Like Kang’s novel it’s divided into three parts in which the same, nameless woman is viewed from different angles. It was an interesting take on three people who had some kind of relationship with this nameless woman and how their worlds revolved around her before she destroyed them (mentally and emotionally) We all had that one person who came into our lives and changed it (for the better at that time) We thought that everything was going to be golden.

Examining reinvention in this specific obsessive, selfish self-care, influencer context worked well and the novel sets a nice disconcerting tone with all the oddness.More than once it stopped me in my tracks with its elegant, understated, and startlingly poignant turns of phrase.

He sees her on her first day in the gym and how she transforms both in the gym and in personal setting… because they start dating. Utterly original and with shades of Ottessa Moshfegh, Patricia Lockwood, Yoko Ogawa, and Alexandra Kleeman, this brilliant portrayal of desire and transcendence had me totally entranced. A strange story about an unnamed woman undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts, observed by three different people, all once important people in this woman’s life. explores the dark side of influencer culture and probes questions of solitude, perception and self-invention. It’s during the pre- and post-work rushes that you see the sprained ankles and pulled knees, locked shoulders, muscle spasms.

Chrysalis is a compelling and at times unsettling novel tracking the metamorphosis of a young woman in the wake of the dissolution of an abusive relationship. The object of these reminiscences has become a Youtube sensation, a guru of a very personal and particular brand of physical and emotional empowerment. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report.

of a woman from who she was onto who she wants to be through sheer strength and the building of that strength of body and mind. Sometimes these book cover assumptions make me look like quite the fool but this one had me sitting high up on my pedestal.Everybody knew Simon, he was that good-looking—one of those people who might accidentally become famous at any moment. Each of her narrators is witness to an aspect of the nameless woman’s transformation from floundering, and possibly traumatised, to seemingly-invulnerable colossus. For the woman part of this process of change, and later promotion of solitude, may be founded in childhood trauma and then her experiences while living with an abusive man. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. This provocative, fiercely imaginative debut follows a woman trying to slip the shackles of society by controlling her body and mind in extreme ways , by one of Granta 's Best of Young British Novelists.

An oblique, intimate novel told in lucid, beguiling prose, Chrysalis a story about solitude and selfhood, and about the blurred line between self-care and narcissism.There were moments when Metcalfe’s intense, introspective narrative felt almost annoyingly slick and manipulative, but sometimes it took on a near clinical feel. Anticipating Simon’s arrival, I’d moved to the lat pull-down, put it on the heaviest setting and was struggling to keep form. Thank You to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!