Reviews with content warning for Blood - My Absolute Darling

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

18 reviews

laura_cat's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Perhaps the most deeply disturbing book I’ve ever read. This book has extremely graphic descriptions of violence and cruelty and I had to skip ahead at times to avoid some of them. I am relieved to be finished with the book. It’s well-written but I’m not convinced that all of the scenes and disturbing imagery were necessary, and I wonder if this detracted from the impact.

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tamzy6's review

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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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mi_chellewong's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

the most gut-wrenching book i’ve read in a really long time. this book actually insane.

turtle’s stockholm syndrome combined with the utter terror of a monster that is her father make this book so incredibly terrifying and sad

and yet i could not put it down because i needed to know that turtle would be okay. the way tallent writes turtle’s thoughts and how she

begins to reshape her beliefs

is so beautifully and tragically done. the two things i would say about this book- i feel like the last chapter was missing something. maybe it’s my own want for a tidy ending but even then it felt like it left too many things unsaid. also, what high schooler talks like brett and jacob do 😭

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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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bluelightbeam'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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

When I bought this book, I read the summary on the back and thought it would be a relatively lighthearted story. I could not have been more wrong. I can say, with the utmost confidence, that this was my toughest read since Lolita. Words cannot possibly do justice to my feelings in this moment. All I know is that it’s 2 A.M. and I need to vent a bit.

First, I will never understand why so many male authors write stories like this. What fascinates them so much about female suffering, and why do they seem to think they are the best people to tell these stories? It feels voyeuristic.

Martin is the worst, and I know that’s probably written intentionally, but dear god. The first 1/2 to 2/3 of this book feels slow. Call it “setting the tone” or whatever, but by the time the action started I was just so tired of Martin running his mouth and waxing poetic about how everyone and everything is terrible and how badly he wants to

kill his daughter.

Turtle is an interesting character, I’ll give you that. Her psychology and growth is the only saving grace of this novel. She is simultaneously self-aware and entirely deluded by her father’s influence. She loves and hates him. I like that she was not some perfect, meek victim, but instead someone who struggled with moral/ethical dilemmas regarding her father’s behavior and chose to act—if imperfectly.

In short, I would not recommend this book. It contains nothing that you couldn’t find elsewhere.

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kellyofcali's review

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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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