Thank You Netgalley for sending me an arc in exchange of an honest review.

"When you're living so intensely in your head there isn't any difference between what you imagine and what actually takes place. Therefore, you're both omnipotent and powerless"

Possessed caught me off guard a bit, I didn't expect it to capture the feeling of love and lust so well, and it's only made me futher fall in love with reading about stories involving that dynamic. From my perspective this book was split into 2 parts, before the island visit and during. The first half of the book had me at a solid 4.2/5, it was written wonderfully and I loved seeing Josephine balance the relationship of being with victor, being with Sebastian and looking after her mother.

I was aware going into the read it also had tones of mental illness but since it was quite heavy in the portrayal with Josephine's mother, I thought it would stop there. The second-half of the book explores a man named Luka who has a very interesting story, but it just wasn't what I was looking for, and I was constantly longing to go back to Josephine's story.

Because of the second-half being a let down personally, It brought the review down to a 2.6/5 for me.

While Josephine was obsessed with Sebastian, I was obsessed with her story.

Josephine was in her thirty-ish age living with her declining mother, who had neglected her of love and care when she was a child. As the story unfurled between her musings about her mother and her lovers, I was totally immersed.

There are four parts to the story. Part 1: A woman is a haunted island; Part 2: Tajni Otok; Part 3: Luka's story; Part 4; Josephine's story.

These four parts were woven delicately together. Part 1 is more like an introduction of our main character, part 2 is the deeper exploration of herself, part 3 is the unfortunate demise of Luka, who hovered around Josephine like a shadow (he was literally a ghost), and part 4 is the conclusion of it all.

What I love most about this book is the representation of the mental illness Josephine suffered from her mother. I was given a slideshow presentation of what it was like to care for a mother who didn't put too much effort into loving and caring for you when you were a child. Josephine experienced that. Her thoughts are so raw and so emotional that I felt pity for her. She was still a little girl who wanted to be cared for and loved by her mother.

And because of that, she became obsessed with Sebastian, her second lover. Her maybe-boyfriend Victor was like her booty call, but even then, they shared some deep connection. They understand each other but don't want to be with each other. As for Sebastian, Josephine felt the need to please him, both sexually and emotionally.

She somehow saw the need to be cared for and loved by Sebastian, which was an indication of her obsession with him because she didn't receive those when she was a child. So, in Sebastian, she was seeking those. There was a hole in her heart that was irreparable. Even when she knew Sebastian was a typical red flag, making everything about him, she couldn't stop obsessing over him. She wanted to move on from him, but she couldn't.

This dilemma is so realistic because mostly everyone suffers from this; another reason why I loved this book.

Then we met Luka. I wanted to stay in Josephine's timeline, mostly because it hooked me. But Luka's was also heartbreaking. It reminded me of Briony from Atonement when she made a false accusation of Robb, declaring that he was the one who raped their cousin when he didn't. Luka's story was also interesting as it somehow connected to Josephine's. He was in an unfortunate situation, but somehow, Josephine helped him to move on, and Luka did likewise to Josephine.

The ending of the book was okay because it still concluded everything. While there were questions that were still unanswered, I think the author did a pretty good job giving us a vague ending: an ending where the main character eventually got what she wanted in the end. Also, her writing is a chef's kiss. Another reason why I was heavily immersed with Josephine was.

If you love a book where dysfunctional mothers, mental illness, obsession, and moving on are present, you will love this book. The book imprinted me with a thought; Josephine thought she was mental, that something in her was wrong because her mother told her so from time to time when she was a child. I love this book with all my heart.

MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY AND DUNDURN PRESS FOR APPROVING NY REQUEST FOR THIS eARC!!!! THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH!!!

Josephine meets a man in a coffee shop. Their eyes meet with neither one able to look away. Sebastian tells her to give him her number rather than asking her for it.

Josephine becomes obsessed. Or possessed by unrequited love from Sebastian. Despite Josephine having a kind of partner she cannot help her feelings. She also has to look after her mother who has the onset of dementia and who keeps seeing ghosts. 

A work assignment is offered to Josephine and she makes a decision to visit a former quarantine island in the Adriatic Sea. It is here that she meets an enigmatic, beautiful man with a haunting story.

I’ll be honest this book at times confused me. I just couldn’t find myself liking Josephine either. It took me ages to get into the storyline as well which frustrated me as I was waiting for the supernatural element to be more at the front but maybe that was due to the title of the book and I was reading more into it than I should. Overall it’s a book that will intrigue you but it just didn’t wow me.

