2026 Booker Longlist: The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams

Next up for our panel is the very polarizing book by Missouri Williams, The Vivesectors. Readers this year seem to either love or hate this novel. Four and a half of our panel members read this. Here are our reviews….

Missouri Williams is a London-born writer, playwright, and editor who now lives in Prague. Her first novel, The Doloriad, won the 2023 Republic of Consciousness Prize and introduced readers to her wonderfully strange and unsettling style. Her new novel, The Vivisectors, is every bit as bold and difficult to categorize

Book Synopsis from Booker website: In a famed but crumbling university city overrun by vegetation, where power is held in a fragile balance between the academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners, Agathe spends her days listlessly propping up the career of her fraudulent professor boss. 

One day, a campus scandal threatens to rupture her carefully managed routine: Adam, a contrarian and the pet student of her boss, comes into heated conflict with a rising young professor, with both men claiming discrimination. As the crisis consumes the university, Agathe remains unmoved. But when her boss instructs her to turn double agent and gather information by befriending Adam, Agathe finds herself both caught up in the events tearing the city apart and increasingly drawn towards the alluring student at the heart of it all. But can anyone be taken at their word in a struggle over the truth?

In The Vivisectors, Missouri Williams holds up a mirror to humanity’s most intimate contradictions and reflects them back through a novel of blazing spiritual reckoning.

Jen’s Thoughts: I’ve been sitting on this review for about a week because I found it difficult to capture my thoughts in a brief review. I absolutely loved the writing and was enthralled for about 75% of the book. I also hated the ending.

The Booker judges have once again selected a rather odd and plotless book that plays with the very notion of what we consider a novel. I tend to gravitate toward books that make the reader work and push the boundaries of style and plot.

The writing was outstanding. The way Williams makes you feel the unsettling atmosphere—and the characters’ profound sense of alienation and loneliness—is truly brilliant. I also really appreciated the larger themes woven throughout the narrative and her use of metaphor and imagery to deepen them.

Without giving anything away, I found the ending wholly disappointing. For me, it transformed what had been a brilliantly deep and interesting exploration of modern-day social connection and meaning into something almost conventional and too neatly tied up. Had it ended differently, this book would have been at the top of my list.

Writing quality: 5/5
Originality: 5/5
Character development: 3/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1.5/2
Total: 16.5/20

Tracy’s Thoughts: This was confusing, but brilliant. I can’t say I loved every moment- but I did really enjoy reading this one. There was no hero here, except maybe the gardeners. Lots of allegory, lots of beautiful descriptions, and despicable characters, in a seemingly impossible situation that was set in an academic institution. It feels like YA dark academia for (not so) grown adults. Hmm..

Writing quality: 5/5
Originality: 3/5
Character development: 3/4
Plot development: 3/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total: 16/20

Nicole’s Thoughts:  I just haven’t a clue. I can’t remember the last time I was more conflicted about a book. I thought the writing was stellar and the originality was off the chain, but I couldn’t tell you what it was about. I don’t know how I got through it (I DNF’d Williams previous book) yet I was compelled to keep going. The characters were abysmal, there was not a single person to root for and I get that may have been the point, but a little spark of likability would have been nice. (Wait, I thought of two sparks … but they had minimal screen time.)

This may have been me, but I got very fixated on the weather conditions of the book (which are important.) This distracted me because I felt like there was some sloppy editing and conflicts, for example, it rained for 4-months straight and they never saw the sun but everything was overgrown and green. Then, suddenly the sun is so bright you it’s killing you. I didn’t care enough to go back make it work for myself. There were some other detail flaws I won’t get into. I’m a very literal person, which is hard with a book of allegory.

Does it hold up to a re-read? I will never know. But I think it makes the shortlist, and I think it deserves to.

Writing quality: 5/5
Originality: 5/5
Character development: 0/4
Plot development: 0/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 11/20

Andrew’s Thoughts:  I bailed on this book about 1/3 of the way through. I found it incredibly boring and NOTHING HAPPENED. I need at least a hint of a storyline. Credit where credit is due, Williams did an excellent job of creating an unnerving atmosphere throughout, which I assume was intentional. But otherwise, I found it unreadable.

Lisa’s Thoughts: Here’s what I liked: I liked the world-building. The natural world is taking over the city, and the gardeners are holding it at bay, but then they go on strike. Here’s what I’m not sure about: the way the author told the story. Agathe, the narrator, has a history of trauma and as a result has tried to shut down all emotions (except perhaps peevishness) and attachments to anything. Because she is trying to guard against emotion, the story is told with a certain level of abstraction — there are a lot of details that are never provided. What is the trauma and the problem between Agathe and her parents? Why does she accede to her father’s demand that she takes her mom for walks? What are the details about what happened with Adam and the professor? I suppose that is the point — not to focus on what happens, but to bring the reader into the experience of Agathe’s attempt to distance herself from the world. I can’t say I loved reading it. But it is an interesting experiment.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 3/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 14/20

Rankings

1. John of John: 16.83/20

2. May We Feed the King: 16.63/20

3. The Things We Never Say: 15.3/20

4. The Vivesectors: 14.38/20

5. Helen of Nowhere: 8.9/20

Have you read it?  What do you think? Want to try it for yourself? You can purchase your copy here: The Vivisectors