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A thrilling and eccentric novel about what it means to make art as a woman, and about the powerful forces of voyeurism, power, obsession, and online performance.
Woo Woo follows Sabine, a conceptual artist on the verge of a photo exhibition she hopes will be pivotal, as she plunges deeper into her neuroses and seeks validation in relationships—with her frustratingly rational chef husband, her horde of devoted Gen Z TikTok followers, and even a mysterious, potentially violent stalker.
Accompanying her throughout are Sabine's strange alter egos, from hyperrealistic puppets of her as a baby to the ghost of conceptual artist Carolee Schneemann, who shows up with inscrutable yet sage life advice.
Ella Baxter approaches the desire to see and be seen that defines both the creative and romantic act with humor, empathy, and a good dose of wildness, driving Sabine to an surreal and compelling climax that forces her—and us—to reconsider what it means to be an artist and a partner.
"The whirligig pace of the novel relentlessly intensifies from chapter to chapter as Sabine navigates the boundary between real and manufactured, all in front of a live audience ... The book is a pointedly absurdist send-up of the pretensions of the art world, which nevertheless carries at its core a real exploration of what is at stake when one lives for art. Baxter continues her triumphant exploration of real lives lived on the fringes of the surreal. Sassy, sharp, and very funny, but with a consequential heart." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Delightfully untamed ... Baxter expertly builds suspense via Sabine's increasing distress and the presence of the stalker, and she succeeds at keeping readers guessing at the line between reality and Sabine's twisted perceptions. Those with a fondness for unreliable narrators will have a blast." —Publishers Weekly
"Smart, razor sharp, and witty, Woo Woo takes us on a wild journey of female ambition, art, social media, stalkers, and dinner parties full of people with exquisite mullets vaping. I'll read anything Ella Baxter writes—and Woo Woo is unmissable." —Sarah Rose Etter, author of Ripe
"Equal parts satire, ghost story and fever dream, Woo Woo is sharply funny and thrillingly original. In her examination of artistic ambition, female rage and the obsessions that haunt us, Ella Baxter proves to be an electrifying literary force. To read her fiction is to be in the company of a truly singular mind." —Madelaine Lucas, author of Thirst for Salt
"Brimming with rich and visceral prose, Woo Woo elegantly traverses the realms of performance art, intimacy, and online surveillance. A wild odyssey, this book made me feel delightfully seen, and absolutely feral." —Nada Alic, author of Bad Thoughts
This information about Woo Woo was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ella Baxter is a writer and artist living on unceded land of the Wurundjeri people. She is the author of New Animal, which was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, and was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Matt Richell Award for New Writers.
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