The Paper Wasp

by Lauren Acampora

Overview

"Take The Talented Mr. Ripley, cross it with Suspiria, add a dash of La La Land and mix it all at midnight and this arty psychological stalker novel is what might result."—New York Times Book Review

Hailed as a "Best Book of the Summer" by the New York Times, O Magazine, Elle, Town & Country, and BBC.com, among others, Lauren Acampora's debut novel The Paper Waspis a riveting knife-edge story of two women's dark friendship of twisted ambition set against the backdrop of contemporary Hollywood. Beguiling and unexpected, The Paper Wasp is a journey into the psyche and imagination of a woman determined to fulfill her destiny, from one of our most unique and incisive writers.

"A hypnotic tale of codependence that skewers our fascination with gossip and fame."—O Magazine, "The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802148810
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/17/2020
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,117,309
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lauren Acampora is the author of The Wonder Garden, winner of the GLCA New Writers Award and a finalist for the New England Book Award; The Paper Wasp, longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize; and The Hundred Waters, named a Best Book of 2022 by Vogue. She is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Fiction from The New York Foundation for the Arts. Her writing has appeared in Paris Review, Guernica, The New York Times Book Review, and LitHub, among other places. She lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, artist Thomas Doyle, and their daughter.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Paper Wasp
Named a BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER by NEW YORK TIMES, O MAGAZINE, ELLE, TOWN & COUNTRY, TATLER, THRILLIST, BBC.COM, LITERARY HUB, and PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
One of USA TODAY’s “5 books not to miss”

“Take The Talented Mr. Ripley, cross it with Suspiria, add a dash of La La Land and mix it all at midnight and this arty psychological stalker novel is what might result.”—New York Times Book Review

“A hypnotic tale of codependence that skewers our fascination with gossip and fame.”— O Magazine, “The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019”

“The Paper Waspfixes its gaze on one magnetic and increasingly twisted friendship... hypnotic and sensual... Acampora’s prose has a seductive, pearlescent allure.”—TIME Magazine

“Acampora’s kaleidoscopic narrative shifts fluidly from Abby’s strange, shimmering images to Elise’s descent into tabloid erasure, artfully tracking the unexpected power shift between them.”—BBC.com

“Gripping...likely to buzz its way into many beach bags this summer.”—Irish Times

“A thrilling tale of a twisted friendship, obsession and ambition...an unsettling, compelling read.”—Tatler

“Landing somewhere in between Marisha Pessl's Night Film and You by Caroline Kepnes, The Paper Wasp aims to disturb while it enraptures.”—Open Letters Review

“Readers will enjoy reading this story of dark friendship set against the 'flash of Hollywood.'”—Boston.com

“This is the Los Angeles of weird cults and day-drunk stars, of struggling documentary filmmakers and mysterious but powerful directors... Utterly bizarre and completely bewitching, this twisted, delicious tale will grab you from the first page and hurl you over the edge.”—Kirkus Reviews(starred review)

“Acampora's linked short story collection, The Wonder Garden, electrified literary critics, and this deeply disturbing, wildly inventive, and completely unpredictable debut novel is sure to do the same. Abby and Elise will be haunting readers' dreams long after the last page.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“An unsettling and surreal excavation of the boundless depths of the human psyche… Acampora’s writing is gorgeous and renders with precision and clarity the spiral of Abby’s increasingly disorienting world of obsession and hallucinatory imagery. The result is a piercing, disquieting novel.”—Publishers Weekly

“It seems at first a novel of friendship between women—a rich vein for any writer—but in The Paper Wasp, Lauren Acampora upends convention, creating an unsettling (and impossible to put down) story about art and ambition, fame and power. A beautiful and surprising book.”—Rumaan Alam, author of That Kind of Mother

“Acampora is an exquisite stylist who misses no shade or psychological texture and who also plumbs depths of feeling in note-perfect prose that leaves one stunned at the artistry on display. The Paper Wasp is a powerful statement of aesthetic purpose, and an unalloyed triumph.”—Matthew Thomas, author of We Are Not Ourselves

“A lyrical, provocative, imaginative page turner that makes the world feel new again, The Paper Wasp is both a stunning portrait of a fixated woman and an addictive, modern commentary on an eternal theme of obsession. In her glittering, goosebump-inducing prose, Lauren Acampora gives us a soul trip/head trip/rarefied LA trip replete with surrealism and social commentary.”—Caroline Kepnes, author of You

“The Paper Wasp was a crazy joy ride of a novel; a bold and joyous take on female friendship, outsider ambition and the secret powers of loners. It gives us a heroine who is selfish, weird, manipulative, and sometimes just plain nasty, and makes us root for her with all our selfish, weird, manipulative, and nasty hearts. I loved every second of it.”—Sandra Newman, author of The Heavens

From the Publisher

★ 2019-03-17
In this thrilling debut novel, a young woman with big but unfocused ambitions moves to Los Angeles to become the personal assistant to her childhood best friend, a rising Hollywood starlet.

Brilliant Abby never really made it out of her childhood bedroom in Michigan. Her vivid dream life and teenage obsession with the surrealist filmmaker Auguste Perren have pinned her in one place while she grows ever more detached and depressed. "The walls around my dream life leaked," Abby admits, early in the novel. "My night visions were three-dimensional, lavishly detailed scenes, feature-length films." But when Elise Van Dijk, Abby's childhood best friend and a now-famous actress, returns home for their 10-year high school reunion, her near-erotic dreams of reconnection take on the contours of reality. Weeks after the reunion, Abby hops a plane to LA and shows up out of the blue at Elise's gated front door, where she resumes her role as best friend, confidante, and support system. "I was simply there to listen, to groan in sympathy and glow with pride....I loved the sound of your voice. Whatever its petty grievances or vacuous prattle, I would have been happy to hear it forever." Acampora (The Wonder Garden, 2015) writes propulsive sentences at a fever pitch, guiding the reader through Abby's dream world as she hunts for corresponding clues in a reality of her own making. Told in the second person, the novel is by turns a confession, an accusation, and a stalker's diary, yet it is also grounded by Acampora's musings on philosophy, art, and ambition. While there are more novels than ever dedicated to obsessive female friendship, Acampora takes a relationship story that could have been reduced to petty jealousy and turns it into something bigger and weirder, as if David Lynch had astral projected into the work of Melissa Broder. This is the Los Angeles of weird cults and day-drunk stars, of struggling documentary filmmakers and mysterious but powerful directors. By turns demented, sad, and frightening, Abby is a unique heroine making all the wrong choices feel somehow right and just.

Utterly bizarre and completely bewitching, this twisted, delicious tale will grab you from the first page and hurl you over the edge.

Kirkus Reviews