Beta Vulgaris
A Novel
by Margie Sarsfield
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Pub Date Feb 11 2025 | Archive Date Jan 31 2025
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Description
A young woman’s seasonal job working a sugar beet harvest takes a surreal turn in this surprising and vivid debut.
When Elise and her boyfriend, Tom, set off for Minnesota, all she knows about harvesting sugar beets (Beta vulgaris) is that her paycheck will cover a few months’ rent on their Brooklyn apartment. She’ll try anything to escape the incessant debt collections calls—and chronic anxieties about her body and her relationship. But as the grueling graveyard shifts set in, Elise notices strange things: threatening texts, a mysterious rash, a string of disappearances from the workers’ campsite, and snatches of a hypnotic voice coming from the beet pile itself.
As crewmembers vanish, Elise obsesses over Tom’s closeness with their charismatic coworker Cee and falls back on self-destructive patterns of disordered eating and dissociation. Against the horrors of her uncertain future, is the siren song of the beet pile almost . . . appealing? Biting and eerie, Beta Vulgaris harnesses an audacious premise to undermine straightforward narratives of class, trauma, consumption, and redemption.
Advance Praise
"Sarsfield’s ambitious and delightfully bizarre debut portrays the yearning and misfortunes of a white 20-something migrant worker in the Midwest.... Sarsfield perfectly captures the vulnerability Elise feels as a result of being at the mercy of things outside of her control and her terrible sense of self. It’s a knockout." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Beta Vulgaris announces the arrival of a singular talent: Margie Sarsfield's debut novel will burrow into your very soul. I couldn't put it down." -Nick White, author of How To Survive a Summer
"Uncanny and electric and quietly harrowing. . . . Margie Sarsfield dazzles us and challenges us, delivering a novel so vivid and memorable, I’ll be thinking of beet pilers for years to come." -Danya Kukafka, author of Notes on an Execution
"Sharp and atmospheric eco-horror that slices into the gruesome strangeness of industrialized agriculture. With Maggie Sarsfield’s compelling cast and heady, urgent prose, Beta Vulgaris is a fever dream hungry to consume you." -Kathryn Harlan, author of Fruiting Bodies
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781324078739 |
| PRICE | $18.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 288 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Katie H, Reviewer
I loved the writing in this book. I can’t get enough of the writing in this book. Sarsfield paints a woman that is anxious and makes poor choices but I still want what’s best for her. Even though you know the genre is horror, you want her to be okay.
This is psychological horror at its best, and also a bit of Midwestern Gothic. One of my new favorites. (If you’ve struggled with disordered eating before, though, I would recommend skipping this one).
I received this book as an advanced copy and I’m leaving my review for free.
Garrett K, Librarian
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.
Jennifer H, Reviewer
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!
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