My Absolute Darling, book review. (Gabriel Tallent) (WARNING! Adult content)

I've taken my time before blogging about this one because there seems to be a lot of love out there for it (five-star reviews) and a lot of hate (one-star review) and I seem to be in the middle.
The hate, unfortunately, seems to come from those who have either not read the book, not finished the book, or have taken umbrage that a man has dared to write a book about the abuse of a teenage girl. If you don't like something, fine, there are elements of this book that I didn't like but please, don't slate something you've not read, that's just ridiculous.
So, Turtle (aka Julia or Kibble) lives with her father in a run-down house where the water is warm at best, the electricity fluctuates and she has access to and knows how to use, strip and maintain numerous guns. She also knows how to live off of the land, is failing in school, has no friends, swears all the time and really loves her grandfather, who lives in a mobile home just a few fields away.
On the day Turtle decides she is leaving home she encounters Jacob and Brett who she recognises form school (by the way, teenagers do not speak like that! I live with two so I know) lost in the woods, and using her skills to help them survive, she abandons her dream of leaving. On returning to civilisation (one of the boy’s mothers’ drops her home) she is violently attacked by her father and we are left in no doubt how this is likely to end.
Her relationship with her father - which is the crux of the book - is anything but loving. Like hundreds, thousands of children who are abused, she thinks it is love and that her father feels the same, but she is wrong. Her father wants power, control over her, something he makes quite clear he will never relinquish, and it is this aspect of the story I wanted more of but sadly didn't get.
For me the abuse was too graphic. The third time Turtle is raped it is mostly implied, the reader left to join the dots, and that's all you need. I think abuse, whether it is physical or psychological, needs to be written about, explored and discussed, but do we really need to hear how she cups her father's semen in her hand as it seeped out from inside her? I think not.
The scene where Jacob and Turtle are trapped by the incoming tide and when Turtle bumps into her old school teacher, are convincing, the writing here flowing better and not getting so bogged down as the rest of the book, and the finale, where Turtle’s dad turns up at Jacob's beach house with his guns, is superb, face paced and an apt ending but there's no getting away from the fact that the premise of this book is tough.

A father abusing his teenage daughter, sexually, physically and mentally is never going to be an easy or enjoyable read and with unrealistic teenagers, a plague of heavy description: of plants, trees and their subspecies, the multiple times we are told what gun Turtle is using - not just whether it's a rifle or a shotgun, a pistol or a semi-automatic but the make and model - and the breakfast routine, where we are told a dozen times that Turtle eats raw eggs and tosses her father a beer every morning which he opens on the edge of the work surface, all create a certain frustration and makes the book feel ploddy at best and boring at worst.

So, if you're going to take a punt on My Absolute Darling, go in with your eyes open because I doubt anyone of sound mind will actually say it's enjoyable but I am glad I read it and will consider the author's next book when it's released.
Three stars.

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