Beta Vulgaris tells the story of a young woman who works as a seasonal worker. Her work takes a bizarre, delightful turn and she is forced to contend with wild surprises. Overall, this was an engaging debut.

While listed as a horror, this is more a horror of the psychological kind. There were elements of traditional horror throughout, but as the reader we did not explore them beyond surface level. Throughout the book we follow Elise through her spiral of anxiety, self-doubt, and a raging eating disorder. The psychological horror builds in such a way it makes the reader uneasy if they allow themselves to be fully immersed in the story.

If you in any way identify with Elise or her characteristics, this one will make you squirm.

3.5/5 rounded up

Elise and her boyfriend Tom’s journey to the Midwest in search of financial relief serves as the story’s foundation. Still, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary tale of economic struggle. The sugar beet fields are rendered with an oppressive and otherworldly atmosphere: the grueling physical labor, the desolate setting, and the underlying sense that something is wrong. As Elise begins to experience strange occurrences—threatening calls, an inexplicable rash, and the unsettling whispers emanating from the beet piles—the novel tightens its grip, turning the ordinary into something deeply menacing.

At the heart of Beta Vulgaris is Elise, a protagonist whose anxieties about her financial instability and personal failures are all too relatable. Her psychological and physical unraveling mirrors the novel’s broader themes of class, trauma, and consumption. The disappearance of Tom and other workers leaves Elise isolated, forcing her to confront the horrors that feel both external and internal. This isolation heightens the novel’s tension, as readers are left to question what is real and what might be the product of Elise’s crumbling state of mind.

The novel’s premise—a siren song emanating from the sugar beets—could have veered into absurdity, but it works remarkably well here, thanks to the author’s confident and incisive prose. The beets become a symbol of unchecked consumption and decay, their irresistible and destructive lure.

Through Elise’s haunting journey, the novel explores the physical and psychological toll of economic precarity and how trauma can consume and distort. The result is a story that lingers long after the final page—thought-provoking and profoundly eerie.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It didn't feel like horror, I was expecting some sort of beet or soil monster to appear or something more sinister than a wildly dysfunctional inner monologue as our main character loses her tenuous grip on sanity.

While Elise was very well written, her anxieties and disordered eating absolutely ring with lived experience and her spiral into... whatever that was... was believable and authentic.

However. I couldn't stand her as a main character. While yes, she was definitely ill, it was frustrating to watch her completely destroy her life. So while I think this was a well written book, I really did not enjoy it. I'm going to give it 3/5 for the writing, and I can admit that maybe it's just not for me, but I probably should have DNF'd it rather than hoping for a monster or a serial killer to show up.

>she couldn't figure out why, because she wasn't an expert in snaps. Elise was only an expert in egomaniacal self- hatred, the dark art of inventing new and spectacular ways to feel bad.

Woooooow. Adding to the pile of messy as fuck queer women I will never stop thinking about.

Definitely a weird idea but it was done well and had me hooked throughout the time it took to read. If you are looking for something different you can't go wrong here.

this whole book felt like a hallucination. it was so trippy. so weird. so insane. so.....muddy....
i can't stop thinking about it. if you love female characters in books that are so unhinged it's crazy please read this when it comes out. also if you love worms & maggots.

throughout the whole book it was beautifully described how being isolated feels like and how vulnerable you actually feel when you're off-meds for your high functioning depression and anxiety.

the protagonist, Elise and her bf Tom joins a sugar beet harvest as night shift workers to pay off any debt they had and make some money + afford to buy her medications again for her mental health. over the course of two weeks working in the field, workers starts to disappear with no trace of them at all. Elise was starting to live in her fantasy world again and lose the grip of reality. her inner struggles started to go horribly and it made her defensive about EVERYTHING. paranoia, panic attacks & more {check TW}

there are so many social issues talked about in this book especially her struggles when it comes to her eating disorder. she would count calories & constantly call herself a "fat bitch" even tho she is very petite & small. the struggles she is going through was so damn relatable and it was like reading my own story. everything Elise went through i went through and still does and i love that when it comes to a book because you know that someone out there UNDERSTANDS YOU. SEE YOU. HEAR YOU.

let's not forget the main focus of this book—BEETS.
how the author manage to turn freaking sugar beets into a psychological horror is something i would never understand but it works. i'm scared of talking beets. i don't want to eat them anymore. let them stay underground.

this debut novel reminded me of Ottesa Mosfegh's book called My Year of Rest & Relaxation & Mona Awad's book, Rouge. brilliant writing. amazing premise.

and oh yeah, fuck beets.

