatman ingeniously reminds us that there’s always the lurking peril of climbing out of our invented worlds and finding ourselves feeling more uncomfortable on the other side than what’s good for our health. And that’s where trouble – and this story – begins.
This is our author’s promising debut novel. Her writing is effortless, entertaining and with just the right amount of thoughtfulness, suspense and humor to keep us on our toes. Having followed her reviews and comments on this site for some time, I really admire her for having found a way to incorporate in her storytelling her love of books, authors and her fellow readers whom she understands so well. So much of what she says about their (our) ways resonated, amused and provided food for thought. I’m eagerly waiting for her next venture into the literary jungle that’s part of our very real world.
How amazing it was that readers could be let by the hand to feel and react. Like drones, gobbling page after page of words, coerced into feelings, concocted into a brew that convinced, assured, and spoon-fed the phoniness so gently it was accepted and yes, loved with devotion!
We could focus on the darkly comical account of Victoria “Bookworm” Cavanagh’s unhappy marriage to an obnoxious lawyer husband and her mental ways of turning her upper-middle-class existence into something more stimulating than the bland concoction she has allowed it to turn into. Those ways consist mainly of book-inspired flights of fancy but when an homme-fatal (reading the same book she does at the next table in her favorite café) enters the scene, she gets decidedly more energetic. Things start happening, both in her head and in the real world, things that lead up to a deliciously unforeseeable finale, worthy of our author’s influences from Patricia Highsmith’s and Ottessa Moshfegh’s writing.
We could focus on the narrative and have a perfectly good time, but we could also take our reading a step further and play with the literary references and clues that are strewn all over the book. They pay homage to beloved authors and provide a tool for better understanding the story. This tool comes in the form of a vocabulary exclusive to members of Goodreads who use the site as their meeting place. They’re hard to please sometimes but if they are not appropriately equipped to explore multi-layered territories, who is?
We could go even deeper and ask the real question at the heart of the novel, which IMO is this: do avid readers read in order to live better or do they live in order to read?? Is there a point where the ‘reinvention of life’ provided by books gets to be more appealing than life itself? Books undeniably broaden our perspective; they enhance our empathy by reminding us that everyone out there is the protagonist of their own life story that’s as valid as that of the next person. How much are we ‘allowed’ to play God and bend their stories in order to make them fit in our private stage play, same as the authors of our beloved books do with their characters? Books (and films, for that matter – and cinematic references abound here, too) provide a nice cocoon if, like our leading lady, we can afford one. But Ms Yeatman ingeniously reminds us that there’s always the lurking peril of climbing out of our invented worlds and finding ourselves feeling more uncomfortable on the other side than what’s good for our health. And that’s where trouble – and this story – begins.
This is our author’s promising debut novel. Her writing is effortless, entertaining and with just the right amount of thoughtfulness, suspense and humor to keep us on our toes. Having followed her reviews and comments on this site for some time, I really admire her for having found a way to incorporate in her storytelling her love of books, authors and her fellow readers whom she understands so well. So much of what she says about their (our) ways resonated, amused and provided food for thought. I’m eagerly waiting for her next venture into the literary jungle that’s part of our very real world.
How amazing it was that readers could be let by the hand to feel and react. Like drones, gobbling page after page of words, coerced into feelings, concocted into a brew that convinced, assured, and spoon-fed the phoniness so gently it was accepted and yes, loved with devotion!
June 19, 2023
As highly as I prize it in real life, in a work of fiction moral correctness is for schmucks. The last time I read a story with similar undertones to Bookworm’s was possibly in a Teddy Wayne novel. Or something by Ottessa Moshfegh, or Nathan Hill. We’re in weirdo territory and it’s a little dark, or a lot, yet also good-humored in there.
Now, I can’t resist what follows and you’re welcome to protest all you want: Bookworm is not a romance novel—thankfully. However, it does feature an unhappy couple with a woman full of secret fantasies, some of the more white-bread variety, some less.
Essentially, this is a story of marital loneliness gone awry, which doubles up as an entertaining character study.
As a focal point, Victoria, the lonely wife, makes no concession to righteousness; her thoughts are her own and they roam free. They may be the only part of her that remains at liberty to do so. Victoria is a woman in dire need of an escape, and if you’ve ever been in a relationship with an oppressive partner, you may understand her predicament. That’s not to say you will identify with her choice of solutions, but you will remember where they stem from.
Does the above backdrop sound heavy? It is and it isn’t: in real life, it would be, but in Bookworm, it’s really more of a successful setup for a comedy of errors.
