Be prepared for another graphic and harrowing book
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Blurb:
Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At fourteen, she roams the woods along the northern California coast. The creeks, tide pools, and rocky islands are her haunts and her hiding grounds, and she is known to wander for miles.
But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous: Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father.
Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her. The reader tracks Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage, and watches, heart in throat, as she struggles to become her own hero--and in the process, becomes ours as well.
The Review
This book comes with the mother of all endorsements - Stephen King no less, "The word 'masterpiece' has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one." Well this is awkward then, because I'm inclined to disagree, and who are you really going to believe? Me, a newbie blogger, or Stephen King, one of the finest authors ever. Ok, but I'm here to hopefully represent the view of the average Joe, so here's what I think....
There is no getting away from the fact that this is a powerful book. The subject matter is dark, gritty and disturbing. (Check out the tags I've used to categorise this post for an idea of the themes - not for the fainthearted!) But, I knew that going in and have recently read several books with similar themes, so it is not my 'distaste' for this type of material that is impacting my review.
My Absolute Darling (MAD) centers around the abuse of a young teenage girl, by her father. Yes, incestuous abuse, clearly this isn't supposed to be a comfortable read. But boy, does Tallent really up the ante in the uncomfortable stakes. This reviewer said it better than me so I am just going to quote her verbatim:
"The sexual violence was written, all too often, with an uncomfortable amount of romance which is to say if you forgot who the characters were, you’d think this was just a fucked up love story between two un-related grown folks and not, you know, a horrifying tale of incest."
(Roxane Gay, GoodReads)
It's true, MAD is written in a way that was unusual in comparison to other books dealing with child sexual abuse. It is deeply uncomfortable to read sexually graphic passages written in a way as if to denote a loving sexual relationship between two consenting adults. You do have to keep reminding yourself who the characters are and it almost leaves you feeling guilty that you didn't have the taste of bile in your mouth the entire time. But in describing the father-daughter relationship this way it cleverly demonstrates the conflicted way Turtle feels towards her father. She both adores him and hates him in equal measures and sometimes is portrayed, while not exactly a willing participant, but as one that actively make choices that compromises her as the stereotypical 'victim.'
There are two teenage boys in this book that could have been lifted straight from 'The Gilmore Girls' for their precociousness and witty literary references. The chapters with them in it definitely provided some welcome light relief from, y'know, all the abuse that's going on... but on the other hand, does anyone, let alone teenage boys, actually talk like that??! And It just didn't ring true to me that they would just accept Turtle without questioning the fact that clearly something was terribly wrong in her life.
This is the first book for the newly created 'Hinton Book club' (see what I did there?) where my husband and I are reading some of the same books and comparing notes. He liked MAD a lot more than I did and I actually enjoyed this book more for hearing his viewpoint. I think its fair to say that as an English teacher, he is way more accepting of a book that is non traditional in style and more challenging to read. He pointed out that it was brave in the way it articulates the abusive relationship as not completely black and white (true). He really liked the character of Turtle but thought it powerful that it sometimes makes you feel desperately sorry for her and other times you actively think 'what the hell are you doing?!' That sometimes it puts you in the position where you actively blame her for some of whats happening and a book that can put you in such an uncomfortable position is doing something clever (also true - damn him)
However, neither of us liked the ending. In the hubby's words it 'all got a bit 'Tarantino'. All that crazy action at the end really took away from this slowly and carefully crafted relationship that had been building to a breaking point form the very first page.
When it came down to it the thing that annoyed me most were all the unanswered questions. Turtle's mother is alluded to vaguely, although we never find out what happened to her. A woman that used to be a friend of her mother turns up but then that story line is seemingly abandoned? We never understand why her father is the way he is (how can someone who is billed as being a redneck/hillbilly in all other respects also be a man of exceptional intelligence with incredible literary and philosophical knowledge?) Was her grandfather a good man or not? I know an author has to leave some things up to the imagination, but it gets confusing when there are too many plot strands going on at once and something that in one chapter seems like it is going to be an all-important thread is never referred to again.
Although for the most part this was beautifully and somewhat poetically written, there were too many annoyances for me to give it any more than 3 stars. I can't understate how upsetting, graphic and repulsive some of the scenes are - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! The subject matter aside - if you really dislike vulgar language, especially to describe female genitalia, then this book will really grind your gears. I mean, you really have to get over repetitive uses of the c-bomb and trust me, if you're sensitive to that, then Just. Don't. Read. This. Book.
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