I read this debut novel as the author was recently selected for the decennial Granta Best of Young British Novelists list (2023 edition).

The author has a MA and PhD in Creative Writing from UEA and now lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham.

And this is very pertinent to the book which originally arose (from a Bookseller interview) from a timed writing exercise, one inspired by her favourite novel Han Kang’s “ The Vegetarian” in which she asked her students “to invent their own “recalcitrant or hard to pin down” protagonist and then describe that character through three different points of view” with her own attempt to model the exercise providing the genesis of the novel.

So we see the novel’s unnamed central protagonist (who is at the time the novel is set a social media lifestyle influencer) through three separate people looking back across their encounters with her:

Elliot - a rather solitary contract worker who alternates between unhealthy 24-7 contract working and gym obsession and who encounters (then obsesses over then forms a relationship with) the woman when she visits his gym, full of self-assurance and purpose to remodel and build her body.

Bella - her mother who gives birth to her as a recently orphaned single mother and brings her daughter up in an intensely close relationship in a small cottage where Bella produces her art. Through Bella we learn that since a child the woman has suffered inexplicable but frequent attacks of extreme shaking.

Susie - who starts work in a legal firm at the same time as the woman and a man Paul who later enters a relationship with the woman which (at least from her account) becomes increasingly toxic and controlling causing the woman to move in with Susie.

While each reflects in their past with the woman, they are also consumed by her present as an influencer - her meditative videos seemingly promoting a self-absorbed and self-sufficient life of both physical presence/strength and a ruthlessly conscious cutting off of all ties; a message at an extreme of social media’s assiduous influence - not just putting out a curated life free of weakness and the vicissitudes of real life but which actively promotes the elimination not just of bodily weakness but of the messiness of relationships and ties.

And this in itself means her clinically dropping her relationships with each of the narrators despite their shared pasts and the parts they each played in her life – and this for each of them causes them to focus more on their own life difficulties and insecurities.

Elliott with his solitude, seeming lack of social skills and alternating bouts of extreme IT work-induced slobbing and gym self-obsession would seem to be a paid up member of the Incel club except the woman allows them to form a relationship ship which then turns sexual. He ends inspired by her journey to take one of his own – although over the other two sections we realise that this has been taken too an extreme to the consternation of his own mother.

Bella, scarred by her own upbringing by a distant mother and the loss of her father invests everything in what she sees as an idealised 2 person nuclear family unit with her daughter - only to have her daughter seemingly reject her own body, the world and firm her only attachment with a sympathetic teacher - an attachment which to Bella seems designed only to point out the flaws and inadequacies of her own parenting. Later when her daughter goes to University Bella is left bereft, and turns her feelings of isolation back into her own art while still taking solace in the achievements of her daughter even as they seem to consciously exclude her.

Susie as a legal graduate is desperately insecure with a strong desire to confirm and even stronger sense of imposter syndrome. She initially siezes on the woman as an example of unconventional self-assurance to aspire to, feels betrayed when the woman moves in with Paul only to be delighted to be able to turn provider when the woman asks to move in with Susie when Paul turns abusive.

Overall I found this a very interesting and thought provoking novel.

Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe is a very original, thought-provoking and fresh novel told from three different perspectives about transformation and reinvention, trauma, loneliness and isolation, motherhood, obsession and infatuation. My favourite part was the middle one. I would definitely want to read more from this author.

Anna Metcalfe’s Chrysalis deliberately reworks aspects of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. Like Kang’s novel it’s divided into three parts in which the same, nameless woman is viewed from different angles. Metcalfe touches on concerns that frequently surface in discussions of strands in contemporary western society: from the role of social media influencers and fandom to the wellness and self-sufficiency industries through to transactional relationships, narcissism and voyeurism. Each of her narrators is witness to an aspect of the nameless woman’s transformation from floundering, and possibly traumatised, to seemingly-invulnerable colossus. Two of these three are people who’ve met the woman as an adult, Elliot with whom she has a brief sexual relationship and Susie her former work colleague, the third is her mother Bella.

