Victoria feels trapped in her marriage, so she uses books and her vivid imagination to escape her life and tries to will a different reality into being. This is a dark comedic book and Victoria’s thoughts are both humorous and disturbing. I wanted a bit more character development and although I understood the fitting ending, I selfishly wanted it to go a different direction. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood meets the sense of hysteria that pervades the works of Ira Levin, with an ode to the power of books to carry us through mundanity of life. And, I am here for it!

This book kept me hooked. A little cozy, a lot crazy, a fabulous ending - this book takes you on a wild and unexpected ride! Add to that the anecdotal references to popular novels, and Robin Yeatman has given us a winner! This book was so different from anything I've read lately, and the hype I had seen surrounding it was completely confirmed. The generic title and cover is really deceiving, though. This novel is a lot darker than either imply.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Perennial, and the author for sharing this arc with me in exchange for my honest feedback.

Victoria is stuck in a loveless marriage arranged by her parents. Her workaholic husband Eric is controlling, insensitive, and cold. She spends all her free time with her nose stuck in a book dreaming of living a different life.

One day she sees a handsome stranger reading the same book that she’s reading at their neighborhood cafe. She becomes obsessed with this man and the life that she could be living if he was her husband instead.

Unfortunately, with the iron-clad prenup she signed with Eric, she realizes the only way out of her marriage is if he dies. Cue the never-ending montage of all the ways she could kill him without going down for his murder.

When fiction becomes reality, Victoria’s world is turned upside down.

——

Two things that did not work for me in this book:
1. She thinks she is a “time witch” who can manipulate her brain while she sleeps to leave her body and fly across town to the handsome cafe stranger and sleep in his bed with him at home. It’s so weird and so unrealistic and made me cringe so badly. There is genuinely no scarier concept than a stranger seeing you out in public and sending a spirit version of themselves to spoon you while you sleep without your knowledge.

2. Throughout the first half of Bookworm, the author references the book that Victoria and the cafe stranger were both reading at least 20 times. It makes sense at first, because that’s the first thing that Victoria felt connected them, but then the author goes on this offensive attack towards said book and how horrible it is. The strange part is that she passive aggressively gives the reader very obvious clues that the book is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. She mentions the picture of a man’s face in pain on the cover, the exact number of pages, and describes the main character who struggles with self harming in vivid detail. It’s one thing to dislike a book, but to include it in a book you wrote and go on and on about how much you hated it, is a bit too much for me. Hello petty??? I personally loved A Little Life, so it just rubbed me the wrong way. It honestly made me think about how beautifully A Little Life was written and had me comparing the two side by side, which was not the smartest move in this book.

Woah!! Please do not let the title and cover of this book fool you! This looks like a light fun book about a nerdy little lady who loves to read a lot. Let me tell you, this book was batshit crazy, super dark and I loved every minute of it!! Favorite book of the year so far!! Thank you!!

i can't pinpoint why, but this one just didn't work for me. I don't know if it was the writing/humour, or the main character. I struggled to get through it and felt like I was just trying to finish. Could be a me problem, since other people liked it. It sucks, because I wanted to enjoy it - I think I enjoyed the concept more than the actual book, but again. Could be a me problem.

Super enjoyable and offered me an escape when I needed one desparately. I thought the writing flowed effortlessly and I found the story line to be fun and enjoyable.

The premise of this book was what initially drew me to read it, however there was something that just missed the mark for me.

Victoria, the main character, is in a marriage where neither her nor her husband Eric want to be in. They were essentially forced together by their families, and would rather be without the other. When Victoria is in a cafe reading one day, she spots another cafe reader, and immediately falls in love with him. This is when the book starts to take a bit of a dark twist.

While I did find the overall plot captivating enough to want to continue reading, there was just something that just didn’t fully work for me. I feel like it may have been a bit too repetitive with how Victoria would ponder the many ways of the demise of Eric.

All in all, there are many 5 star reviews of this book, so please read them before you decide on the book. Even though this book wasn’t for me, I can certainly see how people would enjoy it.

