The Paper Wasp

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

Named a Best Book of the Summer by The New York Times, O Magazine, Elle, Town & Country, Tatler, and Publishers Weekly and one of “5 books not to miss” by USA Today

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’s 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 while Elise is flourishing professionally, she is lonely and disillusioned behind her glossy magazine veneer. 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, the Rhizome, and 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.

An electrifying novel by the author of The Wonder Garden, The Paper Wasp is a knife-edge story of dark friendship and twisted ambition against the backdrop of contemporary Hollywood.

“[A] page turner . . . a stunning portrait of a fixated woman and an addictive, modern commentary on an eternal theme of obsession . . . Lauren Acampora gives us a soul trip/head trip/rarefied LA trip replete with surrealism and social commentary.” —Caroline Kepnes, author of You