Besides the snarky appraisal of current-day, urban professionals, intrusive family members, store clerks and sometimes perfect strangers, Victoria isn’t afraid of running a self-assessing commentary that proceeds along the same derisive lines. She can be a bit of a goose, and she knows it. The narrative approach worked well for me. It felt like my generation was at the wheel (which, incidentally, it was).
I happened to be in a privileged position to enjoy the Montreal references peppered here and there, but any reader worth their salt ought to enjoy the numerous literary references in Bookworm, as well.
A slippery descent into murkier and murkier morals upsets a clinical lifestyle in a whiter-than-white condo unit, courtesy of a Teddy Wayne character in a cocktail dress.
Hand me a debut novel like Bookworm any day.
Now, I can’t resist what follows and you’re welcome to protest all you want: Bookworm is not a romance novel—thankfully. However, it does feature an unhappy couple with a woman full of secret fantasies, some of the more white-bread variety, some less.
Essentially, this is a story of marital loneliness gone awry, which doubles up as an entertaining character study.
As a focal point, Victoria, the lonely wife, makes no concession to righteousness; her thoughts are her own and they roam free. They may be the only part of her that remains at liberty to do so. Victoria is a woman in dire need of an escape, and if you’ve ever been in a relationship with an oppressive partner, you may understand her predicament. That’s not to say you will identify with her choice of solutions, but you will remember where they stem from.
Does the above backdrop sound heavy? It is and it isn’t: in real life, it would be, but in Bookworm, it’s really more of a successful setup for a comedy of errors.
Besides the snarky appraisal of current-day, urban professionals, intrusive family members, store clerks and sometimes perfect strangers, Victoria isn’t afraid of running a self-assessing commentary that proceeds along the same derisive lines. She can be a bit of a goose, and she knows it. The narrative approach worked well for me. It felt like my generation was at the wheel (which, incidentally, it was).
I happened to be in a privileged position to enjoy the Montreal references peppered here and there, but any reader worth their salt ought to enjoy the numerous literary references in Bookworm, as well.
A slippery descent into murkier and murkier morals upsets a clinical lifestyle in a whiter-than-white condo unit, courtesy of a Teddy Wayne character in a cocktail dress.
Hand me a debut novel like Bookworm any day.
April 28, 2023
A book ban? I'm sorry, a book ban? That husband deserved what he got in the end.
This really was a wicked satire, with some delicious daydreaming by Stepford Wife Victoria. A woman whose every move is controlled by her husband, parents and in-laws, and who has no life of her own, chooses to escape into her books. Which works well until she sees a hunky guy in a coffeeshop reading the same book that she's reading. More daydreams about the life she could live with him lead her to consider how to make that a reality.
Those of us who are married have occasionally thought " I could murder him", but few of us think about ways to do it guided by the books we've read, let alone go so far as to casually set up scenarios to make it happen "accidentally". Victoria had wisely decided that she wasn't strong enough do it with her own hands, it had to be at a remove. How she gets there in the end is just brilliant, and quite satisfying.
Robin is a Goodreads friend who has led me to some very good books that I created a new shelf for titled Odd Little Books, and this will be prominently positioned there. It was just what I needed this week, and I loved all the book references. I'm eagerly awaiting her next book.
A book ban, really?
This really was a wicked satire, with some delicious daydreaming by Stepford Wife Victoria. A woman whose every move is controlled by her husband, parents and in-laws, and who has no life of her own, chooses to escape into her books. Which works well until she sees a hunky guy in a coffeeshop reading the same book that she's reading. More daydreams about the life she could live with him lead her to consider how to make that a reality.
Those of us who are married have occasionally thought " I could murder him", but few of us think about ways to do it guided by the books we've read, let alone go so far as to casually set up scenarios to make it happen "accidentally". Victoria had wisely decided that she wasn't strong enough do it with her own hands, it had to be at a remove. How she gets there in the end is just brilliant, and quite satisfying.
Robin is a Goodreads friend who has led me to some very good books that I created a new shelf for titled Odd Little Books, and this will be prominently positioned there. It was just what I needed this week, and I loved all the book references. I'm eagerly awaiting her next book.
A book ban, really?
March 27, 2023
3.25-3.5 Stars
Victoria is a true bookworm always having a book or tablet on hand. She loves to live vicariously through her books because reality is not all it’s cracked up to be for her and her life is in an unhappy state. She is married to Eric a controlling and emotionally distant husband, who thinks Victoria’s biggest problem is that she reads too much. Eric’s worst quality though to Victoria are his puffy nipples, they just can’t help and stand out grotesquely whenever he is shirtless. She has a dead end job at a spa, both her parents and in-laws don’t seem to understand her and worst of all her best friend Holly think’s Victoria hit the lotto with Eric and constantly gushes about who lucky she is.
