Happy Pub Week to Robin Yeatman, author of Bookworm! Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, and Robin Yeatman for allowing me to read an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of Bookworm for an honest review.

I was very excited to be granted early access to read Robin’s debut novel. The description lured me in because it was described as wickedly funny-black comedy. Although the description hinted at black comedy, I didn’t realize just how dark the comedy would be.

I unfortunately feel that this book missed the mark for me but I do think it will find it’s target audience and that they will rave about the plot.

I give Robin and A+ for originality and creativity. She is brilliant when it comes to interweaving thoughts and story lines but I just didn’t find any humor throughout the book. At times, I felt like the main characters…frustrated. I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn’t make a connection…I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it.

The main character, Victoria, finds herself frustrated in her marriage with Eric. An arranged marriage of sorts, meaning that their parents encouraged them to marry. Both Victoria and Eric find that their relationship lacks lust and passion.

The only thing that truly makes Victoria happy is the time that she has to read. As a result she processes with a very vivid imagination. While in a coffee shop one day, Victoria sees a handsome man reading the same book that she is currently reading. She pretty much falls head over heels and starts envisioning the two together.

Will Victoria be able to will the visions to life? The visions of her marriage ending and the vision of being with cute coffee shop man, Luke? Pick up your copy of Bookworm to find out!

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.5⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: contemporary romance📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
It was so strange that I had to finish it but I’m not sure I would recommend it.

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
Books about books
Dark humor
FMC with a huge imagination
Pop culture references

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
I’m not a fan of toxic relationships
I didn’t care for the FMC

Words cannot explain how much I absolutely could not stand this book. In it, the main character is reading a book that she doesn't particularly like. I wonder if it was this book, because man. Our main character is unhappily married, meets a guy in a coffee shop who is reading the same book as her (A BOOK SHE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE) and assumes he must be the love of her life. Because they're both reading a fairly popular book. She then proceeds to dream up scenarios where her husband dies and she can be with the love of her life, because apparently divorce isn't a thing? I hated it. All of the characters were awful, and if I had to read about someone's "puffy nipples" one more time I was going to vomit. Easily one of my least favorite books ever.

I’ve been sitting on this review, trying to figure out how to summarize this quirky, darkly funny novel, and have concluded that I just can’t do better than Claire Oshetsky, author of Chouette:

“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.”

That’s it. That’s what this book is.

Victoria is a massage therapist unhappily married to a rigid, controlling lawyer, who hates that she spends time reading (serious Wormwood family vibes for Matilda readers). One day Victoria spies a man in her favorite coffee shop, reading the same book as she is, and she is sure that he must be her soul mate. Victoria’s vivid imagination kicks into overdrive as she tries to work out a plan to get out of her marriage and change her life.
Bookworm is dark, funny, and clever. Author Robin Yeatman weaves in other novels into Victoria’s thoughts and fantasies, as we real life bookworms do. Victoria is a complicated protagonist to get behind so I know that not everyone will be a fan, but I really enjoyed her.

I found this book to be super unique, and not like anything I’ve read before. While I enjoyed all the ways Victoria imagined killing her husband (she’s creative! 😂), I just didn’t like any of the characters enough to care about any of it. It was… fine.

I am at a loss for words. I don't know if I liked the book. It kept me going but in not a good way. I understand wanting to get out of such a bad situation but her way of going about it and just overall pessimism made me just not like her. Definitely, a Good for Her book. I'll be recommending it to others just so I can see everyone elses take on the book.

I don't typically read chick lit, so maybe I shouldn't have asked for this, but the premise sounded promising, the cover was great, I love books about books, and I do like Emily Henry so was expecting something similar. This...is not Emily Henry. The humor just didn't land for me, the story was verrrry slow and repetitive, and the characters fell flat, no real character growth. (I usually like unlikable characters, but Victoria just annoyed me. The author may have been going for a Moshfeghian protagonist, Moshfegh is actually mentioned here, but...this also wasn't Moshfegh.) The writing was decent for the most part, but the sporadic attempt at magical realism (likely V's imagination), seemed really out of place. And each time I put my Kindle down, I never looked forward to picking it up again. 1.5 stars, rounded up.

