Thank you to NetGalley for this arc.

Odd, perplexing, disorienting, disheveling, menacing, all words that could be used to describe this novel. When a book begins as one thing and does a hard 360 before the end, we know it can only go two ways: right or left, and we all know it's almost always the latter. Jowita Bydlowska's Possessed takes a drastic turn when what begins as a love story turns into a ghost story.

Set in Toronto, Possessed follows Josephine, a woman in her thirties, who becomes obsessed with a younger lover, Sebastian, who wants her sometimes and ghosts her other times. Whenever Josephine is ghosted by Sebastian, she finds herself unable to be and exist as an individual entity, with memories of their time together intruding and invading her every thought, her obsession taking up more space than her existence. 

Possessed is yet another novel to come out recently that leans into the current contemporary novel trend of the troubled woman, but this time it's a more personal story to the author because it's partly inspired by personal events from her life. We know that the appeal of this genre is the intrigue of the main character; how exciting their story is and how the author keeps us reading about the mundane, the everyday —and Josephine is as good as it gets. Bydlowska pulls out every ingredient to tell this story—a psychotic mother, an all-consuming obsession, very vulgar and uncomfortable descriptive sex scenes—and it works. Until it doesn't.

"My romantic obsession was groundless because I didn’t have a lot to go on, just a few dates, some texts. Scraps. It fit perfectly within the definition of obsession: an obsession is a thing that is not based on reason. It is similar to addiction, which is an inability to quit doing something despite wanting to. It is similar to sickness."

Josephine's obsession is at its peak when Sebastian does not contact her for a while. She is left empty. Haunted. Her mind is filled with nothing but thoughts of him. Bydlowska's description of how invasive Josephine's want is immediately draws you in. She likens it to an addiction, and Josephine is even more relatable. One does not even need to relate to her exact situation to know what she feels. It's a universal feeling. Once, you have felt there was something you could not live without. Someone you could not live without. Bydlowska perfectly captures what it's like to be a slave to want. To desire. From Josephine's thoughts to her actions to her coping mechanisms, we see someone we've been before.

"I thought again about feeling like a metaphorical balloon going from a man to man, how little I had going on for myself, living my life according to whichever man held me."

Knowing the story is partly inspired by the author's life is probably one of the reasons Josephine is a very thorough character study, but it's still extremely impressive how Bydlowska delivers on many fronts. She gives a raw and unfiltered look at want, the negative shapes and forms it often takes, and just how bad it can get. Through Josephine, we see how rejection from one person often leads to the use of another. How people become vices and coping mechanisms; waiting tools. Silence from Sebastian usually causes Josephine to seek solace in Victor, stated as her "maybe-boyfriend," who she no longer feels much for. 

Through the similarities between Victor and Sebastian we see the type of men Josephine is particularly interested in, but there are also major contrasts between both of them, the biggest being the difference in her age to both men. Sebastian is ten years younger than Josephine, and Victor is twenty years older than her. Through the contrast in her relationship with both men, we get to see different facets of Josephine and what drives her relationships.

"On our first date Sebastian and I went to a popular Italian joint. It wasn’t really Italian, wasn’t run by Italians. So many things in Toronto were pretend."

A common theme that runs through the novel is the need for pretense. Bydlowska looks at this through the city; on multiple occasions, Josephine calls out Toronto for trying too hard to be like New York. At a point in the novel, she goes to a party being hosted at a warehouse about to be turned into a condo, and she says of it, "This was very New York — throwing parties in places that were not meant for parties. I never lived in New York but I travelled there for work. Our Toronto efforts to be it were painful and embarrassing to witness." 

Bydlowska brilliantly parallels Josephine with the city in reference to its constant need to pretend. Josephine is constantly trying to please whichever lover she's with, which more often than not leads to her having to do something she does not usually do or something she's not comfortable with. A memorable instance of the many like this throughout the story is a point where she says, "I normally wouldn’t have agreed to that because it did nothing for me, and it was kind of dumb, but I wanted Sebastian to think I was just like girls his age or even wilder."

We see how she constantly loses a piece of herself in these relationships, as she constantly gives in hopes of keeping these men who refuse to stay. But we have a very self-aware main character in Josephine, who knows and who admittedly derives pleasure from the pain. At a point in the novel, she says, "I didn’t have to have a degree in psychology to know that I was a masochist, that I was excited by being on tenterhooks." We see the pain she is willing to tolerate to keep Sebastian—who is always rough during sex and leaves her with bruises—and how she seeks pain in pleasure from Victor as a coping mechanism after being ghosted by Sebastian. This side of her horrifies, but leaves us feeling even more sorry for her. The sex scenes in here are very grotesque and uncomfortable; the aim: to unsettle and get under the skin, and Bydlowska achieves this without making it feel like it's just for shock value.

