In this follow-up to her highly acclaimed 2017 novel ‘Butter’, Asako Yuzuki is back with another dark story (translated by Polly Barton). ‘Hooked’, like ‘Butter’, is set in Tokyo and revolves around two thirty-year-old women: Eriko is a highly strung perfectionist who works at a seafood company and lives with her parents, and Shoko is a laidback housewife who runs a successful blog that pokes fun at her life as ‘The World’s Worst Wife’. The two women couldn’t be more different, which is exactly why Eriko becomes enamoured with Shoko’s blog and soon seeks to be friends with her. What transpires is a tangle of obsession and jealousy as Eriko falls into a toxic pattern of friendship that she vowed she wouldn’t do again. ‘Hooked’ is brilliantly translated and another intriguing insight from Yuzuki into the intoxicating ugly side of female relationships, the tragic effects of loneliness, and Japanese gender politics. IM

Published by HarperCollins