Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Tampa

Reviews tagging Drug use

Tampa, by Alissa Nutting

16 reviews

mrsmishler's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It feels wrong to give this book a star rating, because it is disturbing however it was very well written.

I used to work in a jail giving medical care and so I did work a lot with sex offenders and pedophiles; and I feel like how she describes the process of her finding her victim and manipulating them was very accurate. Even inside the jails you could watch the older pedophiles slowly wiggle their way into the younger offenders minds, and it’s sickening.

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yrthroat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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catsy2022's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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sylvainxweber's review

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dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

When it comes to writing a novel regarding a topic such as what's covered in this book, there is a very fine line between doing so in a tasteful manner and exploiting the same victims you are attempting to bring attention to. Unfortunately, despite how interested I was in this book, the way in which pedophilia is discussed is done so via the latter.

In Tampa, we follow the narrative of Celeste Price, a 26-year-old woman who preys on young boys within the classes that she happens to teach. She is completely uncaring about anyone else's desires and feelings except those of her own, and she jumps through some insane hoops in order to keep getting what she wants at the expense of others. Most notably, she grooms and assaults a boy named Jack throughout a vast majority of this novel, and is discussed in extremely graphic detail.

Explicit language that does not hold back on the reader can be insanely effective and is not something I am against or necessarily grossed out by. However, the narrative of this novel seems to wholly rely on shock and vulgar sexuality as a crutch for the plot, which doesn't really work the further you get into the novel as you tend to get desensitized and used to Celeste's manner of thinking. No doubt was it realistic for Celeste to be such a sexually charged character when you take into context of her being a remorseless sexual predator, but it just happened to become repetitive and I found myself painfully dragging my eyes through walls of text that I felt I had seen millions of times.

Similarly, there were times where the novel seemed to get uncomfortably erotic. Again, when taking Celeste's character into account, such a concept would make sense if it was done so in a more tasteful and less exploitative manner. Many of the graphic scenes involving Celeste abusing Jack certainly are detailed, but the way they are framed tries to make the reader feel entranced or excited in response, which I felt was incredibly unnerving and inappropriate.

There were a lot of interesting ideas and concepts touched on this book which involve double standards regarding male and female pedophiles, along with having certain privileges based solely off one's appearance. However, these certainly felt watered down, and I think much of that had to do with how sexually charged the narrative was, which then made it almost feel like they were thrown in at the last second to have some sort of trite attempt at social and moral commentary.

Alissa Nutting definitely has a talent when it comes to writing antagonistic protagonists and morally-grey characters, but I feel that the subject of pedophilia and the assault of younger children could have been handled a lot better. I don't think that Nutting intended for the audience to view these scenes in a positive way at all, but she certainly should have done more research and sought more feedback while writing those scenes.

Despite the fact I didn't enjoy the novel as much as I thought I would, I do like Nutting's courage and willingness to attempt to discuss such a taboo subject. Since this was only her debut novel, I certainly look forward to reading more from her and see how she grows as an author in the future.

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katebrownreads's review against another edition

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4.0

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emsprobablyreading's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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mulletapologist's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

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

5.0

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versmonesprit's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

4.0

Nutting tells the story of a monster with a delectable prose that will make it impossible for you to put the book down until the very last couple of chapters. Shocking and distressing, Tampa is still a marvellous read, if only for the mastery of character building and narration that dominates most of the book. CW: grooming.

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