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About The Paper Wasp
An electrifying debut novel from the acclaimed author of The Wonder Garden, The Paper Wasp is a riveting knife-edge story of two women’s dark friendship of twisted ambition set against the backdrop of contemporary Hollywood
In small-town Michigan, Abby Graven leads a solitary life. Once a bright student on the cusp of a promising art career, she now languishes in her childhood home, trudging to and from her job as a supermarket cashier. Each day she is taunted from the magazine racks by the success of her former best friend Elise, a rising Hollywood starlet whose life in pictures Abby obsessively scrapbooks. At night Abby escapes through the films of her favorite director, Auguste Perren, a cult figure known for his creative institute the Rhizome. Inspired by Perren, Abby draws fantastical storyboards based on her often premonitory dreams, a visionary gift she keeps hidden.
When Abby encounters Elise again at their high school reunion, she is surprised and warmed that Elise still considers her not only a friend but a brilliant storyteller and true artist. Elise’s unexpected faith in Abby reignites in her a dormant hunger, and when Elise offhandedly tells Abby to look her up if she’s ever in LA, Abby soon arrives on her doorstep. There, Abby discovers that although Elise is flourishing professionally, behind her glossy magazine veneer she is lonely and disillusioned. Ever the supportive friend, Abby becomes enmeshed in Elise’s world, even as she guards her own dark secret and burning desire for greatness. As she edges closer to Elise and to her own artistic ambitions, the dynamic shifts between the two friends—until Abby can see only one way to grasp the future that awaits her.
The Paper Wasp is a thrilling, unexpected journey into the psyche and imagination of a woman determined to fulfill her destiny from one of our most unique and incisive writers.
Praise for The Paper Wasp
“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
“Hypnotic and sensual…Acampora’s prose has a seductive, pearlescent allure, even when she’s addressing doomed friendships, friends who can never live up to our expectations, friends who betray.” -TIME Magazine
“A hypnotic tale of codependence that skewers our fascination with gossip and fame.” -Oprah Magazine
"…a razor-edged tale of female friendship.” -Town & Country
“Acampora’s debut novel is a thrilling tale of a twisted friendship, obsession and ambition…an unsettling, compelling read.” -Tatler
“Acampora’s accomplished prose style and the complexity of the themes she addresses catapults this story into the freshly minted category of literary psycho thriller.” -Daily Mail (UK)
“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.” -Jane Ciabattari, BBC
“Gripping and nuanced.” -The Irish Times
“This electrifying debut novel is a dark portrayal of female friendship, set against the backdrop of contemporary Hollywood. An arty thriller that takes a piercing look at obsession and the warped side of human psyche.” -Book Riot
“…the strangest, most intriguing literary debut of the year…a highly specific portrait of a particularly virulent strain of Hollyweirdness.” -The Hollywood Reporter
“[Acampora’s] writing is sublime, and she mines complexity and truth from each and every character.”-The Day
“Lauren Acampora’s The Paper Wasp is sublime—and a highly original debut.” -Image Magazine (Ireland)
“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…a piercing, disquieting novel.” -Publishers Weekly
“Penny-bright, heartfelt, and compulsively readable.”-Library Journal“
“This electrifying story from acclaimed author Lauren Acampora presents a dark and twisted friendship that will leave you on the edge of your seat… This novel excellently displays the mind and imagination of a determined, goal-oriented woman willing to do almost anything in order to achieve her dreams.” -Tallahassee Woman Magazine
“The Paper Wasp is a dark fable on the nature of friendship, fame, and the way dreams can influence our waking life.” -Zyzzyva
“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.” —Rumaan Alam, author of That Kind of Mother
“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 is 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, and manipulative, and makes us root for her with all our selfish, weird, and manipulative hearts. I loved every second of it.”—Sandra Newman, author of The Heavens
“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