(release date: February 2025)

Beta Vulgaris is labeled as horror but it’s not the type of horror that goes bump in the night, it’s societal horror that’s explored in this surreal debut novel by Margie Sarsfield. We follow Elise and her boyfriend Tom as they take a seasonal job harvesting sugar beats. For Elise it’s the chance to earn enough to pay a few months rent and escape the never ending calls of debt collectors. But then people start disappearing and she keeps finding strange pamphlets relating to the beat harvest, not to mention her growing suspicions of her boyfriend cheating on her. She begins to disassociate and fall back on disordered eating habits, and we, the reader, begin to question the what is real and what’s in her mind.

This was a really interesting read that delves into class, consumption, mental health, trauma, and an exploration of self loathing. Elise is a flawed but sympathetic character and seeing her deterioration and breakdown was rough. The atmosphere of the novel is strange and surreal, a bit like a fever dream. I really enjoyed Sarsfield’s prose. The ambiguity of the ending may leave readers wanting but I feel like it works and left me thinking about it long after I had finished reading it. Sarsfield’s writing definitely left an impression on me and I want to read more of her work in the future.

I think that this will appeal to those who enjoy Mona Awad and Melissa Broder’s writing. It also had My Year of Rest and Relaxation vibes.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher. I received an advance review copy, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What an interesting journey this was. Initially, I must admit I struggled with this, but ultimately I realized that my discomfort was the entire point. This is a bizarre, slow burn psychological horror that will weave its way through you so subtly that you won’t even realize until it’s too late that it’s gripped you by the roots.

Elise is ruled by her endless neuroses. Struggling with an inner cacophony of with body dysmorphia, disordered eating, money insecurities, identity crises, relationships and other stressors, Elise can never seem to find solace.

When she volunteers on a middle-of-nowhere midwestern beet farm with her boyfriend, she is forced to confront these agonizing and unrelenting inner voices and decide if she can learn to live with the many versions of herself.

Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

🌟 Rating: 4/5

This book is haunting, surreal, and absolutely impossible to look away from. Beta Vulgaris isn’t your typical story—it’s weird, unsettling, and brimming with vivid, disorienting imagery that sticks with you long after you’ve finished.

Elise, the protagonist, is painfully relatable in her desperation to escape debt and find some sense of control in her life, even if it means taking on a grueling seasonal job harvesting sugar beets. But what starts as an exhausting, physically punishing gig quickly spirals into something much darker. The strange texts, the growing tension in her relationship, the hypnotic whispers from the beet pile—it all adds up to an atmosphere of creeping dread that keeps you turning pages, even as it feels like everything is falling apart.

What I found most striking about this book is how it uses its bizarre premise to explore heavier themes. Elise’s struggles with disordered eating and dissociation feel raw and deeply personal, woven into the story in a way that doesn’t pull punches. The book also digs into class, labor exploitation, and the pressures of a system that grinds people down, all wrapped in this unsettling, almost otherworldly narrative.

That said, this isn’t a book for everyone. The story’s surreal elements can feel disorienting, and some readers might find the lack of a clear resolution frustrating. But for me, that ambiguity works—it mirrors Elise’s own unraveling and leaves you with questions that linger long after the last page.

If you’re looking for something eerie, thought-provoking, and completely unique, Beta Vulgaris is worth diving into. Just be prepared to sit with its discomfort—it’s not here to offer easy answers.

2.5 ⭐

The first half of this book was incredibly strong and I thought this would be a favorite book for the year. I loved the flowery writing and the unreliable boyfriend and insecure girlfriend dynamic that was being set up. And then the story dropped off and solely focused on a lot of unnecessary dialogue between characters and it just dragged. I considered not finishing it, but since it was a quick read I powered through.

