Like a rash rubbed raw or a beet boiled to its limits, Margie Sarsfield's Beta Vulgaris is a livid, visceral reading experience that will burrow into the reader's mind like the roots of so many tubers. When I first started reading this book, I got strong Kathe Koja vibes, which is a legitimate comparison both stylistically and for the content of this fever dream narrative, but the magic of Koja's punk-rock-prose is in its delicate balance. In a book like Cipher, the reader is constantly bombarded with repulsive aesthetic detail and plagued by the characters' irrational inner monologues, but the pacing allows Koja's brilliantly original plot to shine through the chaos. Beta Vulgaris, by contrast, was couple of beets behind the orchestra in terms of rhythm.

By the end, it's hard not to feel bloated and overfed by the sheer madness of the narration. You feel assaulted by the miserable sensory detail you've been fed and violated by the disturbing eroticism infused into every page. That being said, the experience of accompanying Elise on her earth-choked descent into hell is perversely thrilling. Sarsfield is clearly an author to pay attention to, but it will take a particular reader to love this unique, body-horror-heavy nightmare.

A mesmeric thank you to WW Norton & Co. and NetGalley for the ARC.

This debut horror litfic novel is the story of an unquiet mind- a meek yet witty girl with abnormal thoughts. Elise works at a beet farm with her boyfriend, Tom, over the summer to make quick cash. But their adventure quickly turns out to be more than they bargained for as people disappear amidst a mass hysteria. And Elise herself begins to experience a sensitivity towards the frenzy when her boyfriend disappears.

Beta Vulgaris is a visceral portrayal of nature at its most hypnotic state. It’s funny, ambiguous, yet relatable through Elise’s voice. Her inner monologue becomes stranger and more incoherent as she slowly becomes one with the earth, which unfortunately does make the plot drag towards the end. Albeit a slower read, I enjoyed this character driven book (especially the first half) and am excited to read more of this author’s future work.

This was a delightfully weird and harrowing novel. Taking place at sugar beet farm, Elise is a seasonal worker running away from her problems and hoping her pay day will solve everything. It's impossible not to feel for Elise who is a beautifully written tragic character.

(4.5/5, rounded up)
Are we sure this is Margie Sarsfield's debut? Her incisive attention to detail - not only in her storytelling but in the prose itself - impressed me from the start. I'm not sure I've ever come across such crafty, masterful use of motifs. Thanks to how efficiently and effectively you're brought into her mind, connecting with Elise feels effortless. The way her spiraling thoughts are used to propel the story forward and hint at subtle shifts in her reality is *chef's kiss*.

Beta Vulgaris only had 2 downfalls:
- This trope is so, so common
- There was a lull in the back half that almost lost me, The pace picking back up not soon after, I'm happy I stuck around. Removing that downtime, though, would push this to a 5/5.

While the ending was predictable, the way in which it unfolds was not. Unlike other books I feel predictable, I still wanted to push through in order to see how Margie Sarsfield closes the novel out.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Sky Daddy by Kate Folk, Hard Copy by Fien Veldman, A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan, Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier and/or My Husband by Maud Ventura.

I liked this - a surreal reading experience. I just feel like the description and genre it’s listed as were a bit misleading, which causes some people to be let down. Like they were expecting more horror - this is more subtle. I would recommend but call it more of a psychological character study that goes off the rails.

I'm still unsure why this read was in the horror section in NetGalley. Maybe a bit psychological horror? So I did feel for Elise throughout the book. The author was very good at describing what a person goes through with anxiety and depression without their meds. Also, if they can't afford those meds, which was very sad. I spent the first half of the book wondering where we were going with the story, then the last half skimming paragraphs, wanting it to move along. It got redundant and fever dreamish and those aren't always the best qualities of a book for me.

I saw other reviews refer to the ending as not being good, and I completely agree. It was abrupt and it meant perhaps a metaphor but I am not good with metaphors in books. Just give it to me straight. And the time frame was confusing to me- I finally realized that it takes place 10 years ago, in 2014. There were Generation Y cliques on the camp where Elise stayed at while she worked at the beet farm. "Crust punks", "train riders", "free bleeders" (don't ask), any type of hipsters and Emo kids you can imagine were in this book.

In the end, I felt let down. This didn't give me any feelings and that's what I yearn for in a book. I digress.

Chronically broke Elise and her boyfriend Tom travel from Brooklyn to Minnesota to take part in the Sugar Beet harvest. It will be back breaking labor, but it will pay well enough to cover their rent for a while -- a relief for Elise who is being hounded by her debt, and guilt about that debt.

Elise will be relatable (too relatable) to MANY female readers -- self-conscious, self-loathing and in a perpetual loop of anxiety and guilt about that self-loathing. Our clearly unreliable narrator is bound to unravel at any moment.

And unravel she does. This is definitely for fans of Mona Awad or Odessa Moshfegh.