"I was pining for someone I loved despite not having any evidence that the love was reciprocal. It was not a two-way street — it was a car crash. It was a ghost that lived in your skin."

The mention of ghosts comes up a lot at the beginning of the story, whether it's Josephine likening her obsession to them or her psychotic mother talking about seeing them. I was dismissive at first when Josephine's mother, who has a mental illness, was introduced into the story because she is an all-too-familiar trope used in this genre for extra effect. The troubled woman, with a mentally unstable mother, who also had a mentally unstable mother. 

Josephine's mother is introduced with a flashback to a time when Josephine is very young and terrified of her—a scenario that felt too blown up for the sake of using the troubled lineage trope. It is only more on the nose when Josephine says, "I come from a line of troubled women," and it's attempted to be used as an implication for some of her personality traits. Her mother never fully settles into the story, even though Josephine lives with her and has to care for her every day, but she becomes tolerable.

Her mother occasionally brings up the ghosts she sees, and while Josephine does not see them, she admits to feeling them. The insert about ghosts worked more as a comparison to Josephine's obsession than as an entity within the story. It tended to disorganize the reading experience, and so I hoped mentions of them would show up less. But it only gets worse because a ghost gets a co-lead role in the story.

When Josephine gets offered a work trip at her travel agency job to an island in Croatia, one that is rumored to be haunted, she accepts to go, in need of a distraction. In her words, "my life at home was stressful, my love life was making me anxious." The work trip does not show up till after a little over a hundred pages, and when it finally does, the story begins to plummet.

You wonder where the story is going to go from the beginning and how a story about an obsession is supposed to last for three hundred plus pages, and for the first hundred it's really solid. But what comes after is unexpected. Josephine meets a male ghost-type entity when she goes to Croatia, and it immediately disorganizes the story because, even up until the end, you do not know how to feel about it. It's impossible to wrap the mind around how he fits into everything, and even the explanation Bydlowska gives is not enough to make it make sense because its addition never fully works with the story. 

We get to learn about the ghost, and he gets a story within Josephine's story, which further takes the book away from itself. It soon turns into a ghost story, and although Bydlowska tries to maintain her hold over it, she is unable to. A total narrative shift occurs, and Josephine is completely lost in her own book. It's acknowledged that the ghost is telling a story, but it never fails to feel like there are two entirely different stories struggling for room to breathe in a single book. The ghost's story actually intrigues, but the book loses focus so many times that it makes it hard to get fully invested in him. The intent behind the ghost being integrated into the story does not fully land, and by the time Bydlowska tries to pull Josephine back to us, the attention is long lost, causing the ending to fall flat. 

Possessed starts out really strong, and Bydlowska shoots really far, but she misses, which ultimately makes it seem like she could not carry out what she initially set out to do. It's still worth a read because its portrayal of that all-consuming want is one I've not seen done like this in fiction. Nevertheless, the ghosts should have been left on the chopping block.

Having read "Possessed" by Jowita Bydlowska, and I was blown away by the raw and powerful storytelling. The novel is a memoir that follows the author's journey through addiction and recovery, and it is an unflinching and honest portrayal of the struggles and challenges of addiction.

Bydlowska is a skilled and engaging writer, and she has a knack for capturing the emotional highs and lows of addiction. The novel is both deeply personal and universal, and it explores the complex and often misunderstood nature of addiction. Bydlowska's story is both inspiring and heart-wrenching, and it offers a glimpse into the often-hidden world of addiction.

The writing in "Possessed" is raw and powerful, and the pacing is perfect. Bydlowska's storytelling is gripping and engaging, and the novel is a must-read for anyone interested in addiction and recovery. Overall, I highly recommend "Possessed" to fans of memoirs and anyone looking for a thought-provoking and emotionally resonant read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book. It was hard for me to feel any emotional attachment to the main character, and I didn't find the plot to be particularly engaging either. The book started out very raw and seemed like it had potential, but I was hoping for more humor and more unhinged activity from the main character and unfortunately didn't get to read either of those. To me, Part I also felt like a completely different story than the parts that came after it, and I found the disconnect off-putting. All in all, I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it unfortunately just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. I really wanted to get into this, but I could not, so unfortunately I did not finish it.