One day Victoria is reading a book, in her favorite cafe when a very handsome man walks in with the exact same book. Victoria thinks it’s fate and she instantaneously falls in love with him. Her marriage turns into a bigger mess as Victoria fantasizes about taking night trips to spend nights with her soulmate as well as day light fantasies on the many different ways Eric could die.
Victoria’s harmless fantasy life seems to be turning slowly into a reality and she just may get everything she wished for.
When I first started reading this I was very confused how Victoria even ended up with Eric (aka Puffy Nips). But eventually I found out it was a parental set up when Victoria ended up back home after another disastrous break up. Eric’s parents were seeking a good girl who wouldn’t go anywhere after his first marriage ended because his wife left him for her personal trainer. And Victoria’s parents needed to unload her off on a successful man after she showed no interest in do anything career-wise herself. I had sympathy for her but she irked me a lot, she was so compliant with Eric and her parents even if not always so in her mind.
And Eric well he drove me up the wall. He treated Victoria like she was an accessory that had to fit in to his perfect life and when she stopped fitting in he was emotionally a bit cruel, he was a bit cold even when she was doing everything he wanted. And when she did something he didn’t like he would run to her mother to set her straight! Also I’m sorry but any man who has to have his own bathroom because he can’t stand to see or hear everyday bodily functions is a wuss. Hello Eric..I’m sure you too have to blow your nose and let out some wet farts at times!
Victoria is a true bookworm always having a book or tablet on hand. She loves to live vicariously through her books because reality is not all it’s cracked up to be for her and her life is in an unhappy state. She is married to Eric a controlling and emotionally distant husband, who thinks Victoria’s biggest problem is that she reads too much. Eric’s worst quality though to Victoria are his puffy nipples, they just can’t help and stand out grotesquely whenever he is shirtless. She has a dead end job at a spa, both her parents and in-laws don’t seem to understand her and worst of all her best friend Holly think’s Victoria hit the lotto with Eric and constantly gushes about who lucky she is.
One day Victoria is reading a book, in her favorite cafe when a very handsome man walks in with the exact same book. Victoria thinks it’s fate and she instantaneously falls in love with him. Her marriage turns into a bigger mess as Victoria fantasizes about taking night trips to spend nights with her soulmate as well as day light fantasies on the many different ways Eric could die.
Victoria’s harmless fantasy life seems to be turning slowly into a reality and she just may get everything she wished for.
When I first started reading this I was very confused how Victoria even ended up with Eric (aka Puffy Nips). But eventually I found out it was a parental set up when Victoria ended up back home after another disastrous break up. Eric’s parents were seeking a good girl who wouldn’t go anywhere after his first marriage ended because his wife left him for her personal trainer. And Victoria’s parents needed to unload her off on a successful man after she showed no interest in do anything career-wise herself. I had sympathy for her but she irked me a lot, she was so compliant with Eric and her parents even if not always so in her mind.
And Eric well he drove me up the wall. He treated Victoria like she was an accessory that had to fit in to his perfect life and when she stopped fitting in he was emotionally a bit cruel, he was a bit cold even when she was doing everything he wanted. And when she did something he didn’t like he would run to her mother to set her straight! Also I’m sorry but any man who has to have his own bathroom because he can’t stand to see or hear everyday bodily functions is a wuss. Hello Eric..I’m sure you too have to blow your nose and let out some wet farts at times!
April 4, 2023
What an absolute pleasure it was to read Robin Yeatman’s first novel Bookworm!
It was incredibly funny, surprisingly clever, and a real joy to read! The best thing about it, I thought, was the beautiful flow it had! It had a wonderful, smooth as silk flow. It was so smooth, in fact, that I had to keep reminding myself it was a debut! But once I got to the “Acknowledgements” at the end, it made perfect sense to me. Yeatman offered her “gratitude and admiration” to “Wayne Johnston (teacher, editor)”.😮 Well, that explained it!! Wayne Johnston—one of my all-time favourite authors! Yeatman had been mentored by the very best!
I’ll keep this very brief. I won’t summarise the description nor will I repeat what others have said, because the very best way to prove what a tremendous story this is… is to read it for yourself! And I highly recommend you do just that. Reading Bookworm was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time!😊
5 “I’m-grinning-from-ear-to-ear” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It was incredibly funny, surprisingly clever, and a real joy to read! The best thing about it, I thought, was the beautiful flow it had! It had a wonderful, smooth as silk flow. It was so smooth, in fact, that I had to keep reminding myself it was a debut! But once I got to the “Acknowledgements” at the end, it made perfect sense to me. Yeatman offered her “gratitude and admiration” to “Wayne Johnston (teacher, editor)”.😮 Well, that explained it!! Wayne Johnston—one of my all-time favourite authors! Yeatman had been mentored by the very best!
I’ll keep this very brief. I won’t summarise the description nor will I repeat what others have said, because the very best way to prove what a tremendous story this is… is to read it for yourself! And I highly recommend you do just that. Reading Bookworm was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time!😊
5 “I’m-grinning-from-ear-to-ear” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
September 4, 2022
I am sorry to say that I really really did not like this book. I felt like each of the characters in it were one dimensional. The main character falls in love with a random guy because he's reading the same book she is (which she hates.) She also hates her husband. She dislikes her best friend. She dislikes pretty much everything.
Except this boy. That she doesn't even know.
I remember years ago, when I read "Harriet the Spy" I was annoyed at what a negative character she was. So judgmental and always bitter and annoyed and noticing the worst in people. The main character in this book is just like that. She is ugly on the inside and sees everyone and everything through that lens. It was completely depressing for me.
She makes a comment in the story she hates this book because the main character doesn't ever grow or the story doesn't redeem itself. I don't know if it was meant to be a foreshadowing but it was exactly how I felt about this book. The main character did not grow at all. And that was the icing on this cake that I really really wish I hadn't had.
with gratitude to edelweiss and harper collins for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
Except this boy. That she doesn't even know.
I remember years ago, when I read "Harriet the Spy" I was annoyed at what a negative character she was. So judgmental and always bitter and annoyed and noticing the worst in people. The main character in this book is just like that. She is ugly on the inside and sees everyone and everything through that lens. It was completely depressing for me.
She makes a comment in the story she hates this book because the main character doesn't ever grow or the story doesn't redeem itself. I don't know if it was meant to be a foreshadowing but it was exactly how I felt about this book. The main character did not grow at all. And that was the icing on this cake that I really really wish I hadn't had.
with gratitude to edelweiss and harper collins for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review
February 14, 2023
She borrowed the books from the library, much to Eric's bewilderment. "Who knows who touched those books," he said once, disgust creasing his brow at a battered copy of Ethan Frome. "It's probably covered in mold and larvae. And God knows what else."
That evening, in a quiet stolen moment, she had wiped both sides of the cover on his pillow.
Meet Victoria. She has a job she doesn't like, one friend she's very critical of, and a husband who's so awful he's like a caricature. Just about the only thing that brings her joy is sitting in a cafe, sipping flavored coffee, inventing stories about the other customers. (Somehow they all lead lives even more depressing than her own.) Then one day, she sees HIM - the perfect man who just happens to be reading the same book as she. Apparently this means they are destined to be together . . . just as soon as she can rid herself of her dreadful spouse.
Quite honestly, the only thing I liked about this book was the bit I quoted at the beginning of this review.
You think Victoria's husband is bad? Isn't she worse for making herself subservient to his every stupid whim? He asks her to give up reading for two weeks? And, she does it! Instead of moving out, she spends her time fantasizing about his death. Fantasy after fantasy about her husband's demise; it gets old pretty quickly.
The tag line A wickedly funny debut novel--a black comedy with a generous heart that explores the power of imagination and reading... is what snared me, but the author didn't really deliver. Black comedy I get, though the surprisingly serious ending didn't seem to fit the tone of the rest of the book. Generous heart? I didn't hear it beating.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for sharing.
That evening, in a quiet stolen moment, she had wiped both sides of the cover on his pillow.
Meet Victoria. She has a job she doesn't like, one friend she's very critical of, and a husband who's so awful he's like a caricature. Just about the only thing that brings her joy is sitting in a cafe, sipping flavored coffee, inventing stories about the other customers. (Somehow they all lead lives even more depressing than her own.) Then one day, she sees HIM - the perfect man who just happens to be reading the same book as she. Apparently this means they are destined to be together . . . just as soon as she can rid herself of her dreadful spouse.
Quite honestly, the only thing I liked about this book was the bit I quoted at the beginning of this review.
You think Victoria's husband is bad? Isn't she worse for making herself subservient to his every stupid whim? He asks her to give up reading for two weeks? And, she does it! Instead of moving out, she spends her time fantasizing about his death. Fantasy after fantasy about her husband's demise; it gets old pretty quickly.
The tag line A wickedly funny debut novel--a black comedy with a generous heart that explores the power of imagination and reading... is what snared me, but the author didn't really deliver. Black comedy I get, though the surprisingly serious ending didn't seem to fit the tone of the rest of the book. Generous heart? I didn't hear it beating.
Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for sharing.