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for a review e-copy.

Thank you Harper for Robin Yeatman's Bookworm! This was a surprising read for me, the dark humor and edginess was unexpected but generally welcome for me. I admit that the writing style wasn't always working for me but the story and Victoria were unique and engaging and I appreciated the approach taken to tell this story, even if it didn't always work for me in terms of style.

What worked overall was the development of victoria's world, her thoughts, her experiences, her humor and deft touches of suspense and an efficient plot (the pacing worked for me). I was reminded a bit of a darker Bridget Jones with the humor and internal dialogue or a dark Nina Hill in terms of the book lover theme.

This isn't going to be a win for everyone, I think the cover leads a reader to think it is a light hearted ode to bookworms but it's dark, edgier with a writing style that may not engage those readers looking for a light read.

One Sentence Summary: When Victoria sees a man she deems to be her soulmate, she’ll do anything to make him hers, even make sure her husband meets an unfortunate end.

Overall
Bookworm is all about Victoria trying half-baked ideas to get rid of her husband so she can be with the man she thinks is her soulmate all because they were reading the same book. Or are they half-baked? This managed to be both dark and lighthearted with some truly odd and bizarre events, but I couldn’t pull my eyes away from this one. I found the writing to be compelling and Victoria to be either crazy or a mastermind. The ending has me looking at the entire story in a different way, which is good because I truly didn’t like Victoria, and none of the other characters were any better, though I did appreciate the bit of depth given to Eric. Bookworm is such a strange story, but it did make me think and wonder once I finished it, and I did like that it reminded me of a thriller in an unexpected way.

Extended Thoughts
Bookworm captured my attention from the first chapter, keeping me engaged from page to page for the entirety of the novel, which is quite a rare thing for me to find these days. Of course, I did have some issues with the book, but I found the writing style to be engaging and Victoria to be absolutely nuts. My favorite part was getting to the end and feeling like this was something of a thriller from the opposite point of view. I mean, if this were from Eric’s point of view, it may very well be a thriller about a man on edge because his wife is unstable. I didn’t care for the cheating aspects, but watching Victoria slowly spiral was like watching a slow train wreck, and I could not look away.

Victoria didn’t actually have a lot of depth to her. The daughter of two people who didn’t actually care much to raise a child and instead went out to make tons of money, she’s basically been pushed to marry a man handpicked by her parents. Eric is from old money and makes plenty of his own as a lawyer up for making partner, so he’s constantly busy, but there’s no love lost between him and Victoria so she doesn’t mind. After a stint running off and living something of a hippy lifestyle, she’s now stuck living in a white gilded cage with no exit. It takes about 25% of the way in for the reader to start to understand why Victoria is so stuck. There’s a lot of pressure on her from literally all fronts, even from her best friend who basically worships Eric, to make the marriage a go, never mind all the constraints she lives under that she doesn’t like. It’s a good thing she has her books, but everyone seems to think she reads a little too much. She’s kind of an odd character to follow in that she doesn’t seem to have much of a backbone or independent streak. Or, at least, not enough of one to just leave her marriage and everyone’s expectations behind. I think she quite likes the pampered lifestyle and that’s why she plots and plans what she does.

And what plots and plans she has! Much of this book really made me feel like Victoria was losing it. After seeing a man reading the same book as her, she thinks they’re fated to be together, going so far as to letting herself literally drift away from her body at night to go and visit him. I prefer to think she’s just dreaming, otherwise I’ll have to believe she’s delusional, which might not be too far off base. I couldn’t look away as she appeared to only have sort of an idea of how to off her husband. I did like the tension all of it provided, and I liked that she just didn’t seem to know what she was doing or how to do it. And then the end hits and I find myself thinking back through it all and feeling sorry for Luke, her dream man. The ending was absolutely nuts, but it really gave a good look into Victoria, casting doubt onto everything I was led to believe about her, which was good because she came off as mostly bland to me.