I was hoping this would be a bit more "spooky" but that's on me -- the true terror is just being a young woman without adequate mental health care.

oooo ok I honestly loved the heck outta this one. probably between 4-4.5 stars for me. I thought the premise sounded super fun and spooky and it definitely delivered. while it didn't really get quite as spooky as I would've liked, I loved the slow build of horror and Elise's descent into madness. I love stories where it's hard to tell what's real and what's imagined - big fever dream vibes, good body horror. I found this compulsively readable despite the spiraling, maddening anxiety throughout the duration of the book. explored interesting themes relating to class, mental health and body image, made me scared of beets, etc.

definitely impressed by Sarsfield and very interested in anything else she puts out into the world!!

thanks ww norton & company + netgalley for the arc <3

Solid 3 stars. Let me begin by saying that I am relatively new to the horror genre, and finding out that a lot of horror books aren't just your typical scary story. I 100% thought that this story was going to be more on the scary and typical horror side after reading the synopsis and going into the book, which was a little bit of a let down. I really liked the different themes and elements that the author added into this book, finding myself relating with Elise more than I thought I would. The author did a great job at depicting how mentally debilitating it can be to deal with and go through an eating disorder and anxiety. I also liked how the author depicted Elise's emotions when dealing with her relationship with Tom. Even after he had fucked her over, she continued to go back and fourth between loving and missing him and absolutely hating him, something that I believe to be accurate when people go through something traumatic in a relationship. Unfortunately, I wanted a little more from this story. I was hoping this would be a scary horror book, which it did not deliver. I also wish we found out what happened to all of the people who went missing. And lastly, the ending was incredibly disappointing.

Thank you to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the ARC I received for review.

this book was surreal and hypnotizing in some very weird ways. How you can manage to turn sugar beets, of all things, into an impressive psychological horror-adjacent novel in the same way as My Year of Rest And Relaxation, among other things, is beyond me, but Sarsfield delivered it in this book. At times it was a little bit ambiguous, but I found that part of its charm. 4.5 stars. tysm for the arc.

In some ways, Beta Vulgaris was excellent — I’ve rarely encountered such effective descriptions of anxiety and self-loathing. Truly visceral. I felt myself growing increasingly unnerved the further I read. It was also deeply satisfying to watch the main character Elise’s perspective unravel as truths of her life and the people around her were revealed throughout the novel. The book was gripping; I really didn’t want to put it down.

However, around 3/4 of the way through the book, things came a little too undone. The book largely is written in the form of Elise’s stream of consciousness. Given her steadily mounting anxiety, this form could have built to a satisfying climax, but for me… fizzled. At a certain point, the scales tipped. Maybe because the ending was overly protracted, rather than building tension, the frenzied tone came across too scattered and nonsensical, to the point of being unpleasant to read. After having been on the edge of my seat for so much of the book, I just wanted to wrap up.

Over all, I did enjoy the book, though, and would recommend it to readers who enjoy flawed and unreliable female narrators, fans of psychological/eco horror or really, just strange books generally, and millennials who fear looking at their latest bank statements.

I can’t stop thinking about this novel. If you enjoy unhinged female characters, Beta Vulgaris should be on your want to read list. The author, Margie Sarsfield, does an excellent job conveying isolation and vulnerability in her forthcoming book, due for publication next February.

Our main character, Elise, joins a sugar beet harvest as a night worker with the intention of getting ahead on her debts. Over the course of two weeks, throughout which many agricultural workers start to disappear, Elise slowly loses grip on reality. The brutality of the work, combined with Elise’s internal struggles culminate, and essentially leave her incapacitated in survival mode. Her anxiety is also driven by her empty bank account, which leaves her unable to take basic care of herself. There are certainly elements of horror in this novel, but I would more likely classify it as a dystopia.

I would recommend Beta Vulgaris for readers who appreciate the darker elements of works by authors like Mellissa Broder and Ottessa Moshfegh. I would not recommend this book, however, to anyone who struggles reading about disordered eating. This is featured in graphic detail many times throughout the novel.

A huge thank you to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book was... weird. But weird in a good way. Weird that left me curious and wanting to read more. Weird in a way that made me feel excited over what could happen next.

The main character was completely likable. From her struggles with money to her mental health, I related to her a lot and thus enjoyed reading the tale based on her narrative alone. I really wanted her to find the answers she needed and have a happy ending.

As far as the beets go... there could have been more beets. I expected more beets, I think. But they still worked as a sort of in-the-background, almost eerie sort of way.

This book left me with more questions than answers and I have frustrations over that, but that's normal. I really wish this book had had an additional 50 pages or so, but I would recommend it to anyone who was looking for an enjoyable, weird read and overall I enjoyed it.

"Worms can't talk, said the beets."

Elise is a complex and compelling character. She has a lot of issues that, unfortunately, I and probably a good portion of the female population can relate to to some degree. And while she is interesting in those ways, she's mostly boring. This story is 80% her stream of consciousness, and most of it is repetitive and nothing happens. Like the parts of Pretty Little Lists were absolutely unneeded.

I was intrigued, however, dying to find out what was going to happen, but I swam through so much stuff that did not forward the plot for nothing. The ending was so disappointing.

This was such an interesting book! It was creepy, a little bit scary, but not too too bad. I love the themes of class, anxiety, paranoia, and relationships. This had a great pacing to it and it kept me intrigued the whole way through! I would definitely read another book from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!