October 2, 2022
Even though this is a very current noir story of a miserably married woman and her desire to escape her situation, there is something that harkens back to the 1940s. The flat way of making emotionally right-angle turns and the sudden spewing of judgments and hilarious violent fantasies. Robin Yeatman has invented her own genre.
I particularly enjoyed (and had some “holy cow” moments because I’ve written a similar theme in two unpublished books) the juxtaposition of somebody on a spiritual-seeking path, rife with so-called psychic abilities and experiences, who simultaneously is in the throes of all our ego maladies—judgments, aversions, general hate and hostility. This is honest and wonderfully accurate. One would hope if one were evolved enough to have out-of-body experiences at will or to lead a massage client in a self-acceptance relaxation exercise one would not simultaneously hate everybody around them, but this simply isn’t true. I love that Yeatman pulled no punches.
Protagonist Victoria Cavanagh and her husband Eric can’t stand each other’s bodily functions, or bodies, or personalities. They got married by rote, shoved together by their parents. They live and work in upscale Montreal. Victoria, a rabid bookworm who even finishes tomes that she hates, thinks about murdering Eric. And Eric? Who knows what he’s thinking beyond becoming a partner in his law firm?
This book is inventive, funny, creepy, and fun. I found myself reading it in black & white, almost as if I were seeing an Alfred Hitchcock movie written by somebody living with cell phones amidst organic supermarkets and trendy hot spots.
I particularly enjoyed (and had some “holy cow” moments because I’ve written a similar theme in two unpublished books) the juxtaposition of somebody on a spiritual-seeking path, rife with so-called psychic abilities and experiences, who simultaneously is in the throes of all our ego maladies—judgments, aversions, general hate and hostility. This is honest and wonderfully accurate. One would hope if one were evolved enough to have out-of-body experiences at will or to lead a massage client in a self-acceptance relaxation exercise one would not simultaneously hate everybody around them, but this simply isn’t true. I love that Yeatman pulled no punches.
Protagonist Victoria Cavanagh and her husband Eric can’t stand each other’s bodily functions, or bodies, or personalities. They got married by rote, shoved together by their parents. They live and work in upscale Montreal. Victoria, a rabid bookworm who even finishes tomes that she hates, thinks about murdering Eric. And Eric? Who knows what he’s thinking beyond becoming a partner in his law firm?
This book is inventive, funny, creepy, and fun. I found myself reading it in black & white, almost as if I were seeing an Alfred Hitchcock movie written by somebody living with cell phones amidst organic supermarkets and trendy hot spots.
April 25, 2023
I LOVED this black comedy! Very unique, could not put it down. This is a very assured debut novel - well done, Robin!
I’d give this book an extra star if I could just for the savaging of “A Little Life.”
Bravo!
I’d give this book an extra star if I could just for the savaging of “A Little Life.”
Bravo!
January 6, 2023
Special thanks to NetGalley and the author for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: February 14, 2023
Victoria has a dead-end job, judgmental and punitive parents, overbearing in-laws and an obsessive, critical husband. She finds solace only in her books, her only escape through reading and imagination. When she sees Luke in a coffee shop one afternoon, perusing the same novel she is reading, she feels an instant connection and knows that Luke is the one for her. Even though she has never spoken to him in person. Even though she is already married. Victoria sets out on a crash course of plotting, using examples from her beloved books, in order to obtain everything she wants.
Canadian Robin Yeatman’s debut novel, “Bookworm” is delightfully dark, subversive and comically funny. Set in Montreal, Yeatman proudly displays her citizenship and the love of her former city through her wintry settings and descriptive architecture that make up Victoria’s hometown.
Victoria’s talents and creative imaginings are funny and disturbing all at once, and her cast of supporting characters had me all over the emotional map. More than once, I was yelling at Victoria for her choice of deadbeat husband in Eric (he made her give up READING! Eric, meet the door, and don’t let it hit you on the way out). The next second, I was laughing at her best friend’s sexual escapades. “Bookworm” never gives up, and is pure enjoyment throughout.
The story is narrated by Victoria, in third person, who is full of wit and sarcasm, desperation seeping through her veins, looking for a way to escape her dead-end life. But is it really a dead-end life? When she gets what she wants (or so she thinks) is it really all that it’s cracked up to be? The ending of “Bookworm” was satisfying and had me rolling my eyes and laughing all at the same time.
“Bookworm” is a creative novel, a little bit romance combined with just the right amount of dark humour. Add to that Victoria’s deep love of books and her profound relationship with reading and the story has everything I want (and more)! Yeatman has talent (along with Canadian blood!), and I was impressed by her debut novel. To think that she is just getting started? More, please!