I simply didn't connect with this one. The point of view was hard for me to connect to or even really care about. The explicit scenes were done well, but I simply couldn't bring myself to care. It was a slug to get through to the extent that I'm surprised I got through.

Josephine is on the brink. Lovers come and entice and supplant, and in the end give nothing. At times you smile for her, scream inside for her. In the end applaud her. You need to read if you have ever fallen u dear the spell of a story told from the lips of a beautiful, guarded liver. The kind that gives just enough to entice and then pull away, with that promise that this is only the surface. Happy reading

I had a hard time reading this story due to the format. The number of sex scenes bordered on excessive.

Well, the writing is good; it kind of grips you in the beginning but then it gets monotonous. Too slow. No dialogues, too much telling that I got tired.

Also, I didn't know it was an erotica. The story seemed to go nowhere and sadly, (as much as I wanted to like it) it didn't work for me.

Thank you for the ARC.

At first, I was really enjoying this book. I flew through the first part of the book and I thought the Days of Abandonment and The Pisces comps were fitting. It captured the desperation and delusion of Ferrante and Broder's characters; however, by the second and third act, it quickly lost its charm. I felt that it became too repetitive and slow. By the end of the book, I was bored by everything because I wanted more from it. I wanted it to be more absurd, more delusional, more ridiculous, more UNHINGED. I wanted it to be both funnier and sadder, just like Broder's works. I wanted it to be more substantial, like Ferrante's works.

Sure it reminded me of Ferrante and Broder initially, but eventually it became a cheap version of them. It's not to say that the book is awful though, because I still liked some parts of it, it's just that the overall quality of the novel is inconsistent and the pacing needs to be tighter.

3 Stars

This was a rather odd book that was densely weighted by erotica throughout the story, and later incorporated interaction with ghosts. It also dealt with being a caregiver to a mother with dementia. The main character Josephine is in her late twenties and has been in a live-in relationship with photographer Victor for years. He is a much older man, but she enjoys being on his arm at artistic city events. They don't have any set structure to their relationship, and she sort of moved in with him by accident and is now moving out to care for her mother out of necessity. During this same time she meets a man named Sebastian in a coffee shop who is a decade younger. This cataclysmic meeting sets off a rough sexual relationship which rips through basement apartments, cars and even bathrooms. There's no actual meaningful relationship involving common interests, intelligent conversation and love- just the excitement of rough sex, and there are often stretches of time when Sebastian doesn't even call or text Josephine. However, her obsession with Sebastian is an all-consuming psychosis.

At a certain point I was thrown off kilter by a "Part Two" occurring where Josephine took a trip for the burgeoning travel company she worked at. She was scoping out a town in Croatia that purported to be haunted by the ruins of a mental institution. It felt like a bizarre transition in the story after such a long stretch with the two parallel sexual relationships taking center stage. Overall I found the story very offbeat, being a voyeur to Josephine's colorful and reckless lifestyle. However, Josephine's sexual proclivities were the meat on the bone in this story, leaving not much else of particular interest to me.

Thank you to the publisher Dundurn Press, Rare Machines for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

Really well written. Josephine has a difficult mother and an obsession with Sebastian a man she meets at a coffee shop. Feeling trapped she escapes to an island in the Adriatic where she falls under the spell of another man.. written raw and honestly

Possessed is a book that held a lot of potential but seemed not to go as far as it could. It was an exciting read, and I wanted to understand what was going on in Josephine's life, but I also found it nigh impossible to empathize with her or understand her decisions. There was a somewhat detached feel to the writing -- like I was observing and not invested in the story.

The whole book is gloomy, and Bydlowska writes well, but I wish the characters had been given more significant thought. It seemed like things just HAPPENED to Josephine to move the plot along, and in the end, it all chalked up to nothing. Still worth a read, but the writing felt like a variety of short stories thrown together and held at the seams with sex scenes.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this interesting book.

I thought the first half of Possessed was great. The depiction of the increasing drama in the protagonist’s life with her two very different lovers and the issues with her mother’s dementia was fantastically done. I thought the introduction of foreshadowing of the more supernatural elements (through the “presence” Josephine senses at home and her office) melded well with the tension in the rest of the story. The author also has a knack for outstanding prose.