The ending is one of those that leaves you wondering WTF you just read, so I can see this book being a hit with people. For me I just couldn't relate to Elise's issues of poor spending habits, so the character came off as a "woe is me." person who didn't seem to want to work on herself.

I think a big issue is the marketing of this book as horror. This was a fever dream, weird girl lit book for sure but NOT horror, so imagine my disappointment when I got to the last page and not a single horror element was read.

I really enjoyed the writing style of this. Very sharp and raw. At the end I had a feeling as thought I was almost being gaslit… didn’t I read that earlier in Elise’s experiences??? Had me questioning myself, as thought I had misread it. The detail of Sarsfield’s writing just further pulled you into the downward spiral. The obsession of counting calories really emphasized Elise’s mental deterioration. Her ‘mental breakdown’ at the restaurant was difficult to read… but like a train wreck, you can’t look away. Perfect winter read! Bleak, in a good way, with pockets of humor, and heaps of self-loathing.

I've just emerged from the strange, unsettling world of Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield (forthcoming February 2025), where the mundane task of harvesting sugar beets in Minnesota becomes a surreal descent into one woman's spiraling depression. What begins as a straightforward story about seasonal work to escape debt becomes something far more devastating - and weirdly compelling. Through Elise's eyes, we experience not just the physical labor of the beet harvest, but the exhausting weight of existing in a mind that's constantly at war with itself. Sarsfield renders disordered eating, self-loathing, and crushing anxiety with such stark familiarity that you find yourself nodding in recognition even as you wince at the truth of it. It's all threaded through with a caustic, mean-spirited humor that somehow makes the relentless internal monologue bearable - even darkly entertaining. When mysterious voices begin emanating from the beet pile and workers start disappearing, you're not quite sure if you're witnessing a psychological unraveling or something more sinister. The genius is that both readings work, and both are equally horrifying.

This was wild. One of the most blatant and raw books I've ever read about spiraling into an unhinged and deep Depression. But also, beets?

I have never in my life seen or read a book about people harvesting beets before. But the actual beet stuff, while educational, was not that interesting. The magic of this book was in the story and the complexity of the main character, Elise. She absolutely despises herself and is convinced that everyone around her also can't stand her. This can get exhausting, but the author infuses a caustic and mean spirited humor into the tone that makes it work. (At least, for me it did.) Elise is incredibly self-aware but she can't help herself. She is a human car crash. 

Margie Sarsfield nails what it’s like to have zero confidence in yourself or how other people feel about you, and she portrays it in poetic ways. Elise isn’t even sure if her own boyfriend likes her. I don’t relate to ALL of Elise’s struggles, but the way that Sarsfield portrays a specific brand of mid-life Depression and Anxiety is frighteningly spot on. I can easily picture numerous reviewers saying things like, “I couldn’t stand this narrator! Had to DNF!” Being inside her head is NOT a picnic because of the brutal honesty, racing thoughts and relentless self hatred. And it only gets worse as bad things continue to happen on this miserable seasonal beet farm job.

Shortly after arriving at the site in their camper, settling in and meeting everyone, Elise immediately begins to come apart mentally. (Wasn’t there a weird sign on the wall earlier? Where did it go? Etc. It's little details that don't REALLY matter.) Elise has a gross rash on her neck that she can’t identify and it only gets more worrisome. (Is it beet related?) She even feels a connection to the beets themselves, imagining she can hear them speak to her. There's a surreal quality to things that mirror her deteriorating mental state, and it's done with incredible skill.

I was confused at first why numbers would occasionally pop up here and there in parentheses, and then I realized that Elise was a very strict counter of calories. This plays a large role in who she is and how she treats herself, and I caution anyone who struggles with this that the story deals with both starvation and binge eating in visceral detail. There were lots of what I would call micro-triggers in this book, meaning Elise’s internal monologue was so honest and casually dark that she would constantly drop little nuggets of confession over and over that would practically make me suck air through my teeth. She was often a bit TOO real.

And still, the weird humor throughout kept it grounded. (Example: Elise and her coworkers would go to a restaurant called “Spaghett About It,” where Elise essentially has a mental breakdown at one point that was difficult to read.) Sarsfield crafted a miserable experience with this novel that I couldn't get enough of. At the end of the book, I was questioning things. I felt like even I had misread some of Elise’s experiences, and the realizations that I reached were not fun. This author is so talented.

