'Cynthia, the simpering, scheming, covetous emotional sinkhole of New Zealander Annaleese Jochems's assured debut novel, Baby, is alive and squirming; a memorable addition to the growing coteries of unapologetic antiheroines (dis)gracing the pages of contemporary fiction ... There are echoes here of Megan Abbott, Emma Cline, Zoe Heller and Miranda July: writers drawn to the intricacies and ferocious possibilities of female friendship. There's a dollop, too, of Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley; a dash of Lord of the Flies. What Jochems adds is a cloying grotesqueness. Baby is a novel of close-quarters living: of masticating mouths and human stink; of piss and vomit, sunburn and bruises, pimples and dandruff; of new fat expanding under the skin. A novel of bodies.'
-- Beejay Silcox
'Dripping with cynicism and green-eyed lust, this suspenseful debut from a Kiwi author is driven by the compulsively off-kilter worldview of its 21-year-old heroine ... Creepy and tense, with a blood-thirsty climax.'
-- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail *
'Sultry, sinister, hilarious and demented, Baby blazes with intelligence and murderous black humour. Heavenly Creatures for a new generation.'
-- Eleanor Catton, author of Man Booker Prize-winning
The Luminaries'It's easy to see why this dark comic thriller has been compared to works by queen of the genre Patricia Highsmith.'
* Elle *
'In her young female protagonist ... Annaleese Jochems has succeeded in creating a highly original voice that both intrigues and repels ... she has created a fresh voice, a memorable monster who could well have her own series of books if the author chooses to go down that road.'
-- Sarah Gilmartin * The Irish Times *
'Whip-smart.'
* The Telegraph *
'A dark satire of entitlement and the "me" culture.'
* i *
'A savvy, excruciatingly funny, nerve-shredding debut.'
-- Rose Shepherd * Saga Magazine *
'Taut, savvy, biting, and at points piercingly beautiful - Jochems's sentences shift from deadpan humour to lyrical simplicity to emotional menace with deft, edgy style.'
-- Tracey Slaughter, author of
deleted scenes for lovers'Patricia Highsmith meets reality TV in this compelling debut. Jochems nudges up the tension until we can't bear to look - and can't bear to look away: thrilling, dangerous and deliciously funny.'
-- Catherine Chidgey, prize-winning author of
The Wish Child and
The Beat of the Pendulum'This funny, sexy, unnerving novel challenges received ideas and delivers jolts of pleasure and disquiet throughout. Jochems, like her extraordinary creation Cynthia, is a force to be reckoned with.'
-- Emily Perkins, author of
The Forrests and
Novel About My Wife'From page one, Baby is a dryly funny study of a young woman driven to shocking acts by what seems like boredom and lust alone, devoid of any semblance of a conscience ... Come to Baby for a full-blown psychopath who makes you laugh out loud despite your horror.'
-- Rebecca Varcoe * The Saturday Age *
'This year's best local debut novel.'
* Metro *
'Baby is a funny, taut, relentless fever-dream of a novel. Buy it and read it now, and you can brag about it one day the way people who bought and read Emily Perkins' Not Her Real Name in 1996 do today.'
-- Louise Kasza, The Spinoff
'An amazing, fresh voice in New Zealand fiction.'
-- Jenna Todd, RNZ
'In Cynthia, she has crafted a memorable monster. Creepy and subversive, Baby is a classy debut.'
-- Linda Herrick, NZ Listener
'Sparse and tantalising in its unfolding, it never quite allows you to get your sea legs.'
-- Ruth Spencer * NZ Herald *
'Baby tells a bizarre story of obsession and desire and takes a satirical look at the millennial condition ... However the cleverness of Jochems' writing ensures Baby is not only a strange and claustrophobic book but also a pretty good one.'
-- Catie McLeod * The Saturday Paper *
'Compelling reading.'
* The Burgeoning Bookshelf *
'An original and accomplished first work.'
-- Helen Elliott * Weekend Australian *
'Cynthia doesn't disappoint. As we meet her, she embodies everything a baby boomer has ever whinged about millennials in a newspaper or on talkback radio ... You could suggest that Jochems is doing some broad metaphorical work here, that Cynthia's apathy is all of our apathy, that the consequences Cynthia must face are all of our consequences. But really, isn't it possible that Jochems is just having a little fun?'
-- Emma Marie Jones * The Lifted Brow *
'Jochems' debut is witty and unique ... A promising new voice.'
* Kirkus Reviews *
