Just Watch Me

by Lior Torenberg

Fleabag meets Big Swiss in this visceral, darkly hilarious, and surprisingly moving debut novel about a charismatic misfit who livestreams herself for seven straight days to raise money for her comatose sister's life support

‘Propulsive, witty and deranged - I couldn’t put it down. If you’re a fan of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, you will love this book.’ Nussaibah Younis, author of Fundamentally

‘Fans of Melissa Broder, Rufi Thorpe and Ottessa Moshfegh will laugh, cringe, empathise, and be mesmerised by the spectacle of one woman’s attempt to solve all her financial and emotional problems in the most adventurous, public and high-stakes way possible. Just Watch Me is addictive and propulsive.’ Emily Gould, author of  Perfect Tunes

Dell Danvers is barely keeping it together. She’s behind on rent for her bathroom-less studio apartment (formerly a walk-in closet), she’s being plagued by perpetual, spiking stomach pain, and her younger sister, Daisy, is in a coma at a hospital that wants to pull the plug. Freshly unemployed and subsisting on selling plant propagations to trust fund kids, Dell impulsively starts a 24-hour livestream under the username mademoiselle_dell to fundraise $14,000 for a week of private life support for Daisy.

In the dungeon of her stream, Dell is in control, banishing those who don’t abide by her terms of engagement and steadily rising up the platform’s ranks with her sympathetic story and angry-funny screen presence. On a dare, she discovers that she has a talent for eating spicy food, and her streaming fame explodes as her pepper consumption graduates from jalapeño to habanero to ghost. Finally, Dell is good at something—but as her behavior becomes riskier and riskier and a troll-turned-incel threatens to expose her dark past, Dell must reckon with what her digital life ignores, and what real redemption means.

Narrated in seven taut chapters, one for each day of Dell’s livestream, Just Watch Me careens us through a nonstop week in the life of this charismatic misfit with a heart of gold. Voyeuristic and visceral, audacious and outrageous, Lior Torenberg’s debut is both an incisive, zippy tragicomedy about the internet economy as well as a moving meditation on love, loss, and forgiveness.

 

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Coming Of Age, Adult, Grief

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 20, 2026

Reviews

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

fleabag meets big swiss...i could not be more in

(thanks to the publisher for the arc)

[frankie · Rating 4 out of 5]

couldn’t put it down . made my whole body feel itchy

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just Watch Me is character centered work that’s a sort of tragi-comedy. The book is an exploration of loneliness in our modern world, how self-exploitation online has become a new norm, and the dangers of putting yourself (and your private life) online.

I really enjoyed the dark humor and learning about the live-streaming community( I knew nothing about the online live streaming world prior going into Just Watch Me). Dell was a fascinating main character. She’s quick witted, unhinged, and the fun type of weird that you can’t look away from.

I alternated between reading the book myself and listening to the audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by Kelsey Navarro Foster who did a fantastic job. Readers of character centered stories, with an unhinged main character will love this one.

Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg will be available on January 20. Many thanks to Simon Audio for the gifted audiobook and Avid Reader Press for the gifted copy!

[Celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

this made my skin crawl in the most addictive way possible.

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 / 5 Stars
I love weird girl lit. I love an antihero who is deeply flawed. I love books that are so strange, cringy, and weird that you can’t look away because they make you feel something. And this was a great addition to this genre. Dell is having a rough time. She was just fired from her job (for a good reason), she lives in a walk-in closet with no bathroom and is behind on rent, and her sister, Daisy, is in a coma in a hospital where they want to end her care. Dell’s logical next step? Start livecasting her life to raise money for Daisy’s care so they can move her to a private facility. And Dell will do pretty much anything for money including eating really hot peppers. But as a troll threatens to expose Dell’s secret, her behavior becomes riskier and riskier.

You will probably like this book if you like:
🌶️ Weird girl lit
🌶️ Exploration of grief and loneliness
🌶️ Exploration of parasocial relationships and internet culture
🌶️ Can’t look away reading
🌶️ Unhinged and chaotic but heartfelt and heartbreaking

I loved the format of the book. It is told in seven chapters - one for each day of her livecast – and is interspersed with the forum chats and her mom’s anxious voicemails (those hit close to home). It really built up the tension in the story and made it feel alive and kinetic.