This is absolutely one of my best reads of the year, but I do caution that I tend to enjoy the bleak stuff. It will NOT be for everyone! And mind the triggers, of which there are many. I predict that some reviewers will state that this is not actually Horror, but if you've ever suffered from Depression this severe, I beg to differ.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own. 

Biggest TW: Sick animals (dogs), **Disordered eating, Body shaming, Substance abuse, Anxiety, Self-harm, References to Sexual Harassment of a Minor, Allusions to SA, Severe Depression/Suicidal ideation

Maybe the marketing labeling this as “horror” was lost to me.

Sure the MCs mental health was alarming at times, but I don’t think enough happened plot wise.

I read more pages about the lack of funds in her bank account than actually plot development. So sadly this didn’t work for me personally.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC

3.5 ? 4 stars? Hard to rate because there was so much I liked about this book but found the middle to draaaag. Major trigger warnings for eating disorders.

I loved the unique, atmospheric setting of the beet farm in the chilly Midwest. Elise is a broken character with a serious eating disorder / compulsive thoughts / and spends all her money on concert tickets leaving her broke and anxious, i.e she’s extremely relatable. She heads to a beet farm for seasonal work with her boyfriend and people start to go missing. The last 15% of the book shit gets WEIRD / fever dreamy / dark and I LOVED it. I just needed way more of that, and less of the nothing that went on for a good chunk in the middle. So bizarre. So cool. Need this as an A24 movie.

Wouldn’t market this as horror. It’s for the weird lit fic girlies.

I'm not quite sure how to classify this novel. Creepy at times, but perhaps not horror in the traditional sense. But that's okay because I actually enjoyed reading this book and I think it will resonate with a lot of people.

Elisa and Tom are spending some time at a gig job harvesting sugar beets. This story is read from Elisa's eyes and she is, frankly, a mess. She suffers from debt, depression, mental illness, an eating disorder, and a need to be a people pleaser no matter what.

Her thoughts are told to us and being inside her spiriling out of control mind is a surreal experience. Often disjointed and obsessive thoughts swirl around her like dust in a windstorm. Yet, even as we sympathize with her, it feels like there's something darker lurking which she tries to hold in check.

Other workers start disappearing from the job site, including her boyfriend Tom. It's weird but she is told it's normal, that it happens every year. People can't handle the job and they leave. But the beets seem to "speak" to her.

Whether this is a product of her mental health or if it's truly something supernatural is left for the reader to decide. Really, this is a deep dive into an unsettled mind more than a traditional horror novel.

But I found it fascinating and was never sure what was real or just coming from an unreliable character's mind. It's certainly different than anything I've read before and the narrative was paced wonderfully with short sharp chapters.

It's not for every horror fiction reader but no book is. However, if you want something that relies on mental manipulation and not on blood and gore, I highly recommend this one.

When I first started reading Beta Vulgaris I thought I'd love it. The author has a beautiful way of writing, and I could really connect with Elise and her problems, but then came the first Pretty Little Liar "recap". It felt out of place, but didn't bother me too much. Not yet anyways. What bothered me mostly was the repetitiveness of the book as a whole. Too much information was given more than once or twice and it felt more like filler material than actual substance. Once we got the second and third Pretty Little Liar recap, I was also tired of that. I've seen the show and loved it, but to someone that never watched it it probably wouldn't have made much sense. The book is overall very bleak and I didn't mind that, but the ending felt underwhelming even if it was tragic and on theme.

4.25/5

This felt like a fever dream. It's so crazy that most of this story only takes place within two weeks. So much, yet so little happens. I loved the narrative of this story; I never knew what exactly was real and what was in her mind.

Thank you NetGalley and W W Norton & Company for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

5 ⭐️. this book as weird. like, WEIRD weird. and I loved every minute of it. I found myself dragging the book along because I wanted to keep staying within this weird, twisted world of Elise, Tom and the beet harvesters. I will be forever have nightmares about beets and sugar now.

ty to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.