Then again, all of the characters felt kind of like caricatures. Her parents are stereotypical new money while her in-laws are stereotypical old money. Eric did have some depth to him, but he wants his cake and to eat it, too, and he was just came off as a bit too off, though there were certain signs I like to think Victoria saw since I saw it a mile away. Her best friend was entirely too perky and she felt like she didn’t actually have much of a brain. Luke had a lumberjack feel to him and just lacked the sophistication I had the feeling Victoria really did want. I just didn’t see the two together, and I’m starting to think Victoria might agree.

Fortunately, I did find myself having a great time wanting to see what Victoria’s next half-baked idea would be. It was fascinating to see what she was and wasn’t capable of. Maybe. I mean, the ending just makes me question everything I read, and how many other partners she might have tried to get rid of. Like the guy she ran off to be with before the start of the story. Whatever happened to him? Anyways, this was definitely on the dark side and had me thinking of this as a thriller from a non-traditional point of view (that I know of. I haven’t read as many thrillers I would like). But it was also oddly lighthearted, as though the story was poking a bit of fun at itself. It was such a fascinating combination, though Victoria’s daydreaming and weird out of body experiences just had me kind of side eyeing this story.

Reading Bookworm was a fascinating experience. I didn’t care for Victoria, but I also couldn’t look away from everything she was doing or not doing. I tend to think she has the idea that things are better on the other side and will ultimately never be satisfied, but I kind of hope there’s an investigator out there who is starting to be on to her. Lighthearted and dark, I actually had a good time reading this despite all the things I didn’t like. It was such a fun blend and Victoria’s thought processes were just so bizarre. The ending was probably my favorite part of this because it still has me thinking of what actually happened in the book, and what Victoria might do in the future


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I wanted to like this book. The writing was okay, but all of the characters were the worst people ever, including Victoria to an extent. Victoria is married to Eric, who is controlling, rude, mentally and emotionally abusive, and their parents are just as bad. Victoria loves to read and often fantasizes about Eric’s death and how it would happen. Victoria experiences what she thinks is love at first sight (really lust) when she meets Luke in her usually cafe reading the same book she is. From there, the people and story just gets worse. Every single character is rude to Victoria, degrading to her, and treats her at best like a servant. Her friend isn’t a friend at all, and the only decent person is Luke. I can’t say I would recommend this one, unfortunately.

I really struggled with this one. It needed to pull back and find itself, and that may be generous to say, given that I am accustomed to this brand of humor from my workplace. I'm not sure how well this will sit with the crow it seems to be marketed towards. Solid premise for something that goes a little further out-of-bounds with it, or plays the emotional cards well along the established and expected lines. Wish I had seen more of it. Thank you to both Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with this title.

Wow! Just when you think the genre of books about people who love books might be getting a bit overdue (ha! library humor!), along comes a book like this one. Victoria hates her husband. She has to try and remind herself of his good qualities but it doesn't really work for her, or me! And, he spends most of the book making her feel insecure and gross. Great way to abuse your spouse and keep them in line! Sadly, her family helps him right along. So it should come as no shock, other than those who thought this was another cute book about someone who loves books and reading, when Victoria starts fantasizing about her husband dying. And fantasizing about flying through the air to meet her imagined soulmate. This book was an unexpected joy to read when I wasn't gnashing my teeth at how horrible Victoria's husband and family treated her!

Sadly, this book was not for me. I gave up on it exactly half way through the novel. It is said to be a 'black-comedy,' but I did not laugh once. I think the writing style clashed with the humor! It was also really hard for me to connect with the characters, even Victoria, the main one. Again, the writing style may have had some effect on this. I just felt distanced from the entire story, due to how choppy some sentences were.

