Woo Woo
A Novel
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Artist and novelist Baxter (New Animal) focuses her delightfully untamed latest on an unhinged photographer. Sabine is counting down the days until the opening of her exhibition Help Me, Fuck You, which features her nude self-portraits in gothic motifs. She struggles to communicate with her husband, and gives him ridiculous instructions for a photo shoot: "I am impregnating every image with my unruly, creative juju. Are you getting my full body in?" Later, while drunk and alone in their house, she encounters the ghost of artist Carolee Schneemann in the kitchen. Sabine sits down with the feminist performance artist, who agrees to mentor her ("We are going to look at creating false mayhem—that's true art"). Carolee's intervention shakes Sabine's confidence about the value of her work, prompting her to trawl for validation on TikTok and to spiral when a follower leaves a negative comment. Making matters worse, a man dressed in black runs across her garden, then starts sending her threatening letters. 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.