Trigger warnings: graphic injuries, body shaming, and emotional abuse

This was not the light hearted and funny read I thought it might be. While I was drawn into Victoria’s world and constantly spiraling thoughts, I battled with whether or not I even liked her as a character. This was dark and not exactly what I would call humorous.

“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.“

Victoria is married to the most narcissistic asshole on the planet and is a clear victim of abuse not only from her husband but her parents as well. Throughout the book she is constantly daydreaming to find ways to escape her daily life. She judges others harshly, while thinking of ways she might murder her husband to be with a man she saw in a coffee shop one day. Their connection is based off of what you might ask? The fact that they were reading the same book. That’s it. Some parts felt fantastical and absurd but I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next anyway.

All in all this was a chaotic, awkward, edge of your seat, kind of read that left me reeling.

Thank you to Harper Collins for the NetGalley ARC and the chance to read and review this book!

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book. I really connected to the characters.

✨eARC Book Review✨

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman

Truly at a loss for how to describe this one. This book was….unexpected. I didn’t know anything about it going in, and wow, it sure took me for a ride. It’s a blend of sarcastic, dark humor and a genuine love for stories with a dash of wealth, status, and power.

Our protagonist, Victoria, is essentially an unwilling trophy wife, whose little moments of peace come from being left alone with whatever book she’s reading. She devours them, and as a result has grown accustomed to crafting stories of the other people at the cafe she frequents. Her life is routine—weekly lunches with her friend Holly, working some days at a spa, cooking dinner for her weird husband each night—even her reluctant sex with her husband is routine and expected. Victoria is miserable and wants out. So, she escapes into books.

I was wildly unprepared for the dark humor of this book. It was such an entertaining read. My jaw dropped more than once. Victoria’s misery seeps out into her stories of other people and her own daydreams of her shitty husband’s death. I felt like I never quite knew where the story was going to go, in the BEST way. I’ve never felt so consistently curious while reading before. In one sense, it feels like a slow burn. Not a lot of plot immediately happens, but sticking it out is so worth it by the fantastic ending.

I’d recommend this one especially for fans of dark comedies and reality TV. It’s a fun reading experience.

Thanks to @harperperennial and @netgalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review! This one just hit shelves on Valentine’s Day, which is especially funny after having read it. 😂 Check it out!

📖: (4/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love a good debut novel and always get excited about them. But unfortunately this one just fell a bit flat for me. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. It was more so-so, and I'll likely have forgotten it completely by the time I finish this review. Our main character falls for a guy simply because he's reading the same book she is, and she hates the book. If she loved the book, this would make far more sense. The biggest problem here is the main character is negative about literally everything, and how much she hates her life. Yet she doesn't make any changes to fix this issue. She just complains constantly. It comes across as very narcissistic to me, and I've lived with people just like that in my life. So I struggled hard to like this book, simply because of that. I would not recommend this book if you've had any kind of lengthy experience with a narcissistic person in your life. If you haven't, you may enjoy it far more than I did.

I felt like I just read three different books. And not necessarily in a good way. Whew.

Victoria isn’t happy (because she’s the worst, IMHO). Because of this she starts fantasizing about her husband’s death. One day she meets a guy in a coffee shop reading the same book she is and decides to pin all of her future hopes and dreams onto him. How could that go wrong?

Easily the best part about this book is the book references.

At times it felt like the author wanted to make this girl into a Moshfegh Protagonist™️ so badly, even having her read one of Moshfegh’s books, “Eileen.” However it never got there for me.

Too clean to be Moshfegh. Too messy to be a romantic comedy. Too repetitive to be a thriller. Not enough comedy to be black humor.

Reading the reviews though I see that there are several people that loved it so definitely go check it out it if sounds interesting to you!

