Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - My Absolute Darling

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

17 reviews

leweylibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This is one of the just wild books I have ever read. There are scenes in this book that will never leave my brain no matter how much I want them to, and I'm not really sure how to feel about that?

Lol listen the characters were a bit hard for me to connect with, and I'm not sure I love the ending, and I was expecting something totally different but I also don't know why I was? I feel like this book left me with so many more questions than answers 😅 BUT it has stuck in my brain which is very difficult for a book to do.

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varo's review against another edition

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tamzy6's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

You know what, this book reminds me of A Little Life, like trauma porn set in the natural world. As a reader you got to have a certain detachment as you read it because there are some unfathomable scenes that make you go "whaaaaat?!?!?" I was grossed out yet intrigued, and that shows how Tallent is a tallented writer (haha).

I love love love his prose and his writing style. He has a frightening way of making violence, in all its forms, seem so seductive.

Anyway I've also entered many tags under graphic

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greenwillow77's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

When I pick up a book for the first time, I have a routine- I read the back cover, see if I like the idea of the book; then a random page or two to see if the writing interests me; then the inside front pages to see if there are interesting pull quotes, then I skim the author bio if there is one, because sometimes it will offer a crumb of information about the person the author wants to appear as to you. In the case of this book, my edition opens with the fact the author was “raised by two mothers.” That’s sweet, right? It’s hardly unusual now, but it’s nice to see he credits his parents enough to mention them first, & f’ yeah for visibility.

Then I read the book, & I realised why this fact above all others would be what stuck like a splinter in my brain. There is no way to sugarcoat or avoid the violent, monstrous misogyny in the language & abusive behaviour that Turtle both lives with & has internalised. Even as she grows more & more aware of it, it rushes out of the story in punishing current that hurls you towards an ending that looms with the inevitability of a tsunami.

It would be easy for me to tell you how appalling Turtle’s father is in intricate & fine detail, but like true crime finding delight in the supposed intricacies of the crimes of men who kill women, his humanity, grief, his ability to see the environmental disaster the world faces, feel like giving him credit he doesn’t deserve.

& perhaps that is the skill here, to take someone who ultimately deserves everything he gets, & occasionally think he might have a microcopic glimmer of humanity. To take a story of unrelenting, visceral, hardship & abuse, & set it against a landscape that shimmers with beauty. Nature is not kind, but it is gorgeous. Above all, that kept me reading through the darkness & grinding cruelty even as Turtle begins to resist her father’s rule.

The are echoes of “The Wasp Factory” here, & hints of “Deliverance” (which is name checked in the text, very meta.) This is a genuinely well written book, I can’t argue with the skill or the story telling even when it stumbles- the romantic plot feels clumsy but perhaps that is more down to reflecting on Turtle’s own inexperience. What I can’t reconcile in myself is that this is a story written by a man, about the graphic abuse & isolation of a girl by her father, & for however well written & beautiful it can be, it still boils down to my discomfort at that fact.

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mmwbrown114's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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kellyofcali's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I rapidly consumed this book, which is heart-wrenchingly dark and awful, but very well written and you just keep reading hoping that it's going to get better (I won't say whether this want comes to be). It is really, really tough, so you have to be up for that kind of horrific material, but I found myself quickly entangled in the characters and story.

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