Elliot is a slightly unnerving character, aspects of his behaviour and his fascination with the woman reminded me of Frederick in John Fowles’s The Collector - possibly intentionally since both books deploy imagery related to metamorphosis and butterflies. Elliot’s account feigns objectivity and detachment but it’s clear he’s deeply invested in the woman from the moment he first spies her at a local gym. Elliot’s self-obsessed, socially-awkward and reclusive yet prepared to disrupt his everyday rituals for a chance to be close to the woman. But the woman’s more bent on physical transformation than personal connection. Like Elliot, the woman’s mother Bella has intentionally chosen relative isolation. She’s also ambivalent about the woman, an apparently challenging child whose disturbing bodily tremors proved inexplicable to the medical and other practitioners they frequented in search of a cure. Bella views her child from a distance, more caught up in her work as an artist than the process of parenting. 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. Then there’s the conformist Susie, lonely and drifting, the woman’s brief stay in her apartment provides a direction and purpose she’s been seeking. For Susie this woman is a possible role model, someone to emulate as much as she is someone to nurture.

There were moments when Metcalfe’s intense, introspective narrative felt almost annoyingly slick and manipulative, but sometimes it took on a near clinical feel. That sense of the clinical chimes with the territory she’s exploring as well as her characters’ relentless dissection of their unnamed subject. Alongside an underlying commentary on narrative itself, Metcalfe raises interesting questions about identity especially the idea of a finished, authentic self; as well as probing the fragile boundaries between self and others. She’s particularly adept at dealing with ambiguities, in each of the interactions with her unnamed woman it’s difficult to discern whether these are relationships grounded in mutual or one-sided exploitation or based on fantasy and projection borne out of each individual’s unfulfilled desires – the narrators’ recollections are often far more revealing of the observers than the observed.

The woman at the centre of the novel’s hard to pin down, at once fearful and fearless. As she assumes control of her body, her increasing physical power is accompanied by an equally powerful personal philosophy – or maybe that’s an impression that’s equally dependent on the fantasies of others. But for many, her desire for strength and stillness, almost tree-like, appears to represent the perfecting of life as art. A stance that offers up a vision of an organic self that clearly appeals to the growing band of followers drawn to her online presence. Many of whom seem to be seeking a blueprint for how to live. 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. Interestingly this element of her journey is the least developed perhaps because it offers a solution that’s too clearcut, a form of narrative closure Metcalfe’s clearly not prepared to entertain. Overall, I thought this was a well-crafted, full-length debut, and although it could be curiously static, it was sufficiently intelligent and intriguing to hold my attention.

I loved the premise of this book, but sadly it didn’t hit the mark for me.

The main, unnamed protagonist is supposed (I think) to be some kind of spiritual hero, living alone, focussing on training her body and subsequently her mind, but she just came across and rude and self-centred. The story is told from the perspective of three people who know her. One is a loner who thinks he’s in love with her, the second is her mother, who doesn’t seem to think a lot of her and one is a colleague, who is desperate to be accepted by her, but is ultimately just used and then discarded when she is no longer needed.

Some of the PT and gym training descriptions were unrealistic - a PT who doesn’t even ask his client what their goals are, would never be successful, yet Simon is portrayed as some kind of fitness god. All quite strange really.

2 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I read this following Anna Metcalfe's selection as one of Granta 2023's list of young authors to look out for. I am very much looking forward to attending the event at Foyles where Anna Metcalfe will be speaking this weekend.

An unusual story of a woman's transformation following a difficult childhood and abuse in adulthood. The structural choice of writing from multiple perspectives works really well and successfully and meaningfully adds to the narrative.

I found the novel well-written: original, compelling and unsettling. The one criticism I have is that I could not visualise the main character. A contemporary novel that explores a number of current social issues: abuse, women's voice, social media, mental well-being, single parenting, female relationships amongst others.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Compelling character study from Anna Metcalfe.

I finished this a few days ago and haven’t managed to sort my thoughts on it. The TLDR of it is that I loved it.

Chrysalis paints a picture of an unnamed woman from the perspective of her lover, her mother and her friend. She is enchanting, she is manipulative, she traumatised.

Really interesting stuff on independence vs community, society’s expectations of women and ‘wellness’ - a good pick for book clubs.

I think fans of Sally Rooney, Natasha Brown and Ottesha Moshfegh might enjoy this book.

Pick up this book up if: you’re looking for a disquieting, hypnotic and intimate novel / no plot, just vibes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is such an absorbing book with a unique layout as were instead watching the main character through other characters eyes and seeing how she is perceived instead of her actual POV. You always feel like somethings missing, maybe from the protagonist, the story of the POV's yet this draws you in and creates a mysterious atmosphere almost as you also become drawn into this woman's bubble knowing there's something not quite right but you can't put your finger on it. I have to say this was written in such an incredibly intelligent and skilful way, especially as this is a short story as you finish this thinking you know a lot yet not knowing what's happened simultaneously. Chrysalis is just a great, intriguing read.