Expected publication date: February 14, 2023
Victoria has a dead-end job, judgmental and punitive parents, overbearing in-laws and an obsessive, critical husband. She finds solace only in her books, her only escape through reading and imagination. When she sees Luke in a coffee shop one afternoon, perusing the same novel she is reading, she feels an instant connection and knows that Luke is the one for her. Even though she has never spoken to him in person. Even though she is already married. Victoria sets out on a crash course of plotting, using examples from her beloved books, in order to obtain everything she wants.
Canadian Robin Yeatman’s debut novel, “Bookworm” is delightfully dark, subversive and comically funny. Set in Montreal, Yeatman proudly displays her citizenship and the love of her former city through her wintry settings and descriptive architecture that make up Victoria’s hometown.
Victoria’s talents and creative imaginings are funny and disturbing all at once, and her cast of supporting characters had me all over the emotional map. More than once, I was yelling at Victoria for her choice of deadbeat husband in Eric (he made her give up READING! Eric, meet the door, and don’t let it hit you on the way out). The next second, I was laughing at her best friend’s sexual escapades. “Bookworm” never gives up, and is pure enjoyment throughout.
The story is narrated by Victoria, in third person, who is full of wit and sarcasm, desperation seeping through her veins, looking for a way to escape her dead-end life. But is it really a dead-end life? When she gets what she wants (or so she thinks) is it really all that it’s cracked up to be? The ending of “Bookworm” was satisfying and had me rolling my eyes and laughing all at the same time.
“Bookworm” is a creative novel, a little bit romance combined with just the right amount of dark humour. Add to that Victoria’s deep love of books and her profound relationship with reading and the story has everything I want (and more)! Yeatman has talent (along with Canadian blood!), and I was impressed by her debut novel. To think that she is just getting started? More, please!
February 1, 2023
Victoria is a woman struggling against the straight jacket of societal and familial expectation. She disappoints virtually everyone she knows. The only thing she's ever done right, according to her parents, is marry Eric who, when he's not madly campaigning to make partner at his law firm, spends most of their marriage adding to a never ending list of Victoria's "faults." Faults that include things like chewing too loudly and reading too much. Everyone in her life from her best friend to her mother in law reminds her daily how much a nothing like her has to be grateful for. Who wouldn't want to live in a beautiful, perfectly appointed apartment with a handsome, successful husband? She'll certainly never do better than someone like Eric.
Her only real escape is a weekly visit to the local café where she spends hours reading whatever she can get her hands on and tentatively day dreaming of a life doing...absolutely anything else.
Then she sees him. There across the café is the most perfect man she's ever seen. Her absolute ideal in every way down to the book he's reading, the very same book she is. Every fiber of her being, every cell in her body is positively screaming that they are soulmates. He is hers and she is his and it is destiny for them to be together.
If only she could meet him. Learn his name, talk to him, she knows in her soul of souls that he'd recognize her too.
The only thing standing in the way of Victoria's blissful, perfect future of eternal love and happiness is pesky old Eric waiting back at home.
What to do about Eric...what to do indeed...
This delightful, creepy, black hearted love story sent me into paroxysms of horrified glee one moment and left me gasping in delighted disgust the next. A little bit Tom Ripley and a touch of melancholy Blanche Dubois or maybe Scarlett O'Hara with a tiny dash of Jane Eyre, Victoria is a wonderfully frightening and funny heroine who I was just slightly horrified to be rooting for.
I mean what exactly does it say about me that I was pretty much totally on board with her "fantasies" of murdering Eric in a variety of ways?
Debut author Robin Yeatman has pulled off quite the literary coup with this dark and darkly funny love story. I was never quite certain what was coming just around the corner and I do love an author who can so deftly pull the rug out from under me with a killer ending. Her writing is smart, her wit acerbic and her characters, the good, the bad, and the so bad they're simply divine never pull their punches.
This book delighted me and I shall follow Ms. Yeatman's (sure to be successful) career with great interest.
(edited on 2/1/23 because its nice if you know how to spell and get the character's names right)
Her only real escape is a weekly visit to the local café where she spends hours reading whatever she can get her hands on and tentatively day dreaming of a life doing...absolutely anything else.
Then she sees him. There across the café is the most perfect man she's ever seen. Her absolute ideal in every way down to the book he's reading, the very same book she is. Every fiber of her being, every cell in her body is positively screaming that they are soulmates. He is hers and she is his and it is destiny for them to be together.
If only she could meet him. Learn his name, talk to him, she knows in her soul of souls that he'd recognize her too.
The only thing standing in the way of Victoria's blissful, perfect future of eternal love and happiness is pesky old Eric waiting back at home.
