Having read "Possessed" by Jowita Bydlowska, and I was blown away by the raw and powerful storytelling. The novel is a memoir that follows the author's journey through addiction and recovery, and it is an unflinching and honest portrayal of the struggles and challenges of addiction.

Bydlowska is a skilled and engaging writer, and she has a knack for capturing the emotional highs and lows of addiction. The novel is both deeply personal and universal, and it explores the complex and often misunderstood nature of addiction. Bydlowska's story is both inspiring and heart-wrenching, and it offers a glimpse into the often-hidden world of addiction.

The writing in "Possessed" is raw and powerful, and the pacing is perfect. Bydlowska's storytelling is gripping and engaging, and the novel is a must-read for anyone interested in addiction and recovery. Overall, I highly recommend "Possessed" to fans of memoirs and anyone looking for a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. It was hard for me to feel any emotional attachment to the main character, and I didn't find the plot to be particularly engaging either. The book started out very raw and seemed like it had potential, but I was hoping for more humor and more unhinged activity from the main character and unfortunately didn't get to read either of those. To me, Part I also felt like a completely different story than the parts that came after it, and I found the disconnect off-putting. All in all, I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it unfortunately just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. I really wanted to get into this, but I could not, so unfortunately I did not finish it.

I simply didn't connect with this one. The point of view was hard for me to connect to or even really care about. The explicit scenes were done well, but I simply couldn't bring myself to care. It was a slug to get through to the extent that I'm surprised I got through.

Josephine is on the brink. Lovers come and entice and supplant, and in the end give nothing. At times you smile for her, scream inside for her. In the end applaud her. You need to read if you have ever fallen u dear the spell of a story told from the lips of a beautiful, guarded liver. The kind that gives just enough to entice and then pull away, with that promise that this is only the surface. Happy reading

I had a hard time reading this story due to the format. The number of sex scenes bordered on excessive.

Well, the writing is good; it kind of grips you in the beginning but then it gets monotonous. Too slow. No dialogues, too much telling that I got tired.

Also, I didn't know it was an erotica. The story seemed to go nowhere and sadly, (as much as I wanted to like it) it didn't work for me.

Thank you for the ARC.

At first, I was really enjoying this book. I flew through the first part of the book and I thought the Days of Abandonment and The Pisces comps were fitting. It captured the desperation and delusion of Ferrante and Broder's characters; however, by the second and third act, it quickly lost its charm. I felt that it became too repetitive and slow. By the end of the book, I was bored by everything because I wanted more from it. I wanted it to be more absurd, more delusional, more ridiculous, more UNHINGED. I wanted it to be both funnier and sadder, just like Broder's works. I wanted it to be more substantial, like Ferrante's works.

Sure it reminded me of Ferrante and Broder initially, but eventually it became a cheap version of them. It's not to say that the book is awful though, because I still liked some parts of it, it's just that the overall quality of the novel is inconsistent and the pacing needs to be tighter.

3 Stars

This was a rather odd book that was densely weighted by erotica throughout the story, and later incorporated interaction with ghosts. It also dealt with being a caregiver to a mother with dementia. The main character Josephine is in her late twenties and has been in a live-in relationship with photographer Victor for years. He is a much older man, but she enjoys being on his arm at artistic city events. They don't have any set structure to their relationship, and she sort of moved in with him by accident and is now moving out to care for her mother out of necessity. During this same time she meets a man named Sebastian in a coffee shop who is a decade younger. This cataclysmic meeting sets off a rough sexual relationship which rips through basement apartments, cars and even bathrooms. There's no actual meaningful relationship involving common interests, intelligent conversation and love- just the excitement of rough sex, and there are often stretches of time when Sebastian doesn't even call or text Josephine. However, her obsession with Sebastian is an all-consuming psychosis.

At a certain point I was thrown off kilter by a "Part Two" occurring where Josephine took a trip for the burgeoning travel company she worked at. She was scoping out a town in Croatia that purported to be haunted by the ruins of a mental institution. It felt like a bizarre transition in the story after such a long stretch with the two parallel sexual relationships taking center stage. Overall I found the story very offbeat, being a voyeur to Josephine's colorful and reckless lifestyle. However, Josephine's sexual proclivities were the meat on the bone in this story, leaving not much else of particular interest to me.

Thank you to the publisher Dundurn Press, Rare Machines for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

Really well written. Josephine has a difficult mother and an obsession with Sebastian a man she meets at a coffee shop. Feeling trapped she escapes to an island in the Adriatic where she falls under the spell of another man.. written raw and honestly

Possessed is a book that held a lot of potential but seemed not to go as far as it could. It was an exciting read, and I wanted to understand what was going on in Josephine's life, but I also found it nigh impossible to empathize with her or understand her decisions. There was a somewhat detached feel to the writing -- like I was observing and not invested in the story.

The whole book is gloomy, and Bydlowska writes well, but I wish the characters had been given more significant thought. It seemed like things just HAPPENED to Josephine to move the plot along, and in the end, it all chalked up to nothing. Still worth a read, but the writing felt like a variety of short stories thrown together and held at the seams with sex scenes.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this interesting book.

I thought the first half of Possessed was great. The depiction of the increasing drama in the protagonist’s life with her two very different lovers and the issues with her mother’s dementia was fantastically done. I thought the introduction of foreshadowing of the more supernatural elements (through the “presence” Josephine senses at home and her office) melded well with the tension in the rest of the story. The author also has a knack for outstanding prose.

Unfortunately, once Josephine went to the island it kind of fell apart for me. I would have liked the story better if the “ghost” continued to be a more subtle presence rather than a concrete character. The break into Luka’s POV was also jarring and seemed out of place, and some of his language choices seemed anachronistic (would he really use the F word?).