This is a strangely interesting little book rather like the novels of Lisa Taddeo
The author writes from the point of view of a woman caught between her own needs and those of her increasingly disabled mother who moves from being psychologically unwell to having progressive Alzheimer’s during the story .Her mother’s needs seem to suck her own energy leaving her with little time to think about her own relationships .The woman has 2 lovers neither of which seem to provide her with what she needs sexually and emotionally.Ultimately she conjures up a dream lover with such a complex back story of his own that the reader is left never being entirely sure whether he exists in reality or not .I found this element of the book difficult to like as much as the clear reality sections .
The sex scenes are earthy and real but a felt like shouting out to the narrator to love herself more as she is unflinchingly self critical throughout
The author has a clear distinctive prose style which is enjoyable to read .
I liked the settings either in an unnamed Canadian city or in Croatia
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good relationship novel
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published on Uk on 1st November 2022

Really interesting read and exploration of a woman dealing with loneliness and desperation. The first half of this book worked really well for me, but I feel the second half lost me a bit and I was a bit unsure of what it all meant.

Thank you, Netgalley and Dundurn Press, for giving me the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

I thought the premise of this book was interesting and intriguing. I'm all for darker-toned books that focus on people's more intimate and vulnerable sides. It seems that this story was trying to capture many feelings, attitudes, thoughts, and ideas on sexuality, mental illness, and those other supernatural elements. Still, it became too much and just overwhelmed itself. So while a lot of these things I listed are ones that I typically enjoy and search for in a story, I sadly don't think this one succeeded for me.

To start, the narration was very hard for me to read. It felt like a lot of telling and not showing. Those first few chapters/pages, it felt like I was reading someone's memoir or stream of consciousness, which can be fine, but in this case, it made the story already tiring for me to read. It was a lot of, "I am this, and I felt this," etc. Right away, it didn't make me connect or empathize with the main character, but I just felt exhausted by her? And I don't even need a likable character to enjoy a story (I'm all for unlikable characters, again, as long as they're done well); it just made me not feel like I was part of the story because I'm being told everything about her, instead of being shown it.

Overall, it was just an oddly written book. I'm not sure what to say about it other than I don't think the author is the one for me, and while the premise is interesting, the execution felt chaotic, messy, all over the place, and poorly laid out. I genuinely wish the narration and plot line were written differently, and I wish we were shown more than we were told. Again, I think these topics are fascinating to read about, and these characters can be layered and unique, but this felt like it just contained one explicit scene after the next for us to find something, but there was nothing underneath it. What you read on the surface is what you get with this story. There's nothing to dig for; there's nothing to think over. It felt like the story was written merely to contain shocking ideas, gratuitous sex, and offensive thoughts and ideas just to have them? In the end, I'm just not sure what it was all for. I couldn't find the substance or meaning behind any of it.

I think maybe it just tackled far too much. Perhaps it would have succeeded if it had taken out the supernatural and horror elements and focused on Josie's romantic relationships and her relationship with her mother, taking it gradually and showing us all the different sides of it, explicit sex scenes and all, but doing it in a fully formed way, not just thrown together.

Overall, this book was not for me. Thank you again for the chance to read early in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you for the ARC of this novel. I really enjoyed the writing and I wasn't even frustrated with the lack of punctuation like I usually am.

I think maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for this book. Her obsession felt depressing and the mother relationship made me just pretty sad.

Excellent writing for someone who is seeking out this type of novel.

Thank you to Netgalley for approving my ARC of this book! I was captivated by the title and the synopsis that I read..

I personally could only make it to around page 60 of this book. It's very dark, and the relationship between Josie and her mother is not healthy. I read some other reviews to see if I should stick it out and I'm seeing a theme of sexual/violent acts (biting, bruises, being rough when explicating asking for gentle sex very early in the book). This book is personally not my cup of tea, but I give credit to the author for writing about mental health issues (from both the protagonist of the story and other characters). Struggling with mental health issues myself I tend to lean towards "feel good" books that can almost be an escape, and this one does not fall into that category.

𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒙, 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅.

They say many things about love, one stands out, that it is madness. Consider then obsessive, unrequited love, how do you explain such a thing? Can it truly be defined as love? Josephine is inflamed with desire for a younger man, his name is Sebastian, but she is still involved with an older artist, her ex, Victor. The men are completely different, except in how they both treat her with indifference, at times. The intruding thoughts of Sebastian are infecting her entire life, nothing holds her attention nor makes her feel more alive or real than him. Is Sebastian worth the meaning she places upon him, was Victor? Can any human being contain such ferocious need for long? Surely it must subside. Is she unhinged? Is it Sebastian’s fault, does he ooze godlike appeal, irresistible to all women who cross his path? How do you evict hunger, need, longing? Why can’t she stop?

