Open Wide - by Jessica Gross (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Olive is desperate to get close to Theo--really, really close. She's always struggled to connect with people. And now she's in her thirties, single, and so flustered by relationships that she secretly records her conversations, hoping to decipher social cues and find a way to be less alone. Then Theo turns up for a shift at the same food pantry where she volunteers. He's a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former soccer player, and possibly as weird as Olive. For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her. Every recording of Theo is a balm, which just makes Olive more afraid of losing him. The only solution seems to be to bind him to her forever. Luckily, the gap between Theo's front teeth is just wide enough for something--or someone--to slip inside."--

Book Synopsis

An increasingly obsessive radio host tests the boundaries of her boyfriend's love in this unforgettable dark comedy that is by turns romantic, horrific, and profound

Olive is desperate to get close to Theo--really, really close. She's always struggled to connect with people. And now she's in her thirties, single, and so flustered by relationships that she secretly records her conversations, hoping to decipher social cues and find a way to be less alone.

Then Theo turns up for a shift at the same food pantry where she volunteers. He's a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former soccer player, and possibly as weird as Olive.

For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her. Every recording of Theo is a balm, which just makes Olive more afraid of losing him. The only solution seems to be to bind him to her forever. Luckily, the gap between Theo's front teeth is just wide enough for something--or someone--to slip inside.

Arresting and immersive, Open Wide explores the complexities of intimacy, love and consent, as universal human impulses bleed into the surreal.

Review Quotes

"[A] romp through the female psyche . . . Deliciously Weird."

-- "THE RONA READER"

"Juicy . . . Gross's sophomore novel is sure to enchant, hypnotize, and make you feel the wide range of emotions that only the messiness of being alive can provoke."

-- "AMAZON, Editors' Pick"

"Raising interesting questions about boundaries within relationships . . . the novel literalizes the romantic trope of becoming one with your partner, while ingeniously satirizing female neediness. There is a predatory nature to Olive's possessiveness--or is that love? A rom-com inside a body horror story, or a philosophical examination of love as obsession."

-- "KIRKUS, Starred Review"

"Wickedly liberating and queasily sexual . . . Thank god for Jessica Gross and her strange, unforgettable women. Open Wide is as disgusting as it is sexy, as nauseating as it is arousing."

-- "LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS"

"Open Wide grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go--a deliciously unnerving exploration of love's darkest extremes. Gross's smartly comedic novel dissects our deepest fears about intimacy and belonging with unflinching precision. This is psychological horror at its most inventive--a startling, original work that will leave you questioning the boundaries we draw around those we love."-- "CHELSEA BIEKER, author of Madwoman and Godshot"

"Open Wide is a wild ride, smart, unsettling, sexy, and hilarious. The impossible development at the heart of the narrative is captivating, as is Olive herself--and while I thought of Kafka and Gogol as I read, the truth is that this novel is a true, electrifying original."-- "CLARE BEAMS, author of The Garden and The Illness Lesson"

"Open Wide is as sexy as it is disturbing."-- "OUR CULTURE, Our Culture's Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2025"

"Bad boundaries have never been so uncomfortably delicious, and Jessica Gross goes all in. This clever, provocative tale of the dream and horror of closeness has guts--a lot of them. Climb inside!"-- "MEGAN MILKS, author of Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body"

"Funny and demented and a little stupid, which I mean as a compliment, and when it starts, it doesn't stop. Gross is excellent at pushing things to their logical conclusion, and then pushing them a little further than that."-- "LIT HUB, Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025"

"I lost count of the emotions that gripped me while reading Jessica Gross's unputdownable latest, Open Wide. No one writes harrowing, wild, authentic, bordering-on-criminal obsession (love?) like Jessica Gross."-- "MARIE-HELENE BERTINO, author of Beautyland"

"Jessica Gross staggers and challenges readers with her sophomore novel . . . Open Wide is a tense, engrossing examination of the bounds of love."-- "SHELF AWARENESS"

"Just how close can two people get? Port Washington native Jessica Gross's unnerving answer to that question places her squarely in the current crew of thrillingly weird and funny women writers like Ottessa Moshfegh, Raven Leilani, and Miranda July."-- "NEWSDAY, Summer Books Preview: 12 Must-Reads for the Beach"

"Sexy and smart, Open Wide is a modern fairy tale about obsessive love. Jessica Gross is a storyteller of extraordinary ability--the novel begins with a meet-cute that takes a disquieting turn as this gripping novel unfolds. The end is stunning."-- "LUIS JARAMILLO, author of The Witches of El Paso"

"Sharply psychological, vivid, and compulsively readable."-- "ELECTRIC LIT"

"Strange, ominous, and darkly alluring, Open Wide teases the line between intimacy and possession--and what it really means to have 'all' of someone. Absolutely gripping. I couldn't put it down!"-- "PENG SHEPHERD, bestselling author of The Cartographers"

About the Author

Jessica Gross is the author of Hysteria (2020), which Publishers Weekly declared "every bit a page-turner as it is a descent into sexual madness." Gross's nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Lilith, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. She has taught writing at The New School and Texas Tech University and currently lives in West Texas.