Hysteria

Hysteria

Jessica Gross

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

In HYSTERIA, we meet a young woman an hour into yet another alcohol-fueled, masochistic, sexual bender at her local bar. There is a new bartender working this time, one she hasn't seen before, and who can properly make a drink. He looks familiar, and as she is consumed by shame from her behavior the previous week— hooking up with her parents' colleague and her roommate's brother— she also becomes convinced that her Brooklyn bartender is actually Sigmund Freud. They embark on a relationship, and she is forced to confront her past through the prism of their complex, revealing, and sometimes shocking meetings. With the help of Freud—or whoever he is—she begins to untangle her Oedipal leanings, her upbringing, and her desires. Jessica Gross's debut is unflinchingly perceptive and honest, darkly funny, and unafraid of mining the deepest fears of contemporary lives.


From the Forum

No posts yet

Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update

Recent Reviews

Your rating:

  • innapie
    Mar 23, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • MatchaReads
    Mar 18, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    “I had come so many times staring at the latticework of my radiator that I wondered if I could orgasm from that pattern alone”.

    ““The first time I came was at the opera,” I said, and she didn’t so much as blink, so I continued to speak”.

    0
    comments 0
    Reply
  • View all reviews
    Community recs if you liked this book...
    Find this book in...