Food Blogging Fixation Spirals Into Lonely, Uneasy Suspense
Asako Yuzuki turns a food-blogging fixation into a quiet study of loneliness, friendship and obsession. The suspense creeps in through emotional hunger rather than shock, making the novel appealing for readers who like psychological unease with warmth still visible underneath.
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Hooked
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Food Blogging Fixation Spirals Into Lonely, Uneasy Suspense
Asako Yuzuki turns a food-blogging fixation into a quiet study of loneliness, friendship and obsession. The suspense creeps in through emotional hunger rather than shock, making the novel appealing for readers who like psychological unease with warmth still visible underneath.
- Book Synopsis
-
Tender and thrilling it's Yuzuki at her best' ELLE
'I couldn't stop reading' COSTANZA CASATI
'Unsettling, compelling, richly written' JODIE HARSH
'Dark, tender, unforgettable' JANE CASEY
The unmissable new novel of friendship and dangerous obsession from Asako Yuzuki, the award-winning author of the global bestselling sensation Butter.
Eriko really wouldn't mind being savaged, if it was her best friend doing the savaging …
Eriko's life appears perfect - devoted parents, pristine apartment and a high-flying job in the seafood division of one of Japan's largest trading companies. Her latest project, to reintroduce the controversial Nile perch fish into the Japanese market, is characteristically ambitious. But beneath her flawless surface she is wracked by loneliness.
Eriko becomes fascinated with a popular blog written by a housewife, Shoko. Shoko's posts about eating convenience-store food and her untidy home are the opposite of the typical Japanese housewife's manicured lifestyle. When Eriko tracks Shoko down at her favourite restaurant and befriends her, Shoko is at first charmed by her new companion. But soon Eriko's obsession with Shoko begins to spiral out of control, threatening her carefully laid plans. How far will she go to hold on to the best friend she's ever had?
Beautifully translated by Polly Barton, Hooked is an unsettling story of the line between friendship and dangerous obsession, and a delicious exploration of food, loneliness and womanhood in contemporary Japan.
A most anticipated book of 2026 in Vogue, Guardian, New York Times, Forbes, The Times, Sunday Times Style, Elle, Stylist, BBC, Grazia, Bricks Magazine, Radio Times, LitHub, Oprah Daily and Daily Express.
'The kind of book you press into your friends' hands, desperate to dissect it' ERIN KELLY, author of The House of Mirrors
'An exciting new thriller that you won't be able to put down'RADIO TIMES
'Expect to see this distinctive pink cover everywhere' GRAZIA
'[A] razor-edged story about women, appetite and what we'll do to feel chosen … Safe to say, we're already hooked'OPRAH DAILY
'No one writes about the hidden depths and lurking monstrosities of womanhood quite like Asako Yuzuki' ALICE SLATER, author of Let the Bad Times Roll
'A thrilling and deliciously sharp examination of the extremes of female friendship. Achingly tender and wickedly funny' EDEL COFFEY, author of In Glass Houses
'Dark, spiny and slippery, this haunting tale of loneliness and longing in the modern age will leave you gasping' TOBI COVENTRY, author of He's the Devil
Ideal for readers who:
- Seek compelling literary suspense centred around food blogging, complex friendships and toxic obsessions.
- Want to watch Eriko as a deep fixation turns a tender connection into something far darker.
- Are drawn to themes of modern loneliness, appetite and online identities viewed through a contemporary Japanese lens.
- Prefer unsettling fiction that feels beautifully intimate, wonderfully strange and quietly addictive.
- About The Author
- Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. She won the All Yomimono Award for New Writers for her story, 'Forget Me, Not Blue', which appeared in her debut, Shuuten No Anoko, published in 2010. She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoko Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio and film. Butter, her first novel translated into English, won Waterstones Book of the Year 2024, the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award and Fiction Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, among other accolades.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9780008753832
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- 4th Estate, (12 March 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 395
- Weight
- 420 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 216 x 135 x 36 mm
- Categories: