Publishers Weekly
11/29/2021
A writer and new mother flails through life in Morris’s sparkling debut novel (after the memoir Bon Appetempt). After Leanne Hazelton realizes she detests her best friend, East Los Angeles influencer and anti-vaxxer Regina Mark, Leanne surreptitiously gets Regina’s Instagram password and launches a slow campaign to discredit her. While nursing the grudge, Leanne prepares for the launch of her cookbook memoir; grapples with the recent death of her father (she keeps hearing his voice); and struggles to manage a student in the writing class she teaches out of her house, an older man who doesn’t recognize page limits or personal boundaries. A local measles outbreak and the potential exposure of it to Leanne’s son ramps up Leanne’s annoyance at Regina, though her attempts to sabotage Regina’s reputation gain little traction until she teams up with new friend and literary phenomenon Maxine Hunter for a large-scale prank. Seeing the feud from only Leanne’s side perfectly captures the false intimacy of social media and how confusing its connections can be, an ambience intensified by Morris’s arresting, concise observations, such as the description of Leanne communicating with her half-sister “mostly with variations on the heart emoji.” These zany episodes yield great drama. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK of FEBRUARY by LA Times, Bustle, The Millions, Alta Journal and more!
"The thing I was prepared to like least about Amelia Morris’s funny and engrossing debut novel—new motherhood and all the requisite growing pains—ultimately became the thing I admired about it most... Wildcat was a book I couldn’t set down for long." —The New York Times
"Like Dana Spiotta's Wayward but funnier, the novel is also a hard look at the role of social media in women's lives... A smart, juicy, of-the-moment read." —Kirkus, starred review
"In this sly and funny commentary on the institution of motherhood, Morris... delivers a compulsively readable product. With short chapters and buttery-smooth prose, it’s also an exploration of the ebbs and flows of female friendship and how people can betray each other in microscopic ways..." —Booklist, starred review
"These zany episodes yield great drama." —Publishers Weekly
“An excellent book. Fast-paced, funny, and satisfying.”
—Emily Oster, bestselling author of Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong—and What You Really Need to Know
"A witty, wise examination of friendship, class and family, and a hilarious, pitch perfect send-up of L.A’.s bougie-bohemian class" —People, Book of the Week Pick
"Amelia Morris writes into reality—the beautiful and the ugly, the way we inevitably measure ourselves against one another. Vibrant and fast-moving, Wildcat is on its surface a compelling read, but it also has bite. The novel is dark and eviscerating on class and entitlement while Morris is funny and sharp on the page. Her movement into fiction is a true reward to readers."
—Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise
“Wildcat is a sharp, funny, richly wrought take on trying to be both mother and whatever else one sets out to be. Immensely readable and deeply felt, Morris takes readers through the particularly wild and prickly world of a certain type of female friendship in all its complicated, shameful, and sometimes deeply satisfying forms.”
—Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want
"Wildcat is that rare novel I'm always in the mood to read: at once laugh-at-loud funny and deeply serious, page-turning and smart. Amelia Morris tackles contemporary motherhood—with its social media-induced peer pressure, its confusing isolation, its complicated beauty—with the sharpest wit and a tenderness that takes my breath away. I loved this book. I want to press it into the hands of...everyone.”
—Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of Woman No. 17 and California
"Wildcat is a delightful, searingly accurate novel about the insecurity of new motherhood meeting the seduction of toxic friendships. In writing that manages to be tender, precise, and funny, Morris tells the story of a woman in a state of becoming, caught between what’s natural and what’s wild. And with witty sendups of a certain kind of L.A. style and the absurdity of influencer culture, Wildcat reminded me what juicy fun disappearing into a good book can be."
—Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble
"Wildcat is a sharp, tight debut, marking Morris as a writer to watch." —Wilmington Star News
Library Journal
09/01/2021
Once a shopgirl, now a new mother and aspiring writer, Leanne is becoming increasingly uncertain of her path in life—and suspicious of her putative best friend, the wealthy and socially prominent Regina. As she sorts through issues of friendship, class, and whether her father is really speaking to her from the grave, Leanne benefits from a blooming new friendship with the distinguished author Maxine Hunter. A debut from popular blogger/podcaster Morris; with a 75,000-copy first printing.
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-11-30
A writer in Los Angeles with a new baby and a first book on the way finds motherhood has changed her view of things.
As Morris' snappy debut opens, Leanne and her husband, James, are about to drop off their barky dog at WagVille and drive to Palm Springs for the lavish anniversary party of Leanne's wealthy, self-absorbed frenemy (on the way to regular old enemy), Regina. They don't really want to go, but "it'll be good for the book," says Leanne. Diary of a Home Cook: A Year in Recipes is coming out in five months, and among Regina's entourage is a journalist who might cover it. Regina is no doubt a snob and a phony, but Leanne, too, has traits that add to the negative potential of their relationship—envy, ambition, and a dangerously complete mastery of social media. When she discovers that on top of everything else Regina is an anti-vaxxer, she declares war via Instagram, incidentally offering the reader a complete guide to trolling. (Note: the book is set not in the pandemic but during a measles outbreak.) Morris has her finger on the pulse of many things: the sweetness of early motherhood, the grief of losing a parent, the ups and downs of launching a life in writing, the role of economic and career status in female friendships. Like Dana Spiotta's Wayward but funnier, the novel is also a hard look at the role of social media in women's lives. If it sounds like men don't play a big role in this book, they don't. There are just two male characters: James, the mostly offstage but very nice husband, and a nightmarish writing workshop student named Earl, whose trajectory is quite unexpected. Morris is also unusually gentle with her heroine, giving her a supercool bestselling author for a mentor and punishing her less severely for her mistakes than in the traditional fiction model.
A smart, juicy, of-the-moment read.