And the themes that were explored were really thought provoking. Dell keeps saying “if anyone is going to exploit me, it’s going to be me” but you can see that she is not 100% fully in control. The money and attention are addicting. And she’s rewarded for being a menace so how in control is she and why does she tell herself that lie? And you get to see what it feels like to be a woman on the internet (which PS not always fun).

Dell is an interesting character. She can’t keep a job due to her own actions. She shoplifts. She avoids her mom. She is an asshole to her followers. And it is all for a reason. The tough gal, fuck-up act is hiding a lot of pain. My only qualm was that it took a while to peel back some of those layers but when she became slightly more self-aware and slightly more vulnerable with her inner thoughts, it was all so heartbreaking. And as she gets more vulnerable, her actions get more unhinged and I loved it that the book leaned into making you uncomfortable.

Thank you Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for providing this eARC! All opinions are my own.
Publication Date: January 20, 2026 (out now)
_______________

Pre-Read Thoughts: I am loving weird girl lit recently and this one feels so now. Chronically online. Tragicomedy. So cringy you can't look away.

[Tina | TBR, etc. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5, rounded up. Dell is a fantastic MC- I didn’t always like her, or agree with her, but I couldn’t look away. Great debut!

[verynicebook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holy smokes! So I went into Just Watch Me with zero expectations and I’m glad I did, because it turned out to be compulsive, chaotic and wildly intense in the best way!

Our main character Dell is quite a hot mess. Shes edgy, reckless and totally unapologetic. With her sister in a coma and her own life unraveling, broke after losing her juice bar job thanks to a run in with a finance bro, she throws herself into full time streaming. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to dislike this book based on how insufferable the MC is alone but I really enjoyed the book as a whole. Reading it felt like biting into a hot pepper, fiery yet impossible to put down.

What surprised me most about this story was how, beneath all the heat and chaos, the story also carried true tenderness. There were moments that had me tearing up as often as I was flipping pages in a frenzy.

This was such a fun, chaotic read, and one I’ll definitely be recommending. Big thanks to Avid Reader Press and Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy. Just Watch Me hits shelves on January 20, 2026 and it’s one to keep an eye out for!

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published January 20, 2026.

3 stars

Dell Danvers is quite the mess. She’s barely scraping by in NYC in an illegal apartment, she’s just lost her job and her sister is in a coma at a fancy hospital that is ready to pull the plug. Dell needs money fast. She decides to fundraise/live stream for seven days to make rent and to raise enough to pay for one week of private care for her sister.

Dell’s followers mount as she gets into eating hot peppers for cash while her life continues to spiral. Will Dell find a way out?

The book skewed a bit young for me but I still enjoyed it. Dell seems to make a very wrong decision possible…but she makes it look a little too easy to make money online. Interesting book. 3.4 stars.

[Anna Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow this was so twisted and tense and moving i loved it

[Bonnie G. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I am maxed out on books about 20-something women who see themselves moving forward from a culture of women needing to perform niceness at all times to women being just as toxic, just as relentlessly self-involved as the boys. This trend demonstrates a depressing complacency; instead of evolving, women have settled for "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. "

I have seen this book compared to many other books/shows. The publisher's blurb references Fleabag, which is quite apt, and Big Swiss, which is not. I have also seen comparisons to Elif Batuman and Ottessa Moshfegh. Other than featuring depressed young women, I don't see many parallels. Waller-Bridge, Beagin, Batuman, and Moshfegh's characters are much smarter and more interesting than our MC Dell, and the stories those writers tell are far more compelling than this one.

The recent book that this most brought to mind was Marcy Dermansky's Hurricane Girl. In fact, I kept thinking of that book while I was reading. Unfortunately, this book felt like a very pale imitation of that one. That book was full of surprises, and this one held none. Also, Dermansky is a much better writer than Torenberg. (ETA: I also thought a lot of Raven Leilani's Luster, which was also a better book.) The other author who kept entering my thoughts was Charles Bukowski. Dell had the same perfect self-involvement as Bukowski's characters, the same utter conviction that their pain and their rage, and their relief, were all that mattered, and that the world only existed insofar as they (the characters) interact with it. Bukowski is a better writer than Torneberg by roughly a factor of 40 billion, but that stunted toddler-level approach to others, that firm belief that others are on the earth to serve your needs, and if they finally get fed up and stop, or become inconvenient and you leave, there will be another sucker on the next bus, that was there.

I struggled between a 2 and a 3 star for this. It would be a 2.5 if that were possible. I am going to round down because it really did feel like Torenberg read Hurricane Girl and figured if she set it in NYC and the looming metaverse, it would be edgier. It was not.