I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen, but nothing exciting or enthralling ever did.

I would be interested in reading other books by this author though.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC publication for an honest review.

Bookworm
by Robin Yeatman
Pub Date: 14 Feb 2023

First, let me say, I loved the cover for this book...but from that I think I had different expectations from what the book was going to be. Yes, I knew this was a dark comedy. And the premise was totally intriguing. However, I think I was hoping for a more quirky, rom-com type story along with the dark humor. I still am not quite sure what I read or how I feel about it. Did Victoria have some kind of powers that allowed her to know the story behind the people she saw? Could she really mind travel? Was she dreaming? Was she simply psycho? Honestly, I just couldn't connect with the characters even Victoria who I could commiserate with, but still...I also am never a fan with cheating.

3 stars

this Advanced Readers Copy of this book for my honest review!

Unfortunately, this book is just not for me. I really struggle with not finishing a book and this was the first book in a few years that I DNF’d. I just couldn’t get into the writing style that was used in this book.

I absolutely loved the cover and since I consider myself a bookworm too, I thought this would be a fabulous pick for me but I just didn’t like the main character. The book was described as wickedly funny and I just didn’t find the humor at all. The MC was just such a hateful person in my opinion. I am very much an emotional reader and I just didn't like how the main character made me feel - crabby and unhappy.

Stories in our heads can be a great thing however when we take those stories too far and try to make them reality that’s when we have issues. Victoria falls in love with a man at first site. There is a slight issue though, she is already married. While I do not like her husband in this book, she spends the majority of the book thinking of ways for her husband to die so she can be free. The twist at the end was great but the book was kinda all over the place and didn’t seem to have a point other than getting out of the marriage..

One day, in a favorite cafe, Victoria notices an attractive man reading the same talked-about bestselling novel that she is reading. A woman yearning for her own happy ending, she is sure it's fate. The handsome book lover must be her soul mate.
There's only one small problem. Victoria is already married.
Wickedly infused with dark humor, Bookworm is a speedy and engaging read. 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.While some characters are a little unlikable, with the added wit thrown in I didn't mind and I definitely wanted to see how it would end!

All the hype about this book maybe it’s undoing. I started it with high expectations and the book did not live up to them.

Victoria is unhappily married to Eric, a very controlling lawyer who is up for partner. He constantly berates her, belittles her, tells her if she leaves she will walk away with nothing, and complains incessantly about how much she reads, Victoria's best friend, Holly, is envious of her lifestyle, and sees Eric as some sort of knight in shining armor. Victoria feels stuck and lives vicariously through the books she reads. Then one day, while she is sitting in the cafe reading, she sees "The One". He is reading the same book she is reading. Victoria is convinced they are meant to be, and starts imagining all the ways she could get rid of her husband and be with the man she is destined to be with.
This dark comedy was so much fun. I laughed so hard at all of the ways she imagined (as well as some of the pathetic attempts she made) of getting rid of her husband. You had to feel bad for Victoria Her mother was a nightmare. So was his mother. Her husband was a controlling jerk, to put it nicely. I mean really.... what kind of man bans his wife from reading books? Although I questioned her taste in books, I definitely empathized with her wanting to escape into another world with the stories she read. Isn't that what books are for? I definitely recommend this for all of the book lovers out there!

This book took me by surprise. This is the perfect book for a book club. I want to start a book club just so I can discuss this book. I don’t want to give too much away because I want everyone to have the same experience I had with this book.
If you are on Bookstagram, you should read this. If you love books, you should read this. If you have ever escaped reality into a book, you should read this. If you live inside of a book more than real life, you should read this. If you like to people watch, you should read this. If you are human, just read this!
The story is witty. It is somewhat relatable. It is a little dark. It is a tiny bit spicy.
I am posting my review on Instagram (link below) as well as Amazon and Goodreads.