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Open Wide

The wildest novel you’ll read this summer

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Open Wide

By: Jessica Gross
Narrated by: Alice Way
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

A wonderfully weird love story about the sometimes mad, troubling and vulnerable things people do to get close to others - Open Wide will quite literally get under your skin

Olive is desperate to get close to Theo – really, really close.

Despite being a radio host, 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 clues and find a way to be less alone.

Then Theo turns up for a shift at the food pantry where she volunteers. He’s a surgeon fascinated by human organs, a former football player, and possibly as weird as Olive. For the first time, someone seems to crave and understand her.

Every recording Olive makes of Theo is a balm – which just makes her 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 boundaries of love and the body, as universal human impulses bleed into the surreal.

'Startling, original... Will leave you questioning the boundaries we draw around those we love' CHELSEA BIEKER
'Unputdownable' MARIE-HELENE BERTINO
'Smart, unsettling, sexy and hilarious ... A true electrifying original' CLARE BEAMS
'Strange, ominous and darkly alluring' PENG SHEPHERD
'Uncomfortably delicious' MEGAN MILKS

© Jessica Gross 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Genre Fiction Horror Literary Fiction Psychological Funny Witty

Critic reviews

I enjoy a bit of weird girl fiction .... I was absolutely obsessed with this book...It's so unique, and unpacks themes of intimacy, consent and love in such an interesting way
I lost count of the emotions that gripped me while reading Open Wide. No one writes harrowing, wild, authentic, bordering-on-criminal obsession (love?) like Jessica Gross (Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Beautyland)
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 Madowman and Godshot)
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)
Sexy and smart, Open Wide is a modern fairy tale about obsessive love. Jessica Gross is a storyteller of extraordinary ability. The end is stunning (Luis Jaramillo, author of The Witches of El Paso)
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, author of The Cartographers)
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)
Raising interesting questions about boundaries within relationships the novel literalizes the romantic trope of becoming one with your partner, while ingeniously satirizing female neediness...A rom-com inside a body horror story, or a philosophical examination of love as obsession
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