The Catch

A Novel

By: Yrsa Daley-Ward

Narrated by: Yrsa Daley-Ward

One of TIME's 39 Must-Read Books of 2025 • Named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2025 by Lit Hub, Publishers Weekly, and Book Riot

This "highly-anticipated" (People) inaugural novel in the Well-Read Black Girl × Liveright series is a darkly whimsical debut about women daring to live and create with impunity.

Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life.

Clara, a celebrity author in desperate need of validation, believes Serene is their mother, while Dempsey, isolated and content to remain so, believes she is a con woman. As they clash over this stranger, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts—together. In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that Black women must make for self-actualization. The result is a marvel of a debut novel that boldly asks, “How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?”

©2025 Utter, Inc. (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Very repetitive.

This book was so repetitive in its description, emotional revelations, theme , scenarios etc. I could barely not just stop listening but was too busy to bother.

odd

Bizzare. Could not get a grip on the plot. Awaited a redemptive moment where it would turn. It never did.

Too obscure

Could not for the life of me figure out the plot or why I should keep reading. It was puzzling and I don’t recommend it.

Bummer

Every minute of this book felt like being in a mental breakdown. I think that's intentional, but I found it stressful and unenjoyable.

A disappointment

I chose this title based on The NY Times selecting it for a book club. I didn’t like it from the beginning but finished it because I thought surely there would be some merit to it if The NY Times chose it. Wrong. The plot, if any, was difficult to follow, as the narrator (the author) used the same voice for all the characters, making it difficult much of the time to tell who was speaking. The chapter titles with a name helped, but many chapter titles did not include a name. I regret not returning it.