Woo Woo: A Novel

by Ella Baxter

A thrilling and eccentric novel about what it means to make art as a woman, and about the powerful forces of voyeurism, power, obsession, and online performanceWoo 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.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Art, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Book Club, Australia

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 3, 2024

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Sunny Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I laughed and was repulsed

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

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, inside Sabine, inside me, inside all of us, 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.

[CJ Alberts]

DNF 50% the way through this was incomprehensible

[Lindsay Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Rashmi · Rating 1 out of 5]

insufferable. wanted to DNF so badly but i was so strong and brave

[Chanel]

Arc from NetGalley

Art art art art art art art art.
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.

[Alexis || abookandAstory · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, LOL.

This is such a niche book. As an artist who loves all expressions of art and who identifies as a crazy person, I found this to be incredibly funny and an interesting look at the art world in such a satirical manner.

When I tell you I RAN to the reviews as soon as I finished this one……. I sprinted. I just knew it was going to be fantastically controversial. Needless to say, the reviews did not disappoint.

I really loved the in-depth look into what it feels like when you’re “going crazy”. The things that suddenly make sense and the simple things that couldn’t be more confusing. How no one really understands what’s going on or why.

I loved this but I feel like it’s one of those books that if you don’t have a relationship with the described experience, you may have a hard time following.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC!

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

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, it's not for me.

[Scott Baird (Gunpowder Fiction and Plot) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I love or hate the work of Ella Baxter, all I know is that she writes truly unique work like nobody else I've read. She is thought provoking, and intellectually confusing, she summons emotions in her readers and is emotionally confusing. I am unsure if large chunks of her work go over my head, or if she is a raw talent still figuring out how to write a great book.

A very strong flavour that is the opposite of boring, this book will challenge you in more than one way. An author well worth trying if you haven't already.

https://youtu.be/EBmp9WLQAmA

[elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

what. the fuck. did i just read.

[Anna Baillie-Karas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant novel. Baxter’s prose is fresh and visceral, raw and often funny even as she tackles dark themes. We have a real sense of Sabine so committed to her art - ‘on her knees for art’ - trying to corral her ideas into form & at the same time dealing with a dangerous stalker, so that you feel she might implode. Satirical about the art & online worlds mixed with the menace facing Sabine, it’s an exhilarating ride. A strong book.

[andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

thanks to brilliance audio for the advanced audio arc!

--

unfortunately, this one REALLY didn't work for me. i think if you're a major ottessa moshfegh fan, this one is going to be for you.

i personally found it unnecessarily gross. this is about an artist called sabine (very cool name, though) who is having a mid-life crisis. she's an artist, she does stuff naked and apparently with puppets? i should have known this wouldn't be for me when girly pop enlisted her overworked chef husband (whose physical anatomy the author describes in a weird, off-putting way - i mean, the narrative referred to his body as warm, butter-body and it was border line fatphobic at times) to get her animal blood for art.

and all of these organic substances... the animal blood, later animal milk, is just straight up rotting in her house.

she's really entitled and insufferable about her art. think blonde, over-moneyed influencer blogger about it. yet she thinks that she as a cis-het white woman is going to be a transformational figure for all people with her art, including poc and trans people?

this all got real when sabine started talking to a ghost and thinking that she's being followed by someone that's sending her threatening letters. instead of doing anything remotely logical, she continues to blast her life all over social media, eat the threatening letters which could be evidence, and go to her husband's place of business to throw a gargantuan temper tantrum. and still, he doesn't leave her.

i was checked out before that, but from what i gathered, she also did the two following unredeemable things: shit in her own yard (in fact, there was a lot of weird shit/piss talk in this book) and then buy real pig trotters to attach to her hands and wear for her art, which from what i can see consists of her screeching that she's a pig.

i'm sure this was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but i feel like that only works if the reader is in on it. to me, this felt like an attempt to write one of the most disgusting, insufferable characters that i've ever read and make little edgelord additions to the plot in order to upset the reader.

i didn't get it. but this might be your bag.

[Ann Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, little art nerds, this one is for us!

And let me just say, any book that heavily features the ghost of the incredible Carolee Schneemann is going to be so wonderfully kooky that I instantly knew I would love it.

Sabine is an ARTISTE and she has an upcoming exhibition that promises to be the best thing she’s ever created. Only she now has a stalker, she’s fighting with her husband, she gets a liiiitle too trigger happy with Instagram Live, and now she’s basically on the verge of a breakdown. So yeah, your average gallery opening.

This book was just as the book promises, completely woo-woo and I was ready to be swept up in the ride. The sensory details were seriously glorious. I could somehow be disgusted and enchanted in the same sentence. The writing itself felt like a work of art.

And the chapter titles!! Each one was the title of a work of art that would put you in a useful frame of mind and I adored that detail.

And let me be the first to tell you, this book is certainly not for everyone. But if you love art, especially contemporary art with all the woo-woo you can handle, I think you will love it too.

[Andreas · Rating 1 out of 5]

wtf were these people even on about

[Zana]

DNF @ 50%

I love weird books, and I was hoping that this was a weird book that I'd love, but this was so stupid I just can't.

Terrible dialogue. Reads like the author just wrote a bunch of random thoughts on her notes app about a contemporary artist suffering from major anxiety about her career. Then insert some deep thoughts about feminism that are indecipherable and not even that deep at all.

What the hell is any of this?

'“Luck is mostly privilege,” said Lou.

“Luck is real,” said Sabine.

“You’re both white,” said Lou.

“Well, then you’re more privileged than us, being a white man,” said Ruth.

“I’m trans. You need to read a book,” said Lou.

“You’re absolutely right,” said Sabine, immediately ready to prove herself a greater ally than Ruth.'

Or this:

'“It’s anti-feminist of you to deny my feelings about this,” said Sabine.'

Yeah, I'm out.

[Lark Benobi]

This novel instantly reminded me, tonally, of Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles. I was not in the mood.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

A window into a home that should have hung curtains. Don't expect any meaningful conclusion, answers to your questions, or thought-provoking twist of perspective here. This story ends abruptly without wrapping anything into a neat little box, seemingly deliberately too. Some might consider it artistic... its odd, and if Im frank, I don't understand the hype reviews.

[thebookybird · Rating 2 out of 5]

Utter nonsense.

Sabine felt incredibly one dimensional. I wanted more, I love books about artists but this was as it’s called a lot of “woo woo” and just not quite enough character depth for me to resonate with or care about.

Overtly clever, will be a hit for a very specific audience.

However, it was so obscure I am curious about her other book. Do with this what you will.

[Bill Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure if it’s satire or farce or meant to be serious, but it’s laugh-out-loud funny and very, very weird. If you love/hate/are interested in or curious about contemporary performance art, this is both a send-up and an homage. I thought it was both self-indulgent and clever, but never not entertaining. For the adventurous reader, this is worth a look.

[Madeleine Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wild and extraordinary I haven’t read anything like it

It was so fun to read in a way I haven’t experienced with other books and I’m just so confused but so pleased by this book at the same time

[Anna Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

brill

[Katerina Sines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure I fully “got” it but I loved it so much. So so so weird.

[nina.reads.books]

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.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was WOO WOO. The ending made no sense. I don’t understand why there was a ghost. Or what the puppets meant. Or why she just shat in her garden. And her husband? Only fucks her if she is a pig 👀

[QueerNightOwl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. 100% recommend if you want to experience psychosis.

[Alessi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually love books about insane women, but this fell a bit flat for me.

Maybe I just don't "get" art, and refuse to step foot into the northern suburbs.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I lived in the inner north of Melbourne for a few years in my twenties and my sister was friends with a bunch of arty hipsters. We used to think they were fascinating, ridiculous and self-obsessed. Maybe they thought we were country bumpkins, if they thought of us at all.

So, I recognised some of the characters in Woo Woo and especially the way they talk about their art projects. None of it really makes much sense to me, though Ella Baxter has a very vivid visceral way with words. Some of her lines made me laugh out loud.

I don’t do well on unstable ground and throughout the book I was constantly grasping for something concrete, something linear, to hold onto amidst Sabine’s hallucinations. As someone who doesn’t solely read literary fiction, that could be my failing. I agree with Anna Snoekstra who said this book is a surreal fever dream.

[Melody | Spilt Wine Book Club · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 - weird, unexpected, kinda feral?? Baxter’s ability to describe emotion / feeling / art is amazing, her sentences are visceral and whacky. This book as a whole is pretty insane and I’m not sure if I really ‘got’ all of it - some interesting points on marriage, the female experience, art, food. What’s it all meant to mean? I don’t really know.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an emotional ride in this audiobook. A very interesting insight into the emotional depth of a character so emotional and deeply attached to her worldview and artist self. It’s a rollercoaster ride.

[nancy! · Rating 4 out of 5]

A24 would love this!!!