Chrysalis

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But she’s confused too about her daughter’s mercurial qualities and capacity for reinvention, as well as what either of them actually wants from each other. Two stars mainly because the author is good at forming a sentence and the bare bones plot had potential.

There were moments when Metcalfe’s intense, introspective narrative felt almost annoyingly slick and manipulative, but sometimes it took on a near clinical feel. They all watch as she strengthens her body and mind and begins to post viral videos that advocate for her viewers to take drastic measures to acquire true self-sufficiency.Unputdownable, ice-cool and wittily contemporary, Chrysalis announces Anna Metcalfe as a distinctive and daring fresh literary voice. THAT BEING SAID I don’t think I liked any aspect of the plot, not a single character, and found the prose grating at times. Three people in turn tell us their impressions and experiences with a woman who has some kind of weird influence over their lives. I’m not quite sure I understood it and it left me wanting more, the story felt unfinished, but I think Metcalfe wanted it that way. Finally, we see who she is through a work friend and flatmate, who describes the change before her abusive relationship and after.

I think I'll look back on this book more fondly with time as I forget how it felt in the moment to read. Thank you Netgalley and Granta for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review. Chrysalis a story about solitude and selfhood, and about the blurred line between self-care and narcissism. Had she done that the book would've been a masterpiece, but what I did get was a plunge into a vapid late capitalist lifestyle guru story and mixed metaphors. Through her dedication and YouTube videos, she amasses a small cult following who follows her lead and rejects society--perhaps, in a way, the only way a woman can be truly safe in this world?This further enhances her mind by exerting so much physical control as a means to bring inner peace to it. Her short fiction has been published in The Best of British Short Stories, The Dublin Review, and Lighthouse Journal, among other places, and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize and the Sunday Times Short Story Award. It depresses me, the way they act like each day is a gift instead of something that accidentally happened to them.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one - and I definitely could not have predicted where this novel would go! Each of these witnesses is left with the memory of the person they once knew, as our unnamed character is on a solitary mission to inspire and influence her followers to take on the same metamorphosis of solitude and selfhood - for better but ultimately for worse.On the first pages, Elliot gives us this insight into Nicola having reached her goal, having attained self-sufficiency by means of extraordinary levels of both strength and stillness. Metcalfe has previously published short stories, and was recently named on Granta magazine’s Best of Young British Novelists list. Susie’s hinterland is also only glimpsed, and through the book we uncover much about why the protagonist becomes an influencer, but little sense of how. All three of the perspectives were intriguing, I love when incongruencies are casually revealed via a co-narrator.

For Susie this woman is a possible role model, someone to emulate as much as she is someone to nurture. In a short time, she amassed a considerable audience, and she soon found that she had the power to make others see the world as she did: a difficult and stifling place. It is the story of an influencer, never named, who preaches to her loyal followers about the benefits of solitude, selfishness, and putting yourself first.

It looks at the influence we allow people to have, especially when we don't actually *know* them, and asks the question - even if people give themselves freely online, should we take? For her part, the woman comes across as unfeeling and aloof, and there is something almost distasteful about her. It doesn’t have a particular thesis on online selfhood, though – it’s all in the telling, which is gripping and subtle. Her transformation, only truly beginning after leaving an abusive relationship, is something stark and seemingly otherworldly.