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ECSTASY

Ivy Pochoda

A Novel

In this dark horror reimagining of a Greek tragedy, a hedonistic cult teaches a new widow the true price of female freedom.
I know your bad habits. I am the devil on your shoulder. I am the puppeteer of your secret self. Lena wants her life back. Her wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. Lena lands in Athens with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son's, pet projectthe luxurious Agape Villas. Years of marriage amongst the wealthy have whittled Lena's spirit into rope and sinew, smothered by tasteful cocktail dresses and unending small talk. In Athens she yearns to rediscover her true nature, remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was, but Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the cavernous, marble rooms of Agape, demanding that she fall in line. But Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the hotel. She can their music at night, hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she'll find that an ancient God stirs here on the beach, and women are waking up all around the island, driving mother and son toward a monstrous, gory battle, where only one of them will make it out alive. Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, These Women, and Sing Her Down which won the LA Times Book Prize. She won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France, and has been a finalist for the the Edgar Award, among other awards. For many years, Ivy taught creative writing at Studio 526 in Los Angeles's Skid Row. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Published 2025-06-17 by Putnam

Comments

There's been no shortage of feminist retellings of ancient myths and classics in recent years, and this next one definitely deserves a place on your shelf. With elements of horror and suspense, it revisits Euripides' The Bacchae, following a woman drawn in by a cult of women who appear to be living much more freely than she's been allowed to.

Fierce and fearless, Ecstasy is a tempest of a novel that reminds women that we are born forces of nature and woe be upon anyone who would stand in our way. Ivy Pochoda again proves she's a literary priestess of the highest order.

Spanish: Siruela

Ecstasy is a stunning, hallucinatory trip of a novel that explores female friendship, the dark side of motherhood and liminal experience. This addictive novel is an explosion of the feminine unbound. Pure, primal Pochoda. Drop everything and read it now.

Pochoda's turn into horror and mythology will bring ample rewards to her readers.

Described as both 'hallucinatory' and 'addictive,' with a synopsis that gives the perfect whiff of Suspiria vibes, Ecstasy promises an exploration of themes like female identity and desire. . . [A] killer one-sitting summer read.