Clippings

“Gross’s aptitude for shocking yet highly sensory prose propels the reader along the protagonist’s bender, all the way to rock bottom. The narrator’s perfectly rendered inner monologue, replete with her nuanced urges and obsessions, will make readers wonder if they’re getting to know her better than she knows herself…It is every bit a page-turner as it is a descent into sexual madness.”
- Publishers Weekly

“A young woman tries to find her footing in this trippy and hypnotic debut…A riveting novel that won’t let you look away even as the narrator careens from one disaster to another.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“This propulsive and playful book—which is reminiscent of the work of Philip Roth and the feverish novellas of Elena Ferrante—demands to be read in one sitting.”
- David Burr Gerrard, The Brooklyn Rail

“Gross's prose conveys casual brilliance, highlighting the extraordinary in the mundane in a way that helps ground the novel's dreamlike plot…The narrator, a pitch-perfect millennial flâneur, encounters every sexual act and bizarre situation with deep-gutted melancholy, conjuring a hard-edged eroticism and slow-burn tension that propels readers forward.”
- Alice Martin, Shelf Awareness

“The intimacy and empathy with which Gross maps out her character’s neuroses feels like a distinct rejoinder to modern culture’s tendency to codify ‘wellness’ as attainable only with the right athletic wear, or health insurance. The narrator’s mental distress can’t simply be papered over with Instagram yoga challenges or a fancy gym membership, and anyone who’s made a deliberate mess of their lives will recognize themselves in these pages…Ultimately the heady page-turning rush of Gross’s prose asks something contradictory of its readers: to slow down, notice things, listen without judgment—perhaps to ourselves most of all.”
- Sara Batkie, Chicago Review of Books

“In this gripping conversion narrative, shame cedes to a liberating faith in the talking cure.”
- Matt Seidel, The Millions

“An analysand herself, Gross renders the treatment with such emotional precision that ‘delusion and dream’ slip away and we eavesdrop on a highly relatable woman confronting overlapping desires. Throughout the novel, Gross’ generosity with her narrator is a sensitive illustration of ‘say everything,’ the fundamental request of analysis.”
- Christopher Russell, New Books in Psychoanalysis

“Gross’s debut is confident, sure-handed, fast-paced, entertaining — and also profound.”
- Dinah Lenney, The Los Angeles Review of Books

“The whole thing feels like an R-rated, modern version of Clarice Lispector’s insane, intense The Passion According to G. H. If you’re into that kind of thing.”
- Emily Temple, Literary Hub

”Hysteria is unafraid to plumb the complex depths of our most compulsive behavior. Lest you think it's just all pitch-black sexual drama, let me also reassure you that it's very funny — the bartender with whom the narrator works out some of her issues with is dubbed Freud, and, really, what's funnier than that?”
- Kristin Iversen, Refinery29

“Jessica Gross’ immersive and dark debut is complex and beautiful, hitting every note in that virtuosic range between desire and shame.”
- Natalka Burian, Betches

“A psychological tale that’s at turns comedic and painfully raw.”
- Juliet Helmke, The Observer