I absolutely loved this. It is strange, gripping, upsetting, enigmatic, unique. It's told in three parts, none of which are from the perspective of the 'protagonist'(?), all of which are brutally honest whilst remaining teasingly incomplete. The absence at the heart of the novel ought to be annoying but I found it rather brilliant. The writing is extremely good and I can't wait to read more from this debut novelist.

My thanks to Granta and NetGalley for the ARC.

What a great book! I was absorbed and engrossed from the start and read it almost in one sitting.

I like books written from different points of view and here we see the main character who is an intriguing and very individual woman. through the eyes of her ex lover (i won't say boyfriend) her mother and her friend. The narrators are all clearly voiced and their parts all add to the story.

I suppose there is not much of a plot as such but, like the narrators, I found that i was absolutely intrigued and fascinated by the woman they described, a woman who is determined to be her authentic self, however unusual that self might be, and who is single minded, self absorbed and even careless of others in her quest to simply be as she wants to be. I was fascinated throughout. The writing is vivid and I can easily picture all the characters.

Many of the books I have read recently seem to very padded out and i don't often say this but I feel that this book could have been longer, i would like to have known more about Bella's paintings and what happens to Elliot and Susie.

It is interesting at the end when there is a slight hint of selling out perhaps when the video website goes offline and comes back slicker and changed to make it easier to buy things and i would like to know what went on there behind the scenes.

It is a sort of behind the scenes book as I am not sure exactly why this woman wants so intensely to be the way she is. It seems to me to be like The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes in that, at the end, having been swept along, you are somehow not quite sure what exactly has happened and why and you feel that the easy prose has somehow led you to miss or overlook something important. It also reminds me of Emily St John Mandel's earlier books before The Sea of Tranquillity.

I can hardly believe this is a first novel because I felt straightaway that the author was in full control of her story and the writing is assured. I have read a lot of not so great books recently which seem, in a way, amateurishly written with obvious errors and factual inconsistencies but I could see nothing like that in this book. From the start it is a book that even if you don't like it, you feel that it is well written.

A really absorbing and memorable read and a book which I will read again. I would have given it 5 stars but for the fact that I always felt a little detached from the characters. I'm not saying that is a bad thing but I prefer to know or be able to work out why people do what they do and the woman's motives remain a mystery to me.

A perfectly formed short novel that begins as a more literal, though forebodingly intrusive, story about watching someone at the gym - and becomes something more like a fable, almost, as our understanding of one woman's life both progresses further through time and fills in gaps of time passed, and something deeply uneasy becomes a natural progression.

Well-placed on any best new fiction table, with strong potential crossover appeal between the literary audience and the more mainstream.

This is a very strange book. Three people in turn tell us their impressions and experiences with a woman who has some kind of weird influence over their lives. They can barely explain it and from what they tell the reader it is hard to understand how this woman can be so influential, because she seems pretty awful and entirely selfish. It poses more questions than it answers and much like the narrators, you are left at the end, peculiarly unsatisfied and feeling like you are missing something crucial that if you just understood it, would be the key to everything else making sense. It's really well written. It's astonishingly mature for a debut novel. I can't say I enjoyed it. I was definitely intrigued by it.

I have mixed feelings about this one! Three individuals reflect on their experiences with an unnamed woman who is going through a fairly unsettling metamorphosis. The Allure of the Influencer is its own genre at this point, but I thought this was often refreshingly unexpected, especially in its treatment of what it means to live in a body. I’m never a fan of multiple perspectives and in a book like this—heavy on the narration, light on the dialogue—the voices begin to blur. The second section (narrated by the woman’s mother) was by far the most compelling, I would have read a whole book about her.

This book is a mixed bag for me but maybe in a good way?
I was completely floored with the writing and the story. Although there are some parts of the book that felt a bit grey area, I kinda wished there was a narration from her perspective.
But I definitely I’m gonna recommend this book cause it’s a great read and am looking forward to read more from Anna Metcalfe

🐛 REVIEW 🐛

Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Publishing Date: 5th April 2023

Chrysalis is the story of a mysterious woman, changing her body and lifestyle to remove herself from society and focus on herself, mainly through stillness and meditation. Her story is told through three perspectives: Elliot, her admirer at the gym who is completely enamoured with her and how she carries herself; Bella, her mother, who reflects on her childhood and worries about her as she changes; and Susie, a friend and colleague who helped her out of a dark place, and is transfixed by her metamorphosis.