What to do about Eric...what to do indeed...
This delightful, creepy, black hearted love story sent me into paroxysms of horrified glee one moment and left me gasping in delighted disgust the next. A little bit Tom Ripley and a touch of melancholy Blanche Dubois or maybe Scarlett O'Hara with a tiny dash of Jane Eyre, Victoria is a wonderfully frightening and funny heroine who I was just slightly horrified to be rooting for.
I mean what exactly does it say about me that I was pretty much totally on board with her "fantasies" of murdering Eric in a variety of ways?
Debut author Robin Yeatman has pulled off quite the literary coup with this dark and darkly funny love story. I was never quite certain what was coming just around the corner and I do love an author who can so deftly pull the rug out from under me with a killer ending. Her writing is smart, her wit acerbic and her characters, the good, the bad, and the so bad they're simply divine never pull their punches.
This book delighted me and I shall follow Ms. Yeatman's (sure to be successful) career with great interest.
(edited on 2/1/23 because its nice if you know how to spell and get the character's names right)
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March 18, 2023Don't let the cover of Robin Yeatman's Bookworm fool you; this novel isn't warm and fuzzy. It's an intriguing combination of dark and lighthearted.
Victoria is an unreliable narrator who lives life larger in her fantasy world than the life she actually has. Yeatman gives her just enough snark to make her interesting though not necessarily likeable. And as the title indicates there are lots of book references which are even more enjoyable if you've read them.
I love Victoria's love of books, not those electronic devices despite their conveniences.
"Victoria just couldn't stay away from real books, though. She needed the sensory experience. The sometimes musty smell of the paper and ink, the visual progression as the dog-eared pages she had read became thicker than the unread, the frequent glance at the cover or the author photo. "
And I laughed aloud at her husband's comment about library books.
" 'Who knows who touched those books,' he said once, disgust creasing his brow at a battered copy of Ethan Frome. 'It's probably covered in mold and larvae. And God knows what else.' "
Yeatman's prose is assured and descriptive. Just a sample:
"He tried to open his eyelids, but they were impossible to lift, broken garage doors unresponsive to the clicker."
"It was too easy to come off stupid, for her voice to echo shrilly against the tile backsplash, with only his judgmental blink as reply. That echo was the loudest thing she had ever heard. It hurt her ears."
And the ending--perfect.
I have just a couple of niggles of personal taste. And I would have loved more depth in some of the characters.
A great debut for Ms. Yeatman, and I look forward to her next novel.
Victoria is an unreliable narrator who lives life larger in her fantasy world than the life she actually has. Yeatman gives her just enough snark to make her interesting though not necessarily likeable. And as the title indicates there are lots of book references which are even more enjoyable if you've read them.
I love Victoria's love of books, not those electronic devices despite their conveniences.
"Victoria just couldn't stay away from real books, though. She needed the sensory experience. The sometimes musty smell of the paper and ink, the visual progression as the dog-eared pages she had read became thicker than the unread, the frequent glance at the cover or the author photo. "
And I laughed aloud at her husband's comment about library books.
" 'Who knows who touched those books,' he said once, disgust creasing his brow at a battered copy of Ethan Frome. 'It's probably covered in mold and larvae. And God knows what else.' "
Yeatman's prose is assured and descriptive. Just a sample:
"He tried to open his eyelids, but they were impossible to lift, broken garage doors unresponsive to the clicker."
"It was too easy to come off stupid, for her voice to echo shrilly against the tile backsplash, with only his judgmental blink as reply. That echo was the loudest thing she had ever heard. It hurt her ears."
And the ending--perfect.
I have just a couple of niggles of personal taste. And I would have loved more depth in some of the characters.
A great debut for Ms. Yeatman, and I look forward to her next novel.
January 5, 2023
Before I wrote this I went and looked at some of the comments on this book, and I laughed at all the people who mentioned they did not like the main character, Victoria. Do they think they are supposed to like Victoria? Victoria spends a good chunk of this book imagining ways her husband might die, mostly at her hand. And that husband is self-involved, entitled, very unsexy, but he is not evil - I cannot imagine anyone would be so invested in rooting for his death that Victoria's obsession with killing him would seem in any way acceptable, let alone a characteristic that would make her likable. So go into this knowing that you are travelling alongside a narrator who is not a person you would choose as a best friend. In fact, Victoria has a best friend who is the definition of basic and is heartbreakingly needy, so you should hope she would not want you as a best friend either.
