My Absolute Darling

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent. Ohhhhhhhh fuck this book. I'm surprised I finished reading it.

Let me start with what I liked about it. I liked the cover; the design is beautiful, and I'd heard about this book often enough to place it on my library hold list. The main character, Turtle, is compelling in her fierceness and feralness. That's about it.

What did I not like about the book? Well, pretty much everything else. The depiction of trauma rang so false to me - enough to be actually upsetting. I read this on my kindle, which allowed me to do a word count, which I did because I because I was curious whether or not I was overreacting to the language used and nope, not overreacting - this book uses the word cunt 16 times, slit 29 times, and bitch 63 times. SIXTY THREE TIMES. Look, I get that internalized misogyny is a result of trauma, and I've met men who speak about women the way that Martin does in this book. You might even say that after working in the field for, oh eight years or so that I know a little bit about trauma and abuse. And I get that Turtle's internal monologue is meant to represent just how ingrained in her Martin's voice is. But it's too much, and a more skillful writer would have shown it, not told it, over and over and over again. And the description of Brett's mother when we first meet her. Can someone explain to me what the shape of her labia have to do with her character? She works in a nudist colony, cool cool. I still don't know what her labia have to do with the story, because basically, we never come back to her. The teenaged boys are relatively flat characters, lacking much complexity beyond a Gilmore Girls-style ability for banter. And the ending? Where was Jacob? So much of the ending revolves around him and yet... he's not there and it's NEVER ADDRESSED where he was. What the actual fuck?

Please don't read this. Instead, take the $13.99 or whatever you would spend, and donate it to an organization that actually helps support trauma victims, like RAINN. And if you still want to read a story about resilience through trauma, go pick up The Fact of a Body instead.