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    The Paper Wasp
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    The Paper Wasp
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    The Paper Wasp
    Ebook254 pages4 hours

    The Paper Wasp

    By Lauren Acampora

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook





    • The anticipated first novel from Lauren Acampora is an imaginative and uniquely suspenseful story of two childhood friends who both want to make it in Hollywood and the cult-like institution they are involved with.




    • Protagonist Abby Graven is one whose darker machinations unfold as the plot progresses, making it a surprising and suspenseful read.




    • Acampora’s story collection The Wonder Garden received rave reviews in the Boston Globe, the New York Times Book Review (“Often a single sentence twists sinuously, charged with positive and negative electricity"), People, BBC.com, and others, as well as earning 4 starred prepubs. It was also an Indie Next Pick, a Barnes and Noble Discover Selection, an Amazon Spotlight Pick and Book of the Month and an NPR Best Book of the Year. It won the GLCA New Writers Award and was finalist for a New England Book Award. We expect similar press for The Paper Wasp.




    • The Paper Wasp will appeal to fans of twisty novels featuring unreliable protagonists, such as The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, Tangerine by Christine Mangan, What Was She Thinking by Zoe Heller, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, and The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud.




    • Acampora’s writing has been compared with that of John Cheever, Ann Beattie, Flannery O’ Connor and the work of David Lynch.




    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrove Press
    Release dateJun 11, 2019
    ISBN9780802147080
    Unavailable
    The Paper Wasp
    Author

    Lauren Acampora

    Lauren Acampora is the author of the novel The Paper Wasp. Her story collection, The Wonder Garden, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers and Indie Next selection, and named a best book of the year by Amazon and NPR.

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    Reviews for The Paper Wasp

