My Absolute Darling

By Gabriel Tallent

My Absolute Darling - Gabriel Tallent
  • Release Date: 2017-08-29
  • Genre: Literary Fiction
Score: 4
4
From 770 Ratings

Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST
NBCC JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FINALIST
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST’S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017
ONE OF NPR’S ‘GREAT READS’ OF 2017
A USA TODAY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

AN AMAZON.COM BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BUSINESS INSIDER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Impossible to put down." NPR


"A novel that readers will gulp down, gasping.” —The Washington Post
 

"The word 'masterpiece' has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one." —Stephen King

A brilliant and immersive, all-consuming read about one fourteen-year-old girl's heart-stopping fight for her own soul.


Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At fourteen, she roams the woods along the northern California coast. The creeks, tide pools, and rocky islands are her haunts and her hiding grounds, and she is known to wander for miles. But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous: Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father.

Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her. What follows is a harrowing story of bravery and redemption. With Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage, the reader watches, heart in throat, as this teenage girl struggles to become her own hero—and in the process, becomes ours as well.

Shot through with striking language in a fierce natural setting, My Absolute Darling is an urgently told, profoundly moving read that marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.

Reviews

  • Child-abuser romance novel

    1
    By stephdd11
    Child abuse glorification. Truly gross. Consider yourself warned. This isn’t avant-garde, it’s sick.
  • Gave up on this poor piece of literature

    1
    By Jessiep813
    This book opened very dark and then just got bad. The writing was poor, the story weak and as much as I tried to get into it I was skimming pages by the 3rd chapter
  • It’s alright

    3
    By weekszmac
    It’s alright. I had some trouble visualizing, and this wasn’t what I expected at first. But I did like it. Disappointed in the ending...
  • I genuinely liked portions of the book

    3
    By lsmarquez
    Trigger warning, this book deals with a lot of scenes of all the types of abuse imaginable carried out by the father of our heroine. At times it evokes a visceral reaction and I had to take pauses. When I felt the plot shifting I was extremely excited but I also feel short changed. Despite the novel being a couple hundred pages, I feel I needed more. The book spends so much time writing candidly, openly, and the last third feels like a deadline may have been approaching somewhere and so we are left with some closure and more questions than we had in the first 2/3rds of the book. Still 3 stars because I was entertained nonetheless and it was a debut.
  • Wow

    5
    By Alanaubu2
    I had no idea that my mind could be so entrapped into a book. The detailed descriptions, the unhinged relationships displayed, the hope that keeps nagging at you to keep reading in search for Turtles redemption. Dark and humbling, sweet and savory.
  • My absolute darling

    5
    By sadistic sloth bear
    Fascinating This book is impossible to put down. The riveting storyline and the rich characters will have you glued to the page. It is a disturbing read that will stay with me for a long time.
  • horrible

    1
    By crm.shop
    I stopped after one chapter. Reading the “romantic” description of the abuser’s behavior was sickening.
  • Dark

    5
    By km99
    This book is amazingly well written but as the other reviewers have said, it is cringingly dark and disturbing... with that said, I loved it. It does leave you shell shocked but the ending is satisfying I think!
  • cw: sexual abuse

    4
    By gamwhora
    I found this book on the 50¢ shelf at my local public library. I don’t know why they do that — I guess getting rid of books no one reads. I picked it up, bought it, and moved on. I started reading it about a day later, and couldn’t put it down. The abusive relationship (if you could call it that) between Turtle and her Father was something so disturbing, so malignant, you can’t help but keep reading, praying it will be over soon. It is a gorgeously written dark novel, chock full of delicious imagery, and I was quite fond of Talent’s writing style. But I couldn’t help but feel disgust at the way the author describes Turtle’s body parts. As a teenage girl myself, it filled me with disgust and despair — is this what grown men think of teenage girls and their bodies? I understand that given the nuance of the subject in relation to the novel that it made sense, but I have taken a star off for now it made me feel. I loved this book, but I won’t be rereading it. Sometimes, books leave you shellshocked, and no matter how hard you want to stop thinking about it, you just can’t. That is how this book left me. I will forever be grateful that Turtle got the one thing all abuse survivors should be able to do: see their abusers in hell.
  • My Absolute Darling ... Dazzles

    5
    By RichardReader
    Gobsmacked by this book from the first page to the last, I reeled emotionally and in awe of the artistry of the author. I’ve never read another book like My Absolute Darling — a truly original “delight,” albeit a twisted and anguishing read. Tallent’s gift for environmental and character detail recalls Steinbeck at his glorious best; the northwest coast of California staggeringly cast in the light and dark of area’s flora and fauna. The title belies content that is not for the squeamish. The author serves up a grindingly jaw clenching and finally explosive tension that is spellbinding and — reader be warned, deeply disturbing. That said, I relished this exquisitely crafted novel.