How many bookworms love to read about book-obsessed characters? It makes one feel more normal to know they are not alone in their constant quest for the next recommendable title. In Bookworm, Victoria, the titular reader, is in an unhappy marriage to a non-reading, television binging lawyer. Her overactive imagination leads her to envision the myriad of ways her husband may die and leave her a happy and wealthy widow. The conceit of Victoria’s fantasy life is intriguing (she even falls in love at first sight with a man at her local coffee shop - a connection possibly triggered by the fact that the two of them are reading the same best-seller), but as a reader, I never felt truly transported into her delusions. These dream scenarios were detailed, but none of them felt overly compelling or engaging to me. However, the denouement was clever and enjoyable. I believe Victoria would close the cover satisfied with her story’s happy ending.

Victoria is unhappy. Her husband, Eric, is controlling and judgmental, as are her parents and her in-laws. So, she spends her time reading and creating different scenarios that lead to her freedom and, of course, happiness. Repetitive, very descriptive, and often frustrating. I felt like I was supposed to enjoy it but just didn’t. It seemed like one of the books that was negatively described in the novel itself.

this book was dark and twisted and funny in all the best ways. the writing was so feeling forward, that i felt that i could actively feel victoria’s absolute hatred for eric. this book truly transcends genres and each twist and turn is truly delicious.

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman.
I was sent this eARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review! Thank you netgalley!

I don't have much to talk about with this book, to be quite honest.. I feel like I have read this story (or one extremely similar) several times before..
While i do think this will be a hit with the right audience, it just wasn't for me.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman is a new noir comedy about a drastic marital mismatch and more. It could be seen as a cautionary tale about why readers should not marry T.V. watchers. Or why a sociopath should not marry a control freak.

Victoria is the bookworm. She is a massage therapist married to a high-powered lawyer who is struggling to make partner (Eric). As far as everyone else is concerned, her parents, his parents, Eric himself, even Victoria’s best friend, she is extremely lucky to have him. He’s rich and handsome. What more could she want?

Apparently, she wants the cute guy (Luke) she saw in her favorite coffee shop who was reading the same book that she was.

Victoria has a very active fantasy life, fed by the books she reads non-stop. She makes up very detailed lives for the strangers she sees during the day. She fantasizes about flying to Luke’s house in the middle of the night for illicit rendezvous. The details she invents make these things seem quasi-real. She also fantasizes about ways her husband will die. Accidents or murders made to look like accidents.

Her husband is no prize. Fitness obsessed, he constantly makes snide comments to her about what she eats or how much she works out. He expects her to keep the apartment immaculate. He buys her an e-reader to get rid of the clutter of books and is disgusted by library books because other people have touched them. He works late. They have nothing in common. He is closer to her parents than she is and complains about her to them. Worst of all, he tries to gaslight her, telling her that reading too much can cause depression. He forces her to spend a week watching movies with him and forbidding her to read. It has the creepy feel of nineteenth-century controlling husbands who commited their wives to asylums for reading novels.

So, yes, she needs out of this marriage, even if it does mean giving up her lavish lifestyle.

But, yuck, she is an awful person. In fact, there is not a single decent human being in the entire novel. I was drawn in by the twisty plot, but was glad to be finished with the book.

I received an advance reader copy of this book.

Bookworm is the story of Victoria, a woman who is unhappy in her marriage. She regularly plans out ways to kill her husband, even going so far as to test out some of these ideas. In the midst of this, she sees a man, Luke, at a coffee shop reading the same book as her and begins fantasizing about being with him. Eventually she gets close to him and things go from bad to worse ending in a truly worst case scenario.

I enjoyed the pop culture and literary easter eggs throughout, but overall this wasn't my cup of tea. The book is described as wickedly funny and I didn't find it humorous at all. The characters were unlikeable and not in a fun way and the plot was all over the place. Ultimately a depressing fever dream.

Not sure I would call this "wickedly funny" but it is definitely chock full of some dark humor as Victoria imagines all the ways her husband might die so she can be free. Her husband Eric, and her parents and in-laws, all seem pretty awful and have created quite the gilded cage for Victoria. So you can sort of understand her flights of fancy. But it's also frustrating to witness a grown ass woman try to imagine her way out of a situation she should very much be capable of exiting like a normal person. And I'm not sure I liked her much in the end.

Well written, clever concept.