--- description: Find out why "The Catch" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. title: 'The Catch' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte40591f53cf9a86e/6998cb32d32e939a8dcd77d2/100_Books_2025_The-Catch-Yrsa-Daley-Ward.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 12, 2025 # The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Yrsa Daley-Ward's surreal and propulsive _The Catch_ centers on twins Clara and Dempsey, who were adopted into separate homes and drastically different circumstances as young children and remain mostly estranged as adults. The sisters are pulled back into each other’s orbit when Clara, a successful author struggling with her mental health, becomes convinced she has seen their mother—who has long been presumed dead—alive and well in a department store. It can’t be true: the woman in question, though called Serene just like their mother, appears to be in her 30s, like the twins. But strange things keep happening, and after Serene pops up, events in the sisters’ lives seem to follow a narrative their mother wrote before she died, and, even weirder, also hew to the story of Clara's latest book. Shifting between the perspectives of each twin and writing left behind by their mother, _The Catch_ takes readers on an experimental and wildly emotional journey. —_Mahita Gajanan_ **_These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser._** **Buy Now:** _The Catch_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781324092513 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/4orqFoh "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329486/the-catch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329486/the-catch/"},"headline":"The Catch","datePublished":"2025-11-12T13:00:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T01:02:21.559Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329486/the-catch/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","ecommerce","Special Project"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte40591f53cf9a86e/6998cb32d32e939a8dcd77d2/100_Books_2025_The-Catch-Yrsa-Daley-Ward.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte40591f53cf9a86e/6998cb32d32e939a8dcd77d2/100_Books_2025_The-Catch-Yrsa-Daley-Ward.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329486/the-catch/","name":"The Catch"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"100 Best Books of the Year","description":"100 Best Books of 2025 with Lucy Feldman","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VhaWtoKm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2025-11-12T20:18:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VhaWtoKm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329486/the-catch/","duration":"PT1M34S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/the-100-must-read-books-of-2025/7329486/the-catch/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```