Unfortunately, once Josephine went to the island it kind of fell apart for me. I would have liked the story better if the “ghost” continued to be a more subtle presence rather than a concrete character. The break into Luka’s POV was also jarring and seemed out of place, and some of his language choices seemed anachronistic (would he really use the F word?).

A for effort, really interesting concept and idea, but I feel like the second half needed some reworking.

Thank you bet galley for providing me with a free advanced readers copy of Possessed in exchange for a honest review.


Although the writing in certain parts did a wonderful job of engrossing the reader and the mother daughter dynamic along with the blurred lines of obsession and love were well written the book feels flat when it comes to the supernatural part.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Omgg iam soo in loved with this book definitely going to recommend everyone this one blew my mind thank you netgalley for letting me review this book is phenomenal

"I loved being in love."

I love this new trend of sad girl books because I relate to them, and I think that's the appeal that makes them so popular on BookTok nowadays. We're finally allowing our ugly side to come out, after centuries of white men exploring their madness and confusion in literature, and we're thriving. It's good to talk and read about things that shame and scare us - our darkest secrets, the feelings we think no one else has felt until you say them out loud, and then you find out everybody else is exactly the same way. So this one couldn't be different. Josephine - the protagonist - falls a little under the category of "unhinged women" as well, but I think we've all been there. She has a bad relationship with her mom and self-esteem issues, which makes her turn into a person she's not to please the men she dates. When things don't go well with Sebastian, she becomes a little obsessive and lost. However, she never externalizes these feelings or does anything crazy, so I think a lot of people will be able to relate to her - after all, we can't control our thoughts and feelings, even when we acknowledge to ourselves that they're not healthy.
This is a "quiet" book - we're inside Josephine's head most of the time, so I don't think this will be for everyone. But if you like Sylvia Plath, Elena Ferrante, and Laura van den Berg, you'll enjoy this one. If I had to point out one thing I disliked, is that I wish Luka's story was shorter; I wasn't as invested in it as I was in Josephine's story. However, the writing is great and I read it super fast. I also understand the need to fit in Luka's background. This book, at the end of the day, shows different types of obsessive, all-consuming, unhealthy love. I also enjoyed the conclusion; it caught me off guard because it was more optimistic than I was expecting, but I was happy for Josephine because I feel weirdly attached and protective towards her.

thank you to Dundurn Press and Netgalley for this early copy in exchange for an honest review.

i had pretty high expectations for this book, the premise of combining obsessive love and mental illness with the supernatural sounded super intriguing. sadly, i really struggled to even get through the first part (with the obsessive love), and decided to quickly skim through the second half (the 'supernatural' part) to see if any of those chapters were better. they weren't. not for me, at least.

the narration style really didn't work for me and made it a very slow and tiring read. it was a lot of stream-of-consciousness and telling instead of showing. this made it hard to connect to and empathize with the main character and also made her obsession with the love interest hard to believe or take seriously. the relationship with her mother was interesting and i feel it would have benefited the characters' development if that had been highlighted more than all of the gratuitous sex scenes.

this book got my attention since chapter one even though most of the time i had no idea what i was reading.
josephine is our main character. she´s obsessive in general but it is more notorious when she talks about/spends time with her lovers. living with her demential mother, she founds herself becoming insane too. her work at a peculiar travel agency allows her to explore an island where she meets a ghost called Luka, he helped her realize some things out and when she´s back in the city, she´s no longer the same obsessive josephine.

the end wasn´t shocking or anything but i think it made sense. there were parts which made me cringe so much but beside that i really enjoyed it.

definitely unhingued vibes.

"was my life so empty that i let one thing fill it so entirely?"

a very interseting read
the story follows a young woman, Josephine, in her dilemas and an interesting sex/love life. her relationship with sex is quite similar to a lot of peoples, even though it is unhealthy. many of the unhealty sexual habits are a byproduct of the porn industry. she is obssesed with a guy called sebastian who gives her absolutely nothing, not even orgasams despite their sex schedule.

moving on to her mother, its very sad how a mother can passively hate her child so much, and yet the child will think so highly of the mother. Josephine called her mother the softest and warmest person she ever knew when her mother resented her.

luka´s story was very interesting, however i didn´t like how it ended. although sad, i hadn´t had the chance to properly process his story because it ended so abruptly.
i am also from croatia and have never heard of a place called tajni otok so i was a bit confused but figured it is a made up place which does make more sense

the story is written as a reflection or at least it reads as that, a memoir, which is why it is so melancholy and empty
i adore that about it

overall i really liked the book and i would recomend it to others who want to read it