Woo Woo Author Ella Baxter By Ella Baxter
It s not for me 9781646222568 Woo Woo by Ella Baxter was quite frankly very woo woo It focuses on Sabine a conceptual artist who is having a bit of a meltdown breakdown as her next exhibition opening looms To add to this she begins to be visited by a ghost of one of her artist idols and is being stalked by an unknown man which her husband believes is in her head As a conceptual artist she often livestreams aspects of her life This includes a moment where she sees her life size puppets created for her to wear during her photoshoots come to life It was a lot. I loved New Animal which was Baxter s debut novel released in 2021 so it pains me to say I just did not like this book at all I found Sabine insufferable and her behaviour so completely bizarre that it alienated me rather than drawing me in I m usually all in for odd and mesmerising novels This one was dark and deliberately provocative but the plot was just so strange It was not for me. There is an afterword relating to the stalker angle which gave me some additional insight into why Baxter chose to write about it which i appreciated but I was already too turned off by the book sadly I really hope I am an anomaly in terms of this book as Baxter is definitely an author to watch. Thank you netgalley and allenandunwin for my gifted copy 9781646222568 This is my favorite book of the year and it s only March A necessary read for any woman who makes art and thrums with fury It s brilliant and ravaging and hysterical in all senses of the word 9781646222568 I had a dream about Ella Baxter the other night where I told her how much I loved her writing by telling her how much I loved the work of other writers But the truth is the only writer who writes like Ella Baxter is Ella Baxter I kept forgetting to breathe as I read this Baxter masterfully ratchets up the tension and unease in one of the greatest representations of how it feels just before you release art into the world that I have ever read It s also one of the most interesting ruminations on marriage It was a hypnotic and visceral reading experience Seeing the rage inside Baxter.
Play out on the page was pure catharsis I m tempted to eat the pages just as Sabine eats the notes her stalker leaves her I couldn t sleep last night so I sat in my freezing loungeroom imagining a stalker at my window and Ella beautifully haunting me I love a protagonist haunted by her muse I keep a list of such books and this is the best of them For Sabine it s Carolee Schneemann but everywhere I looked I saw Cindy Sherman But that s beside the point I don t usually love books about art but there was no pretention here or when there was Baxter was fast to cut it down I cannot tell you how much I loved this book I cannot tell you how unlike every other book it is I cannot tell you how alive I feel right now I am full of rage and awe Baxter has transformed a living nightmare into a fecund and feral work of art I will be screaming about this book from now until the end of time 9781646222568
| Woo Woo Author Ella Baxter By Ella Baxter |
| 1646222563 |
| 9781646222568 |
| English |
| Kindle Edition |
A book that fits its title It had me Woo ing throughout Not knowing what was coming in each turning page It is curious and thought provoking it dances between reality and imagination I didn t know where I was a lot of the time There were moments where I didn t know whether I could continue but always something calling me to keep reading on Slightly disturbed but also left in awe 9781646222568 i need this in my life 9781646222568 i loved new animal and i loved this woo woo was brave ethereal terrifying and hilarious overall a fever dream of a book that i found out ella sadly went through with her real life stalker what an incredible human you are taking your trauma and turning it into your best work so far such an astute portrait with brilliant writing and story telling the brain on this woman 9781646222568 I read an interview with Australian author Ella Baxter where she recounts her experience of having a stalker for 18 months during which the fear drained from her body and into the manuscript that would become the novel Woo Woo The book follows Sabine a conceptual performance artist as she mentally prepares for an upcoming art show while a stalker regularly leaves disturbing notes under the doormat of her home the stress of which leads to sleepless nights a frenzy of online exhibitionism it s her schtick and a descent into mania Reading Woo Woo is an intense experience it s witty and jittery hilarious and surreal a biting commentary of the art world and a nuanced portrait of a woman struggling to connect with her busy husband and create and live her life in the face of crippling self doubt an ever constant viewer both real and imagined and a stalker intent on upsetting her in every way Woo Woo is captivating strange and powerful a book like no other 9781646222568 A24 would love this 9781646222568 
Ella Baxter is a writer and artist living on unceded land of the Wurundjeri people She is the author of New Animal which was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction the UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing and was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize and the Matt Richell Award for New Writers. The main character in this feels like a caricature of an artist totally manic and dramatic and everything for arts sake I don t know if this is meant to be satire or performative but I do know that I m not the right reader for this I don t get it 9781646222568 I have to be honest I was really disappointed with Woo Woo I had such an emotional response to Baxter s first novel New Animal that I literally talked about it to anyone who would listen for months and made countless videos about it. However I couldn t get into the story with Woo Woo and found myself only finishing the book because it was from NetGalley which I m grateful for thank you Catapult My expectations were too high which might have partially ruined it I understand that Sabine s character is meant to be extremely shallow and obtuse due to her artistic personality and talents but because her character was so one dimensional it just didn t resonate with me. I know some people will love this book however inside Sabine inside me inside all of us 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 Woo Woo Author Ella Baxter.