adult

Book Club: The Push- A Dark and Twisted Tale of Motherhood

Reviews

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The Push by Ashley Audrain tells the story of motherhood spanning three generations of women. Blythe who is the main subject of the book was abandoned by her mother Cecilia, who herself was the daughter of the twisted Etta.

The story begins with Blythe estranged from her daughter Violet’s life.She has been replaced as ‘mother’ by her ex-husband’s new wife and she has to accept that her family is happier without her.

Due to Blythe’s traumatic childhood she is left with a lot of anxieties and fears about her ability to be a good mother. Her fears come to a head when she fails to connect to Violet, is constantly exhausted and life is not going to plan. Violet is a difficult child who is manipulative, never smiles and is overall frightening. Her husband Fox ignores these issues as Violet is a daddy’s girl but her feelings towards her mother are a lot colder. However, when Blythe gets pregnant for a second time those fears about her daughter turn to terror.

Audrain creates a gripping and tense narrative that exploits the anxieties of motherhood. It showcases how a baby can either strengthen or break down adult relationships as well as how our childhoods shape our adult fears. 

The Push expertly walks the fine line of a family cursed to repeat the same mistakes or of a mother paranoia twisting her daughter. It feels like The Push is a description of nature vs nurture for the women in Blythe’s family. 

This is another difficult book to read and will not suit everyone’s tastes with its examination of difficult characters and their relations to motherhood.

Book Club: My Dark Vanessa- A deeply unsettling but important read

Reviews

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My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell tells the story of Vanessa Wye as both an adult and a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Jacob Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by one of his former students, and a journalist contacts Vanessa to contribute to allegations. However, Vanessa does not see her time with Strane as abuse but as a loving relationship.

My Dark Vanessa is a tough and unsettling read from the very beginning. “When Strane and I met, I was fifteen and he was forty-two, a near perfect thirty years between us.” During my first attempt to start the novel I got to this paragraph on page 5 and had to put the book down because it made me feel sick to my stomach.

Russell is never shy at revealing the details of his repulsive sexual abuse where he claims that Vanessa is in charge of what is happening while requesting that she call him ‘Daddy’. It is hard to read the repeated rape of a 15-year-old girl and even as an adult where she wants him to stop but doesn’t have the power to tell him no. For many, there may be a feeling that there are too many rape scenes or too many details but I think that it’s important to remember the brutality of what is happening to her. While I believe that My Dark Vanessa is a brave exploration of the #metoo movement it is not a book for everyone and I found it to be a slow read as much as I wanted to find out what happened the uneasy feeling would cause me to stop. 

“I just really need it to be a love story. You know? I really, really need it to be that.” – Vanessa Wye. Russell does an amazing job in transporting us into the mind of a teenage girl who wants to be special and loved, who is intelligent but vulnerable. As well as being able to showcase the harm that this ‘love’ has done to Vanessa as an adult who can’t accept that he exploited her vulnerability and that he does deserve to be punished for what he did. I think it’s important for those who pick up this book to remember nuances in that while it could be read as romantic from her retelling and how she is the one he chose to love it is a tale of abuse. 

I think this is an important and difficult read on how abusers manipulate their victims into believing it’s love and the importance of holding the abusers and institutions that hide and shield them to account.

Book Club: The Secret History

Books, Reviews

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The Blurb: ‘Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last – inexorably – into evil. ‘

“Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw,’ that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn’t. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Word of warning this book is not for you if you need to a. Relate to the characters and b. If you don’t like arsehole main characters. Despite all that I do have a fondness for most of the characters.

We find out in the prologue that Richard and four members of the group murder one of their fellow students to who they are close too which creates tension while reading the book as you know where its inevitable conclusion lies. The story is told in two parts, the first describes the events leading up to the death and, the second describes the aftermath. This creates a slow build towards the murder and then picks up pace once the deed has been committed.

Donna Tartt’s ability to write characters who are deeply unlikeable in a way that makes you care and sympathise with them is a true talent. I don’t think I have ever read a book that has stuck with mean even after three or four reads before and, I don’t think I will again. There is just something so hypnotic about The Secret History that draws you in and won’t let go.

I think the reason why The Secret History has been a favourite for many since its release is due to its ability to connect to our human insecurities when talking about friendships. Richard has a yearning to be accepted into a group of peers that he admires and, once he is in with the group, he is willing to sacrifice everything to stay there. It also touches on what it feels like to lose a great friendship and how loneliness and disconnect can have you longing for the most toxic people. 

The book plays out like a Greek tragedy with the groups horrifying crime and their downward spiral in the aftermath which, forever changes them. This is not the story for the faint of heart with mentions of murder, incest, substance abuse and lots of twenty years olds angst.