    3.5/5

    45 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Hmmm. This book was very interesting. I struggled with the star rating. It’s a good book but yet, left me feeling kind of empty. But then again, maybe that’s the point. Abby and Elise’s friendship is not at all healthy, and it’s all just so strange. The writing is good, which made it enjoyable, but it’s so weird with all the Perren and the Rhizome. To sum it all up, good but strange.....but in a good way. (This review is as strange as the book!)
    • 4/5
      Subject to anxiety, panic attacks, and depression, Abby is struggling with life in general and her art career specifically. When Abby’s best friend from high school, now a Hollywood actress, comes back into her life, the story changes dramatically. “The Paper Wasp” is a thought provoking novel that examines ones control over self and other people in a profound manner.
    • 3/5
      This book was bizarre! Abby and Elise have been friends since they were in kindergarten, but grew apart when Elise starting getting acting jobs in high school. As Elise’s start rose, Abby obsessively tracks Elise through magazine articles. After reconnecting at their high school reunion, Abby decides to visit Elise in CA. Abby works her way into Elise’s life, wanting more out of their friendship than Elise is prepared to give. This is a story of obsession, strange dreams, and taking what isn’t yours. Really strange!
    • 2/5
      Abby was the top of her high school class academically, using her artistic brilliance she enrolls in the University of Michigan only to wind up back at her parents' house. But, upon hearing of her 10 year high school reunion she slithers back into the school gym at the potential of her old friend Elise's presence. Elise and Abby inseparable in childhood faded by Elise's fame in Hollywood as she disappeared from the Midwest and created a life for herself on the coast. Just as the reunion wraps up Elise invites Abby to visit if she ever finds herself in L.A. Uprooting herself from a life of nothingness in Michigan, Abby makes her way to L.A. and calls Eloise. The life Abby begins to create for herself in Eloise's presence, through her encouragement turn Abby's in art and thoughts into a disturbing vortex. Written through the oddly unstable mind of Abby this story was parts tormenting and parts rich. *Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher. All opinions are my own.
    • 4/5
      3.5 This is one of the those books that you finish reading and wonder what is was you just read. Not because I didn't understand it, or at least most of it, but because it was so different, so strange. It's very strangeness is also what I found intriguing. From the beginning it had snow ominious tone, that increases as one reads. Abbi, once had alot of promise, but ultimately found her life unfulfilling. Her early friendship with Elise, a friendship that meant everything, becomes estranged when Elise goes to Hollywood, on her way to becoming a star. They reconnect at their ten year school reunion and eventually Abbi makes her way to Hollywid and immerses herself in Elises life. A novel of obsession, stalking, amongst the Hollywood of cults, hidden directors that prey in the literal sense of it's stars. A mysterious director of cult films, that Abbi had long been obsessed with, and his mysterious institute. Abbi lives inside her dream life, and dreams are what send many to Hollywood, but are the dreams real? I loved this authors first book, a book of connecting stories that were also very different. This her first novel, and like her first exceedingly well written. Can the stuff of dreams turn into a nightmare? Can dreams become a persons reality? "You hadn't been filled, over all these years,but had been left carefully hollow. This, I imagined, was why actresses cracked so easily with age, like glass vases--why they were so swiftly and thoroughly ruined.""For so long I'd intended to the winds of suggestion, relied on the subtle cues of the universe and my own sublimal moods. It's difficult, impossible really, for any of us to know all the ways were tethered to unknown forces, or to gauge the true reasons for our actions. Were open-pored beings, after all. We're lotus roots suspended in the Spring and haired with tentacles, instinctual creatures wearing halos of consciousness."What would you be willing to do, how far would you go, to make your dreams s reality?ARC from Edelweiss.
    • 5/5
      Lauren Acampora has written a dark gem of a novel, filled with characters who are both sketches and yet also fully realized portraits of tortured souls in deep, internal crises.Employing a first person style that allows her to explore her main character’s thoughts while also shielding her from the reader’s attempts at guessing ultimate actions, Acampora has done a masterly job of giving us an anti-hero that we will both sympathize with and recoil at when the novel reaches its finale. She writes of a Hollywood culture that will seem very familiar to anyone keen to watch a blockbuster film or follow the actions of the latest “it” actor or actress. But this novel should not be viewed solely as a cautionary tale of Hollywood chewing up the human soul. This more gets at the question of how tainted those souls might already be to begin with.This is a fever dream of a story that is only too eager to drive down the rabbit hole into darkness. You would be remiss if you missed your chance to experience it.
    • 4/5
      I totally relate to the others who have said, “What did I just read?” but I really liked this one a lot. It is very introspective and atmospheric, with a dreamlike quality. Almost like a David Lynch film, but in its own style on its own merits. I haven't read The Wonder Garden, so I can't make comparisons there. I recently read Looker (Laura Sims) which was fairly similar insomuch as it was told from the first person point of view and is a novel about obsession. While I enjoyed Looker, I liked this one a little better. I found the prose unique and captivating at times, and there was a little more to offer due to this particular protagonist's imagination/creativity. This is not a plot heavy book but more like a character study, and it's a slow burn for sure. Since I love character-driven fiction, this one was perfect for me. I'm not sure what to think about the ending but it fit well with the rest of the book.
    • 3/5
      Abby has high hopes for a career making movies but she’s still living at home with her parents and working at a local supermarket. She keeps all magazine and newspaper articles about her friend, Elise, who has gone on to become a movie actress. She meets Elise again at a school reunion and is thrilled that Elise not only remembers how close they were but wants them to become close again. Elise gives Abby her phone number, swearing her to secrecy, and tells her to give her a call if she’s ever in LA. Abby steals her parents’ credit card and surprises Elise in LA where she finds an Elise more vulnerable than Abby imagined. Abby is pulled more and more into Elise’s world. When things begin to shift in their relationship, Abby’s desires and ambitions take a strange turn.I’ve always been attracted to books about obsession. This one satisfies in that regard. Abby’s obsessions with Elise makes for an absorbing read. Abby is a character who at first I felt sympathy for but she soon becomes a much darker character. The end gave me chills as unbelievable as it was and played out as obsessions so often do.On the negative side, a large part of this book is about dreams and their meanings. Abby believes she has dreams that foretell the future and that when she dreams of people, they are actually there and that they are dreaming the same dream. I had a hard time staying focused during these forays into fantasy. Abby actually becomes a member of the Rhizome, an organization who interviews its members about their dreams. It was very strange and I can’t say I enjoyed these sections of the book much.While parts of this book were well worth the time spent, as a whole it didn’t leave much of an impression on me and is not one that I would recommend. It felt a bit too much like a Young Adult or Chick Lit, although on the dark side, for me.This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.