A review by lbarnhill3
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
3.0
This book… oh dear lord this book was just awful!! The attempt was appreciated, but the storyline and the writing were just not meshing for me.
Having a story about enduring childhood abuse is intense and meaningful. The way the author wrote it was just terrible. So much gratuitous misogyny. Like we get it, Martin is an asshole who has his daughter convinced that she’s worthless and all women are too. The guns… do they have every gun ever manufactured?! I know more about the guns in the story than I do about anything else. How is NO ONE calling Social Services on this family? From what we hear about Turtle in school, why has no teacher ever called social services? They bring up her needing to see a counselor, but not have social services involved? Why didn't Jacob or Brett’s families call social services? As a former school nurse who has called social services more times than I can count, this was outright frustrating and enraging how many people failed her.
The characters… I just… Turtle is fairly complex. Martin is narcissistic & sadistic. Grandpa is just clueless. Brett & Jacob are obviously intelligent young men but HOLY COW!! Obnoxious bouncing from gym bro talk to nerd talk to philosophy?! Poor little Cayenne… she felt well written.
This book. I just don’t know. It was painful to get through.
Having a story about enduring childhood abuse is intense and meaningful. The way the author wrote it was just terrible. So much gratuitous misogyny. Like we get it, Martin is an asshole who has his daughter convinced that she’s worthless and all women are too. The guns… do they have every gun ever manufactured?! I know more about the guns in the story than I do about anything else. How is NO ONE calling Social Services on this family? From what we hear about Turtle in school, why has no teacher ever called social services? They bring up her needing to see a counselor, but not have social services involved? Why didn't Jacob or Brett’s families call social services? As a former school nurse who has called social services more times than I can count, this was outright frustrating and enraging how many people failed her.
The characters… I just… Turtle is fairly complex. Martin is narcissistic & sadistic. Grandpa is just clueless. Brett & Jacob are obviously intelligent young men but HOLY COW!! Obnoxious bouncing from gym bro talk to nerd talk to philosophy?! Poor little Cayenne… she felt well written.
This book. I just don’t know. It was painful to get through.