[Tell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incandescent. A new masterpiece of the modern internet age, Torenberg creates a dynamic, brutal slimeball of a protagonist you can't help but root for. Tackling the dystopian nature of streaming, attention, performance, fame, the voyeuristic clawing of strangers demanding things from you, and the horror of the modern hospital and insurance system.

This is a story of a desperate woman at her lowest crashing out and cashing out, showing how grief can transform a person and render them illegible and illogical. I loved this, and the writing is so easy to sink into while sticking with you. The last 25% is transformative.

[Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?] · Rating 4 out of 5]

Streaming can bring you a lot of money, but also weird stalkers (not dark romance style!) that send you dickpicks.

Isn't that bizarre, how grief can devour? How it can make everything it touches just like itself?
Everything I ate, saw, said, heard, smelled was grief. I lost my coordination, in all senses of the word.

Grieving can look different in anyone, sometimes you take a break from university, move into an apartment that has no windows or bathroom, get fired dem several jobs and end up streaming and selling plants (that kinda want to take over your apartment).
Having someone watch you can be exciting, or frightening when there’s a possibility of a stalker.
But she’s mademoiselle_dell, not afraid of spicy chilli peppers or fire itself.
Really entertaining and weird.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a quirky book & this one is quirky for sure. When I saw the blurb referenced Fleabag...say less! Couldn't get my hands on it quick enough.

Dell lives in a tiny space that would only be considered livable in NYC. While she doesn't have modern conveniences like a bathroom and air conditioning she does have a ton of plants....including the one living inside of her ear?!

She finds herself unemployed and needing to quickly make money for rent as well as private care for her comatose sister, Daisy. Desperate times call for desperate measures and her jalapeño plant has sparked inspiration. Dell begins by live streaming herself eating a jalapeno and quickly ups the ante in hopes of making a buck. Shock value = $$$. Habaneros, ghost peppers, shoplifting. Pretty much nothing is off limits.

Told over the course of a couple weeks this book takes us on a crazy journey that at no point did I know where it was headed. Unlike Fleabag I didn't really connect with the characters so didn't feel super invested or emotional towards them. I did enjoy the ending and the uniqueness from start to finish. I'd love to see more from this author for sure!

•Debut
•Quirky
•Grief
•Mental health
•Complex family dynamics
•First person POV
•Unreliable narrator

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

Thank you to NetGalley & Avid Reader Press for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Publishing 1•20•26

[Meike]

Sounds unhinged, is compared to Ottessa Moshfegh - let's check it out!

NOTES:
Misfit Dell Danvers loses her job at a juice joint, but needs to pay the rent for her window- and bathroomless apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Desperate, she starts a career as a streamer, claiming to raise money for her sister Daisy who is in a vegetative coma and needs to be put in privately financed life support. To increase her funds, she accepts dares that are getting more and more extreme, understanding that the more she fucks up her life and her body, the better the pay. Soon, viewer excelsior404 is starting to threaten Dell with knowledge about the reasons for Daisy's state.

Narrator Dell starts out to present as a horrible, selfish, messed-up person, but it is slowly revealed how her dismissive, nihilistic attitude came about. While her mother and fellow streamer hot_pat_of_butter want to protect her, Dell has no love left for herself, constantly participating in spice-realted stunts despite suffering from stomach issues from the start.

seven chapters
seven days of lifestream
The dynamics portrayed here are well-known to the perpetually online: Rage bait, self-harm, extremes to stand out in a fast-paced attention economy. Nothing new to see here.

The novel made me think of the excellent Black Mirror episode
Common People, in which a woman needs a medical subscription service to survive, and the loving husband tries to provide for the ever-increasing funds required by trash streaming, humiliating and harming himself in exchange for money the chat donates.

[Kobe · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[jocelyn • coolgalreading · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 -- i wanted this to be so much better than it was 😭 the writing was kind of lazy and no character depth. ty to the publisher for the gifted copy.

[Jamie Josephson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for providing an ARC of Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg in exchange for honest feedback.

This book was honestly crazy. I really enjoyed it, despite absolutely despising the main character. She was incredibly frustrating in her lack of accountability and insane behaviors...yet still wildly funny. Overall a bit unhinged. Reading this was like watching a train wreck in action that I just couldn't turn away from.

