Description

‘Yuzuki has become the poster girl of a British boom for Japanese fiction’
THE TIMES

‘Tender and thrilling it’s Yuzuki at her best’
ELLE

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2026 IN GUARDIAN, VOGUE, NEW YORK TIMES, FORBES, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES STYLE, ELLE, STYLIST, BBC, GRAZIA, BRICKS MAGAZINE, RADIO TIMES, LITHUB, OPRAH DAILY and DAILY EXPRESS.

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.

‘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

‘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

Publisher Review

Praise for Butter: 'Exuberant, indulgent romp of a novel ... Butter is a full-fat, Michelin-starred treat' Sunday Times 'Yuzuki has created a cult phenomenon' iNews 'Yuzuki has become the poster girl of a British boom for Japanese fiction' The Times 'Word of mouth hit and cult Japanese bestseller, Butter, took the literary world by storm' BBC 'Readers around the world are finding themselves utterly captivated' Daily Mail 'Ambitious and unsettling ... a thought-provoking and surprisingly feelgood take on friendship, transgressive pleasures, and society's impossibly contradictory expectations of women' Guardian 'A biting satire on fat-shaming culture and double standards in beauty' Financial Times 'I have been glued to Butter' Nigel Slater 'I really enjoyed it' Meera Syal, on BBC Between the Covers 'Compelling, delightfully weird' Pandora Sykes, author of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right? 'Unputdownable, breathtakingly original' Erin Kelly, author of Broadchurch 'A heady serving of food culture and feminism ... Yuzuki goes beyond the typical crime narrative' Japan Times