Josephine isn’t a foolish, stupid woman, she understands that her obsession with Sebastian isn’t a balanced reality. Certainly, he isn’t pining away for her, as she admits, it’s upon measly scraps she is riding the wave of this fever. They’ve had sex, but these days that doesn’t a relationship make. Her and Victor had ‘an arrangement’, a casual partnership, Victor isn’t the type to be owned, even before she moved out of his apartment to take care of her mother. They still see each other, but it’s a wound, knowing how easy he let her go. She never had much of a claim on his heart, it seems. If Sebastian is a fantasy, it is one she can’t cease feeding. Her humiliating, irrational desire may leave her vulnerable for the reader to observe but the real story is her damaged mother and Josephine’s tumultuous childhood. Senility is becoming impossible to ignore, it’s the reason why she is living under her mother’s roof again but there is an eeriness attending to her, a presence only her mother sees. Phantoms are their thing, phantom lovers, phantom friends but at least Josephine has work to focus on, when her mother isn’t eating into her time. Life is not balanced, nor fair, she feels trapped caring for her difficult mother, who is only getting worse, while both Vincent and Sebastian are out living their lives, giving her nary a thought. Hoping to cool her ardor, Josephine buries herself on researching an island in Croatia for a project at work. It leads to a trip to the mysterious location where she meets Luka, whose ‘eyes are like looking into a well’, who promises she can trust him. She is so tired, maybe it’s jetlag but there is something brewing between them already. He feels so familiar. Who is this strange Croatian man filling the role of guide? Why did he choose her?

There are strange forces at work in her life, or maybe it’s her own doing, her wild imagination. She seems to go through life suffering either heady episodes of passion or disappointed by the people in her life, who seem to give nothing in return, despite her many offerings and sacrifices. She spends a lot of time keeping her emotions hidden, her despair behind a curtain. She doesn’t want to be like her mother, a woman who once went off the rails. A person whose reactions often were disproportionate to the moment. Could the push and pull of such love started with her mother? It’s hard to write a review without spoilers, but this is an unusual tale with emotional, mental, supernatural elements. It’s clever, the slow unraveling of Josephine, her attempts to cure herself (if cure is the correct word), the need to feel her feet firmly planted on the ground, the instability and wonder of what occurs on her trip. Will she get to the bottom of her obsession, discover how it serves her? Yes, an original read that made me feel a bit haunted.

Publication Date: November 1, 2022

Dundurn Press

Rare Machines

2.5
It started out so strong, but then it just fell flat. I liked the mother-daughter relationship, but the sexual obsession part... She had me at some points, but the others I don't know. I feel like these kinds of books depend highly on the fact of whether you like or relate to the protagonist, and for both of them, it was halfway there, so it gets a perfectly average rating as per my enjoyment range.

This is not my usual read, so the wildcard review book this month. I actually found it, although hard to read with the levels of darkness, an interesting exploration of mental health and sexuality. I think this was also due to the style of the narrative: it's open, explicit and raw, which doesn't make the easiest reading, but certainly creates a reactive response - not always, for me, perhaps the intended one.

Josephine is obsessed. Or possessed — by unrequited love for a younger man who doesn’t promise anything, but who gives her a taste of intimacy that puts her on the brink of losing her mind. Oscillating between her elusive lover and her older former partner, stuck in the hell that is working in a cubicle, and obliged to tend to her destructive, senile mother, Josephine is trapped.
After a work assignment promises to deliver distraction, Josephine makes a decision to visit a former quarantine island in the Adriatic Sea, where she meets an enigmatic, beautiful man with a haunting story. Intimate and erotic, Possessed is a dark and funny story exploring sexual obsession, mental illness, and the supernatural.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My first book by this author, shockingly, i can relate to the characters quite alot. To be very honest, Possessed isn't my type of tea, although many would definetly enjoy it but I'm a pretty picky reader when it comes to genres like this. I love books that let us explore the mental health topic. overall, i'd say possessed is pretty decent. DNF. Thank you net gallery. It is totally readable. just depends on what type of reader you are!

Possessed is exactly like it's title and cover: intriguing, awestriking and languid. The novel follows Josephine, a woman obsessed with the man she's recently been seeing, as well as her obsession with her ex boyfriend. It's clear that both relationships are unhealthy as soon as Josephine gives the reader insight, but it's the narrator's relationship with herself that may be the most toxic.

Jowita Bydlowska isn't a writer I was familiar with, but I can confidently say she is now one of the most intriguing Canadian writers of our time. Maybe that's a bit bold for someone who's only read her most recent novel, but Possessed captivated me right from it's first line. Bydlowska writes Josephine's inner monologue with such preciseness and empathy that it's impossible to dislike her, and she stand out in a world where "unhinged" woman are dominating the literary world.

Lines like "The feeling of disconnect had passed, and I remained inside myself," are harrowing, but truly get to the root of struggles that many people in this modern world are going through. Bydlowska's prose is unmatched, truly burying itself within my mind as I read this novel. Even when I put it down, I could not escape Josephine's world or mind.

Possessed is truly a work of art, one that wants us to grapple with not only the narrators melancholy life and obsessions, but our own. Interwoven with a ghost story that propels Josephine to change her life in ways that seen unimaginable, Bydlowska crafts a novel that begins with a sign and ends with another, but in all the right ways.

This is a truly wonderful piece of literary fiction and a deep and haunting look into the obsessive psyche. The praise I'd been hearing suggested it might be more of a thriller, and I would say this isn't as broad or plot-driven as that. But the protagonist is a brilliant character study and the novel does also provide some legit thrills. But if you're looking for an airport paperback, this might not deliver on those expectations. But that doesn't make it less of an accomplishment!

The first part of this novel detailed the complicated life of a woman struggling with identity, worth, and the mental health of her mother. The second part was an interesting experience… a unique way to find answers to questions posed in the first part. The writing was descriptive, raw, and created care for a character that some may not care for at all.

An interesting book that explores mental health and sexual obsession. It delivers what is promised.

I enjoyed this book. It is very well-written, as it transports the reader into all aspects of Josephine’s world. This is my first book by the author and i plan on checking more of their work in the future. I saw someone describe this books as “ The perfect dark, unhinged and gritty exploration of sexuality and mental health.” And I couldn’t have said the better myself.

*I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.*

Reading the plot summary made me excited to ready this book. It is about Josie who is trying to handle multiple daily stressors that I can identify with. I was able to read most of the book, but I ultimately had to not finish. I was unable to tolerate the violence and extremely detailed sex scenes.

Josephine is obsessed with her younger lover. So obsessed that it gets out of hand, and she then decides to go on a journey where she meets a haunting man with a devastating past.

I'm not going to lie, this book wasn't for me. I thought it was going to be more horror because of the supernatural element, but it was more just...strange.

Many readers will like this book - however this book wasn't for me. The lack of speech marks also made the book seem all muddled together and long. The book felt much longer than the 300 ish pages it is.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

This is the story of Josie, a 30-something woman juggling a demanding mother (whose health is deteriorating, and who was never an easy parent), an underwhelming job, loneliness, a deep need to be loved (and punished?), and an unstable personality (chicken and egg type of thing). There are also some ghosts.

Full disclosure first - I only stomached about half of the book, but had to put it down. What forced me to finally call it a day, and there were many moments that came close, was the scene when the protagonist rushes into her "boyfriend's" flat, and she asks him to hit her. I just had to stop at that point.

Maybe this is an issue of expectation management at the of the day. What I expected (based on the reviews I read on goodreads and the various blurbs) was a novel dealing with the fraying process of the protagonist's life and emotional wellbeing, with a supernatural twist, which can either be a part of the emotional theme of the novel, or "real" in the novel's reality. It intrigued me because I was fascinated about psychological profiles of various personality types, and I found the promise of exploring this particular personality type, especially by a woman, something I wanted to spend my time on.

It is with great sadness that I can only report that these expectations were only partly met. While there is indeed some element of emotional fraying and the psychoanalysis of this process, the preoccupation with the sex scenes makes it come across as a badly veiled soft porn book, a la Fifty Shades of Gray (which admittedly I have not read, but heard a lot about). The most eventful parts of the book have to do with sexual acts, the need of the protagonist to punish herself, the glorification (at least as it is perceived by me) of masochism and sexual violence, and the complete absence of healthy sexual and loving relationships. It's maybe a style thing, but this felt imbalanced - too little psychology and too many sex scenes.

On the positive side it must be said that the author is, notwithstanding the above, a very talented storyteller. The narrative is told in a very compelling way, and the style is very intimate and captivating. I'd also say that the sex scenes are well described and do not come across as "cheap" or "dirty". I also found the emotional distress of the protagonist extremely well executed - it was visceral and powerful every step of the way. If the book included more of this, I would have loved it much more. It somehow felt like a great psychological thriller / mind-bender edited by EL James's editor.

In a nutshell - I know an audience for this book exists, but I'm not it.