Our Take

Barasch has crafted a deeply unsettling debut that will polarize readers—and that's precisely its strength. Creating a truly unlikable narrator who remains compulsively readable is one of fiction's most challenging feats, yet Barasch pulls it off with impressive skill. Naomi's behavior is often appalling, but her motivations feel psychologically authentic, rooted in insecurity, privilege, and the desperate hunger for artistic validation that drives many young creatives. The novel's meta-fictional elements—a writer writing about writing—could easily feel pretentious, but Barasch navigates these waters with sharp wit and genuine insight into the ethics of using real people as fictional material. Her exploration of female friendship, artistic ambition, and the performative nature of modern relationships feels particularly relevant in our social media age. While some readers may find Naomi's entitled behavior insufferable, others will recognize the uncomfortable truth in her narcissistic spiral. For fans of novels featuring morally complex protagonists like Caroline Calloway's real-life persona or the protagonists in Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this Good Morning America Buzz Pick delivers similar uncomfortable pleasures. Barasch writes with the confidence of a seasoned novelist, making this an impressive debut that announces a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.