Laura McPhee-Browne's third novel, Worry Doll, is a sensual and sinister exploration of desire, told from the perspectives of two women, Heloise and Lacey, who meet on a train and embark on a ferocious affair. Their accounts lie side by side, intimate yet separate, forcing readers to navigate conflicting memories. The novel challenges the notion that truth is knowable, asking readers to decide despite incomplete evidence. As McPhee-Browne puts it, desire makes 'honest liars' of people, with two individuals living through the same encounter and remembering it entirely differently.
The Characters and Their Dynamics
Heloise, in her mid-30s, is eight years into a stable relationship with Ernie and a few months into an affair with Lacey, an aloof Gen Z woman. Heloise's life seems secure—meaningful work, a charming house, dinner-party friends—but it feels hollow. She pours herself into elaborate messages for Lacey, who replies in crumbs. 'This is their pattern – Heloise gives Lacey everything, Lacey gives Heloise something; she takes it, as if it is enough,' the narrative reveals. Heloise begins losing things: a credit card, her handbag, groceries, blurring the line between desire and illness.
Lacey's Perspective and the Novel's Turn
Lacey takes over the novel halfway, upending everything readers thought they knew. The younger woman brings a carnal mess that contrasts with Heloise's twee self-pity. The novel balances at the seam where the grotesque meets the erotic, refusing to separate food and sex from bodily functions. 'The mouth is for kissing, but also for chewing and vomiting and gulping wine,' McPhee-Browne writes, granting everything the same sensual weight. The novel is for readers who enjoy interpretive gameplay, akin to Katie Kitamura's Audition or Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry.
Impact and Themes
Worry Doll is a novel of the body—its thresholds, leaks, hungers, and aches. It returns readers to the physicality of desire, making them aware of their own bodies and cravings. The reviewer notes, 'I read the book over one insomniac night and, in the morning, I woke up hungry.' The novel explores how desire can be both consuming and ordinary, with the most unsettling horrors being those we invent to make our obsessions feel reciprocal. Published by Scribe, Worry Doll is out now.