Definitely unique, and call me crazy but I felt like it almost had some thriller undertones. The MC was a bit devious and deceitful which created some buildup for a few interesting twists. Even though some felt a bit predictable, I still had fun uncovering them. Definitely recommend picking this up for a fun, modern, dark humor read.

Side note - pretty sure I will never look at habaneros the same way again.

[emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

how was her phone battery able to handle this

(thank you to the publisher for giving me the eARC via Edelweiss+)

[Jessica J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is the book I wanted Dandelion Is Dead to be.

Like that one, Just Watch Me follows a young woman making increasingly bad decisions online, driven by messy grief and complicated feelings about her sister. In this instance, Dell decides to start livestreaming herself 24/7 for a week in order to raise funds for her sister who is in a coma.

Dell's life is a wreck - she literally lives in an apartment that is a converted walk-in closet and has to use her neighbor's bathroom. She dropped out of NYU, has a terrible relationship with her mom, just walked out on another crummy job, and isn't going to be able to make rent. Plus she's incredibly depressed about her sister, so why not just broadcast everything she does as a means of avoiding her feelings and coming up with cash?

But where Dandelion Is Dead lost me with characters whose self-destruction was boring as fuck, this book had me completely hooked. Dell’s choices are terrible, but I could not look away. Despite having existing stomach issues, she realizes that she brings in the most cash when she eats hot peppers and decides to start upping the ante, destroying her digestive system with increasingly more - and hotter - peppers. Her behavior strains her relationship with her one friend, the neighbor whose bathroom she uses. She breaks the law and causes herself wild physical harm, but none of it fills the emotional void she’s trying so hard to ignore. She’s self-aware enough to know this is bad, but too numb to stop. I couldn’t look away, and I felt deeply for her even when I wanted to shake her.

The only thing keeping this from being a five-star read for me is the ending. Without getting into spoilers, Dell gets herself into several different kinds of trouble, but the resolution feels a little muted, almost like the story exhales instead of landing a final punch. That said, the emotional journey up to that point is compelling enough that I didn’t mind too much. Ultimately, this is a sharp, uncomfortable, and empathetic look at internet spectacle, self-harm, and grief. Dell is a mess, but she’s a fascinating one and following her felt painfully real.

[Brandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dell is in a bind — She’s broke, just got fired from her job at a juice shop, and is on a tight timeline to raise thousands of dollars over the next week in an effort to save her sister. She starts live streaming on a social media platform and realizes this is her best shot at making money quickly. So, she keeps streaming, and demands payment from her viewers, agreeing to complete random, unusual challenges they suggest — many involving peppers.
 
I found Dell annoying (an opinion that did not change throughout reading the story) yet, I could not look away from her antics. I was curious to see what would happen and how things would ultimately play out.
 
Just Watch Me is a short, entertaining, contemporary story and feels current between social media platforms and real stories we hear about related to online escapades. Not my favorite book, but not one I regret reading either.

[Gwyneth Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow wow WOW! Just Watch Me is a book that I could not log off from. Dell, a NYU dropout and disgraced ex-employee at Juice Body, finds herself $14,000 short of paying her rent and keeping her younger sister on life support. Seeming to lack any other options, she begins to livestream her life 24/7, increasingly getting more and more desperate to earn anonymous donations from her viewers. This book spirals out of control, unforgiving towards its main character and unafraid to show the sadistic side of humanity.

Lior Torenberg’s writing is snappy and clever, but she also knows when to linger and stick a knife into you (especially with plant-like analogies). I was especially impressed by how accurately internet chatroom language and personalities were captured, complete with the one person who can’t stop shouting out the country their from and another person randomly revealing that they are a high school student a la “I have a math test to study for tomorrow :(“

At its heart, Just Watch Me asks its readers to reckon with redemption and who has the power to forgive. It’s one long crash out that is impossible to look away from. This is an amazing debut novel and one that people will be lucky to read in January. Thank you Avid Reader Press for the ARC, you little dungeon crawlers >:)

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dell Danvers streams her life for seven days, escalating dares and attention‑grabbing stunts as she scrambles to save her comatose sister (and herself). The premise is sharp, a fresh twist on a familiar trope: a meditation on visibility, grief, and the intoxicating spectacle of being watched, of earning reward merely for existing. Torenberg’s ambition is unmistakable: dark humor, digital fame, fresh fruit, and raw vulnerability all collide into a bittersweet moral.