A for effort, really interesting concept and idea, but I feel like the second half needed some reworking.

Thank you bet galley for providing me with a free advanced readers copy of Possessed in exchange for a honest review.


Although the writing in certain parts did a wonderful job of engrossing the reader and the mother daughter dynamic along with the blurred lines of obsession and love were well written the book feels flat when it comes to the supernatural part.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Omgg iam soo in loved with this book definitely going to recommend everyone this one blew my mind thank you netgalley for letting me review this book is phenomenal

"I loved being in love."

I love this new trend of sad girl books because I relate to them, and I think that's the appeal that makes them so popular on BookTok nowadays. We're finally allowing our ugly side to come out, after centuries of white men exploring their madness and confusion in literature, and we're thriving. It's good to talk and read about things that shame and scare us - our darkest secrets, the feelings we think no one else has felt until you say them out loud, and then you find out everybody else is exactly the same way. So this one couldn't be different. Josephine - the protagonist - falls a little under the category of "unhinged women" as well, but I think we've all been there. She has a bad relationship with her mom and self-esteem issues, which makes her turn into a person she's not to please the men she dates. When things don't go well with Sebastian, she becomes a little obsessive and lost. However, she never externalizes these feelings or does anything crazy, so I think a lot of people will be able to relate to her - after all, we can't control our thoughts and feelings, even when we acknowledge to ourselves that they're not healthy.
This is a "quiet" book - we're inside Josephine's head most of the time, so I don't think this will be for everyone. But if you like Sylvia Plath, Elena Ferrante, and Laura van den Berg, you'll enjoy this one. If I had to point out one thing I disliked, is that I wish Luka's story was shorter; I wasn't as invested in it as I was in Josephine's story. However, the writing is great and I read it super fast. I also understand the need to fit in Luka's background. This book, at the end of the day, shows different types of obsessive, all-consuming, unhealthy love. I also enjoyed the conclusion; it caught me off guard because it was more optimistic than I was expecting, but I was happy for Josephine because I feel weirdly attached and protective towards her.

thank you to Dundurn Press and Netgalley for this early copy in exchange for an honest review.

i had pretty high expectations for this book, the premise of combining obsessive love and mental illness with the supernatural sounded super intriguing. sadly, i really struggled to even get through the first part (with the obsessive love), and decided to quickly skim through the second half (the 'supernatural' part) to see if any of those chapters were better. they weren't. not for me, at least.

the narration style really didn't work for me and made it a very slow and tiring read. it was a lot of stream-of-consciousness and telling instead of showing. this made it hard to connect to and empathize with the main character and also made her obsession with the love interest hard to believe or take seriously. the relationship with her mother was interesting and i feel it would have benefited the characters' development if that had been highlighted more than all of the gratuitous sex scenes.

this book got my attention since chapter one even though most of the time i had no idea what i was reading.
josephine is our main character. she´s obsessive in general but it is more notorious when she talks about/spends time with her lovers. living with her demential mother, she founds herself becoming insane too. her work at a peculiar travel agency allows her to explore an island where she meets a ghost called Luka, he helped her realize some things out and when she´s back in the city, she´s no longer the same obsessive josephine.

the end wasn´t shocking or anything but i think it made sense. there were parts which made me cringe so much but beside that i really enjoyed it.

definitely unhingued vibes.

"was my life so empty that i let one thing fill it so entirely?"

a very interseting read
the story follows a young woman, Josephine, in her dilemas and an interesting sex/love life. her relationship with sex is quite similar to a lot of peoples, even though it is unhealthy. many of the unhealty sexual habits are a byproduct of the porn industry. she is obssesed with a guy called sebastian who gives her absolutely nothing, not even orgasams despite their sex schedule.

moving on to her mother, its very sad how a mother can passively hate her child so much, and yet the child will think so highly of the mother. Josephine called her mother the softest and warmest person she ever knew when her mother resented her.

luka´s story was very interesting, however i didn´t like how it ended. although sad, i hadn´t had the chance to properly process his story because it ended so abruptly.
i am also from croatia and have never heard of a place called tajni otok so i was a bit confused but figured it is a made up place which does make more sense

the story is written as a reflection or at least it reads as that, a memoir, which is why it is so melancholy and empty
i adore that about it

overall i really liked the book and i would recomend it to others who want to read it

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: General Fiction

This is the story of an obsession. Josephine has an obsession with a younger man (Sebastien). She is totally consumed by it. It is more like she is possessed by this young man who gives her the kind of intimacy and lust that her boyfriend cannot. When the woman needs a distraction from this man and her abusive mother, she decides to visit a haunted island in the Adriatic Sea. There she meets the handsome Luka. The only question is if Luka is a real man, a ghost, or a creation from Josephine’s mind!

At the beginning of the book, the author tells us that part of the concept has been taken from her own experience when she ended a relationship. So writing this book must’ve been a thrilling ride for her. Possessed is more about self-discovery and freedom from toxic relationships that bring nothing but misery. When I first started reading the book, I thought it might be similar to Julia May Jonas’ Vladimir. I’m glad it was a different story.

I think the author successfully captured several elements in the book, like the relationship between the main character and her mother. Then the gray line between lust and love was brilliantly handled. Josephine is a fascinating character. However, while reading the book, I always felt distant from her. I understood her needs and obsessions though.

Putting this book in one particular category would be very difficult. I’d rather say it is general fiction. I liked that it keeps the ending open for the reader’s interpretation. You never know if the main character suffers from a mental illness right from the beginning or if the obsession with that young man has caused it. Luka will always remain a mystery. Even the main character doesn’t know whether he is real or not.

Many thanks to the publisher Dundurn Press, Rare Machines, and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book.