Agatha Arch is Afraid of Everything

Starred review from September 28, 2020
Bair’s charming latest (after Thirsty) centers on an endearing, anxious woman who takes up spying on her neighborhood. Agatha Arch is a successful author whose fear of everything (including flies, vampires, and beans) has kept her relatively isolated, so after Agatha walks in on her husband, Dax, and the dog walker, Willow, getting busy in their shed, she has no friends to help her as her world falls apart. Instead, she destroys the shed with a hatchet. Dax moves in with Willow, leaving Agatha to shuttle her young sons between two homes. On nights when her sons are away, Agatha passes the time by spying on Dax and Willow, and trolling the moms of her neighborhood’s Facebook group. She begins sneaking around the neighborhood in her “spy pants” and flies a drone to scope out her husband’s new home. Despite initially avoiding the advances of well-meaning but overly zealous neighbor Melody, Agatha befriends her, and together they help a young woman who panhandles on the town’s main strip. A paradoxically intrepid and terrified individual, Agatha will draw readers in with her wry takes: “these are the first death threats ever to be issued as a result of a Moms group posting. It is frightening but thrilling.” Fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Elinor Oliphant Is Fine will love this clever romp.

October 15, 2020
Agatha Arch isn't trying to be a hot mess. After all, who wouldn't take a hatchet to the backyard shed after finding her husband and the neighborhood dog walker inside with only half their clothes on? The affair sets off Agatha's fears (everything from beans to losing her kids), leading to hilarious encounters with her Facebook mom's group, her Shrinky Dink, the skunk who resides under her porch, a panhandler at the local grocery, and the kid in the yard where Agatha spies on her ex with a Go-Pro and her new spy pants. Reminiscent of the heroine of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2012), Agatha is quirky, peculiar, and not just a little over the top. Her continued attempts to overcome her (somewhat exaggerated) fears provide much of the novel's fun as Agatha learns to go after what she wants. Those looking for a realistic comeback to cheating will be disappointed, but readers of Laurie Gelman and Abbi Waxman who enjoy irreverent moms who say what everyone else is thinking will love the ride.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)