Yet the escalating stunts— pepper after pepper, a metaphorical scorched‑earth of attention and pain— often overwhelm the emotional core. I respected the heat, but couldn’t swallow the fire without flinching. The novel wants to make you squirm and clap at once, and it succeeds in concept, even if I found many parts simply indigestible.

A bold debut, uneven but deliberate, bright and loud: a livestream of grief and desperation where the Carolina‑Reaper of fame burns real pain. Admirable, incendiary, but impossible to fully inhabit without wincing.

[Heather~ Nature.books.and.coffee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quirky, and entertaining read and I'm happy I went with the audio. I really enjoyed the narrator and this plot was so darkly funny, and engaging. I flew through it because I couldn't stop listening. The main character, Dell, is unemployed, and has a sister in a coma. She needs money to help so she impulsively decides to start live streaming herself for a week straight, to raise funds. She is a unique and unreliable narrator that I felt embarrassed for at times, and also sad for her circumstances. Definitely a worthwhile read.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy and audiobook. All opinions are my own.

[cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

Everyone has been raving about this, so apparently I need to bump it up my priority list xx

Substack | Bookstagram | BookTok | BookTube | Bookshop.org Store | Libro.fm Bonus Offer

[Novel Visits · Rating 4 out of 5]

@avidreaderpress | #gifted It’s looking like 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for books. I’ve already read a few and thought I’d do an early review of one of those, 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛 𝗠𝗘, a debut by Lior Torenberg. The publisher describes this as 𝘍𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘨 meets 𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘚𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘴 and I definitely see that, but I’d also throw 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘰’𝘴 𝘎𝘰𝘵 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 into the mix!⁣
⁣
Dell is an NYU dropout living in a shoe box of an apartment, barely getting by, and she’s just been fired from yet another job. Add to all that, Dell’s in a deep depression because her younger sister, Daisy, is in an end-of-life coma. In an effort to raise money for her sister’s ongoing care, Dell decides to livestream her life for a full seven days. This is NOT an Only Fans situation, but instead simply the ins and outs of her daily life with a little spice🌶️ thrown in. As Dell’s daring increases in her livestream, more money pours in boosting her spirits. But, for how long, and how much of her life does she really want to share?⁣
⁣
I loved that 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘔𝘦 went so much deeper than I thought it would. Dell turned out to be a complex character who my heart went out to. Torenberg’s vehicle to bring her to the reader was so unique and unexpected that I found myself more and more pleased with the story the further I read. Don’t let the premise fool you, this is an intense story of love, regret, and grief told in large part through quirky comic interludes. A terrific debut! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨⁣

[liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life is a funny thing. Life is messy and beautiful and tragic and challenging and chaotic and a clusterfuck of emotions. And that’s exactly what this novel is. A sensational, hilarious & reflective debut from author Lior Torenberg.

One of my favorite genres of stories is being locked into the deeply flawed point of view of a narcissist hot mess 20-something who is trying to figure out why life isn’t going the way they want. Love it. Can never put it down. But there is SO much heart behind the humor at its core (diving in topics of grief and loneliness) that it makes it a stellar stand out.

And that’s what you get with Ms Odelia Danvers. Fresh out of losing her job at a smoothie store (for throwing a jar of almond butter at a customer’s head), Del creates a LiveCam fundraiser and streams her life 24/7 for a week trying to raise money for her sister, who is in a coma. It’s chaotic. She is chaotic. But ultimately, she just wants to be something to someone.

This book is one of those experiences that will sit with you for a long time. I was mesmerized from the first to last pages. The characters are so chaotic, problematic but lovable, and flawed at their very core that it makes you remember what it means to be human. Humanity isn’t linear. People aren’t inherently good. Inherently bad. Everyone is going through something. And sometimes we all just need someone to lean on.

Disclaimer: please do not choose to lean on ghost peppers.


I genuinely could not put this down and I am looking forward to reading more work from this author! Thank you to NetGalley, Avid Reader & Simon & Schuster for this eARC.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit overly quirky, but I absolutely could not look away.

[Ann (Inky Labyrinth) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed, I cried...she's my first 5 star of the year. :)

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a wild ride and I was 100% here for it! I thought Dell was such an interesting character that I couldn't help rooting for. The concept of this book for one is completely wild. Dell starts 24/7 live streaming so she can raise money for her sister who's been in coma so she can put her on private life support. Things progress and just get crazier from there.

The writing style is super compelling and it was a super fun read that I highly recommend. I can't wait for this book to come out so I can get a finished copy!

thank you so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.