This book was an absolute fever dream, and I have never read anything like it. The storyline is so unnerving but the writing is brilliant, matter of fact while remaining eerie and mysterious. Watching as this woman, whose name is never given, extricates herself from society, and builds herself into this new person, and showcases this person and her philosophy online, it’s completely captivating. I was honestly left quite speechless by this book, and had no choice but to give it five stars for the way it left me reeling.

Chrysalis is released on 5th April 2023 and I cannot urge you to buy it any more, especially if you’re a fan of mysterious, female cult, fever dream vibes.

Chrysalis is a delightful novel, exploring the process of metamorphosis in an individual, and how one person undergoes this process more than once in a lifetime. Through the eyes of a short-lived romantic partner, her mother, and a close friend, Metcalfe beautifully illustrates this process our protagonist undergoes, to become somebody new and distinct from who she was before.

The technique of using three distinct narrators to tell this story is an intelligent means of exploring how the same changes in and individual can be observed in completely different ways depending on the context of the observer. Elliot sees her for the first time in the gym and spends a good while going out of his way to see her again, developing a deep interest which is bordering on creepy. Their eventual relationship is short-lived, and the supposed changes in her which he seems to view as a metamorphosis into somebody he did not know, struck me as less to do with a rapid change in her personality but more a reflection of how the more one comes to know a person, often the idea they have built of them becomes less and less true, and true colours shine through.

This is in stark contrast to the development of her relationship with her mother, the story of her childhood told through the eyes of her cold and emotionally distant mother, who seems to struggle to keep up with her child's rapidly developing personality. The envy she feels over her daughter's close relationship with a schoolteacher seems to shadow her as her daughter grows into a woman, and upon flying the nest, both seem to breathe a sigh of relief.

In the final section, friend and roommate Susie explores the deterioration of our protagonist's relationship and the progression of her lifestyle changes, beginning with a desire to tune her body in order to better be able to protect herself, rapidly descending into what many would describe as a dangerous obsession with health and bodily autonomy.

As our protagonist finds online success, an influencer specialising in guiding her followers towards self-sustenance and freedom from societal obligations, Metcalfe raises serious questions on where we draw the line between harmless life coaching and more sinister, cultish intentions. This book is an enthralling look at society and social media, and how these things shape who a person will become. It is also a book about isolation, physical and emotional, and the transient nature of relationships. I could not put this down, truly found myself invested in the characters and I will absolutely be recommending this to others!

This is an oddly compelling book, centering around the metamorphosis of the central female character seen through the eyes of her mother, lover and "friend". Its difficult to think it's a debut novel as the writing is so polished and thoughtful. Ms Metcalfe manages to lead the reader through a wide range of emotions, while exploring contemporary issues of Internet influence and the age old emotions of human relationships.
Certainly an author to take notice of.
Thank you to netgalley and Granta for an advance copy of this book

This novel is very different to some that I have read recently it deeply looks into the elements of a persons character and how they develop .The author has a really good understanding about psychology and how we are all influenced strongly by the people closest to us
The novel looks at several women one on particular who we see from childhood as she is initially closeted and suffocated by her mother but ultimately finds strength in obsessive gym and yoga practices which strengthen her muscles and harden her body which changes as much as she grows mentally stronger
The author has a clear easy to read prose style making the book an enjoyable thought provoking experience to read
The background stories are interesting and the comparison made early on to the metamorphosis between caterpillar pupae and butterfly is clear and fascinating
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published in the uk by Grants publications on 5th April 2023 .This review is also published on my Wordpress account BionicSaeahsbooks

The main character in Chrysalis, Anna Metcalfe's thoughtfully contemporary debut novel, is a compelling figure who weaves a mesmerizing web around three independent narrators. Each takes a turn trying to define her, but their impressions diverge, producing a stuttering report and the wobbly outline of a character. The backstory, articulated by the mother, is the middle segment of this trio, sandwiched between the accounts of two of her acolytes. This structure flips the viewpoint of the panopticon, the model of a wheel-like prison, where the inmates do not know when they are being watched by anonymous guards, stationed in a central hub. These narrators gaze inward to this unknown center. There, the nameless "she" also looks inward, alluringly enigmatic, indistinct, and changing. The accounts are entangled, but the narrators are oblivious to one another. All their focus is on this person—this thing in a state of transformation. They cannot confer. They are alone, enclosed in their wedge-like cells.
If these narrators are imprisoned, it is because they want to be locked in her orbit. The theme of incarceration is disturbingly constant, embodied in the constraining chrysalis of the title, its binding simultaneously planned out and inevitable.
In the book, captivity is captivation, an obscure and fantastical metaphor for the unattainable lifestyles of internet influencers: ideal people, perfectly formed from perfectly disciplined lives, sustained by legions of devotees who know them, do not know them—who want to emulate them but are too malformed, stupid, untidy, and uncommitted. Unlike the classical ideals of the past, fixed in flawless blocks of marble, shaped by the force of another's vision, Chrysalis's "she" is a shapeshifter, a nobody special who sculpts her body in the gym and her mind through the relentless purging of her relationships with people and things. Continual transformations make her an amorphous essence, a defined physique, but defined according to what criteria? The others who tell the story are, by comparison, blob-like people living their lives in a miasma. It is a haze of places crowded with reactive people. At least they have real bodies and occupy solid space. They use worktops and fitness apparatus, slam doors and savour aromas, they feel rage and seek kindness, want hygiene and dislike muck. In Chrysalis, the tangible effects of the world are navigated in a vague and general way. Work is unspecific and pointless. A job comes in. There is nothing to say about it other than it's a big one. Done, it flies out. There is admin, success, routine, all shimmering in an inattention to detail.
Meanwhile, "she" lives her life in impossible poses. Her’s is a life that cannot be sustained among other people. It is the life of a psychopath able to decode what others desire—their wish for stillness, withdrawal, and focus. She lives it out, but without empathy, without humanity. Breaking free of the chrysalis is Zelenskyy-like, an aesthetic of remorseless oppressive war waged hungrily to achieve the freedom to feed a remorseless oppressive war. All other lives are the collateral of a singular immaculate emergence.
Chrysalis is clever, curious, and magical, but why read it? There is no better way to understand the clever, cunning, and malign way our contemporary diet of propaganda promises to reveal good and evil, working at our cracks, flaws, and imperfections, making us prisoners of its unimpeached vision.

An un-named woman transforms herself, watched closely by an acquaintance, her mother, and her colleague following the ending of an abusive relationship. Unsettling, and leaves the reader with questions that seem unanswerable.

A fascinating study of trauma response, how we relate to eachother even when we choose solitude, transformation, and a really exciting debut from Metcalfe!

With thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

"She has a power over the people who find her; once you've known her, it's hard to go back to a time before."
While there is always an attraction to a manic, frantic, crisis-led novel, Chrysalis instead unfolds in a still, calm, and even slow manner. This works to maintain an altogether creepier atmosphere. It is unnervingly quiet and chillingly calm, yet through the building tension you just know that something bad is on the horizon. The way the odd events of the book are juxtaposed against this measured and methodical pacing helps draw the reader in and consider the book’s central thesis - can a woman both live in society and truly be herself?
Chrysalis is about one unnamed woman’s journey from a functioning member of society to a guru-like recluse, told through three people who knew her along the way. The main character is fundamentally uncompromising to the point of being unkind, yet manages to make those around her enable her bizarre lifestyle. Through this manipulation, she makes those around her fall in a sort of love with her - and this experience is reflected by the reader. While we can see this character isn’t exactly likable, she does hold a certain fascination that keeps you on side.
The fact we only know this character and witness this story as outsiders looking in helps the book maintain an air of mystery. We are forced to make our impressions of this character solely out of what others tell us, giving us a strange distant feeling from the overarching premise of the book. In fact, it raises a question about the inherent unknowability of all other human beings. "They fail to see that she is capricious, that like any god or archetype, she's as much yours as she is mine." Even as our main character clearly explains her ideology and motives, we still find it all oddly difficult to understand.
Outside of the incredibly clever way the book's form and content seem to support and mirror each other, Anna Metcalfe also takes on some other interesting themes in this small yet mighty novel. She reflects on influencer and wellness culture in a fresh and expansive way. One of the most common critiques of the world of social media content creation is how it’s riddled with fakeness, but Metcalfe considers this a little more deeply. As our main character curates her social media presence, she is also creating a new life and reality for herself, which is perhaps one of the least “fake” undertakings out there.
Metcalfe also examines trauma response. After coming out of an abusive relationship, our main character has to choose how to cope. And while her methods can seem a little extreme, it does open the old can of worms: how can any one of us deal with being alive and being a human?
The stark, almost barren prose of the novel gives it a small but perfectly formed energy. Rather than offering any didacticism on how to live, Metcalfe instead thoroughly explores her central thesis without drawing any unnecessary conclusion. Whatever you do, people will watch and judge, so is there some power and happiness to be found in living entirely for yourself? Is it even possible? "For a long time, I was convinced that everyone lived that way--trying hard to do the right thing while pretending not to try at all. It had never occurred to me that there might be something powerful, profitable even, in being exactly who you were.”