Bookworm is a very dark (like black hole dark) comedy about marriage, and privilege, and adulting. I will keep my discussion of the happenings in the book to a minimum. Victoria is a person who has never asserted her agency, possibly because doing so would mean she might lose the very cushy and easy (though stultifying) life she has. Rather than making changes she seeks opportunities to create a clean slate and to thereafter draw a world that is certain, like the worlds in her beloved books. But of course, after the last page of any book nothing is fixed anymore and anything can happen next -- Victoria though turns out to be pretty good at orchestrating the circumstances needed for the endings she desires.
The two adjectives I would use to describe this book are cynical and twisted, and those are two adjectives I like very much. This is the perfect anti-Valentine's Day read!
Bookworm is a very dark (like black hole dark) comedy about marriage, and privilege, and adulting. I will keep my discussion of the happenings in the book to a minimum. Victoria is a person who has never asserted her agency, possibly because doing so would mean she might lose the very cushy and easy (though stultifying) life she has. Rather than making changes she seeks opportunities to create a clean slate and to thereafter draw a world that is certain, like the worlds in her beloved books. But of course, after the last page of any book nothing is fixed anymore and anything can happen next -- Victoria though turns out to be pretty good at orchestrating the circumstances needed for the endings she desires.
The two adjectives I would use to describe this book are cynical and twisted, and those are two adjectives I like very much. This is the perfect anti-Valentine's Day read!
April 10, 2023
The synopsis made this novel sound a lot better than I feel it turned out to be. The main character was over-the-top negative and judgemental, and I felt zero sympathy for her situation... one she willingly entered into, and willingly stayed in, because she'd rather lie, cheat, and even murder than get a new job and make a living on her own. Gross. I honestly wanted to DNF this book because I just couldn't stand Victoria (and no other character was likeable, either), but I was legit hoping there would be an awesome plot twist and Victoria would accidentally off herself, or fall victim to one of the accidental deaths she'd imagined for Eric. Or at the very least, Luke would ditch her. Alas. I actually ended up having one thing in common with the ruthless plotter, though... there was a book she disliked because the character experienced no growth, and there was nothing redemptive about the story... same, Vicky. Same. Sucks when a book takes you nowhere and leaves you with nothing but a sense of distaste.
February 14, 2023
3 outlier stars
Victoria is a bookworm and frustrated with her life. Her husband has lost his appeal and now he wants her to take a break from reading! Victoria’s job as a spa girl doesn’t inspire her anymore. The only bright spot is when she spots a man at a coffee shop and becomes convinced that he’s the ONE for her.
Filled with references from books she has read or is currently reading, Victoria sets out to navigate her way into the handsome stranger’s life. She has a vivid imagination and very dark thoughts about her husband and the tragic accidents that could happen to him. There are also some somewhat strange wanderings that she does at night.
This one is touted as wickedly funny, but humor is subjective and this one just wasn’t for me. I know some other reviewers have loved it, so be sure to check it out if this sounds like your cup of tea.
Jayme and I had fun discussing this one, be sure to read her review to see if she’s toasting me on the island or if this was a hit for her.
My thanks to Harper Perennial for the opportunity to read and honestly review this one.
Victoria is a bookworm and frustrated with her life. Her husband has lost his appeal and now he wants her to take a break from reading! Victoria’s job as a spa girl doesn’t inspire her anymore. The only bright spot is when she spots a man at a coffee shop and becomes convinced that he’s the ONE for her.
Filled with references from books she has read or is currently reading, Victoria sets out to navigate her way into the handsome stranger’s life. She has a vivid imagination and very dark thoughts about her husband and the tragic accidents that could happen to him. There are also some somewhat strange wanderings that she does at night.
This one is touted as wickedly funny, but humor is subjective and this one just wasn’t for me. I know some other reviewers have loved it, so be sure to check it out if this sounds like your cup of tea.
Jayme and I had fun discussing this one, be sure to read her review to see if she’s toasting me on the island or if this was a hit for her.
My thanks to Harper Perennial for the opportunity to read and honestly review this one.
August 7, 2022
I did not like this book at all. I felt like it was only set in three places (kitchen, bed and coffee shop). It just felt flat to me. The story wasn’t catching and it was repetitive. I hate giving books low rating but I was bored throughout the whole book.
2⭐️
2⭐️
April 16, 2023
Bookworm is more like fiction. This book is very interesting. The pace is fast. As a bookworm myself, I am drawn into the story. Victoria certainly have wild imagination. Beleive me do not be fooled by Miss Yeatman writing.
The ending is shocking. I did not see it coming since I was so immerse in Victoria's POV. And what a journey. What a story.
4 stars
The ending is shocking. I did not see it coming since I was so immerse in Victoria's POV. And what a journey. What a story.
4 stars
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