My Absolute Darling: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
FINALIST FOR THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE AND THE JOHN LEONARD PRIZE
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, NPR, AND USA TODAY
"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
From the author of the forthcoming Crux, a brilliant, 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.
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Community Reviews
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My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
417 pages
What’s it about?
Turtle Alveston is the heroine in this incredibly dark tale. After her mother dies Turtle is left with only her tough, survivalist father. She survives eight-grade by isolating herself from the other students. Her only other friend is her elderly grandfather who lives down the road. The summer before high school she runs across two normal teenage boys who are lost. She leads them out of the wilderness- and in the process she discovers two friends. But what will Martin, her father, make of this?
What did it make me think about?
This novel is so dark that I could hardly read it at times- and I don’t mind dark. This novel is fiction and I am glad about that. It is unbearable that children live this way.
Should I read it?
This is beautifully written and the second half of the book just flies by. It was a good book. The characters were so real and the plot picks up the pace as it moves forward. Turtle is a hero in every sense of the word! Having said that- I would recommend this book with BIG reservations. If you are someone that likes to keep it light- do not pick up this book!
Quote-
“A girl should have a grandfather in her life, I guess. Christ. I would’ve said his capacity to hurt me was all run out, but it was something else, I tell you to watch him with you. I tell you what. You come up as a child with such a man as that for a father and you have to spend a lot of your life persuading yourself that it was nothing to do with you, because I tell you- he was not so gentle with me. He was the most sadistic kind of fuck, kibble. So it takes some persuading. And it’s hard, because it comes so natural to think that. It’s somehow easier than thinking his hate is inscrutable. That makes no kind of sense to a child. It is quite a thing, I tell you. And yet I have seen him be the most patient kind of man with you, kibble. I hated him for that. Isn’t that strange? Years and years later. I would’ve said his capacity to hurt me was all done. Well. ”
If you like this try-
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinit
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
*Ruby by Cynthia Bond
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
417 pages
What’s it about?
Turtle Alveston is the heroine in this incredibly dark tale. After her mother dies Turtle is left with only her tough, survivalist father. She survives eight-grade by isolating herself from the other students. Her only other friend is her elderly grandfather who lives down the road. The summer before high school she runs across two normal teenage boys who are lost. She leads them out of the wilderness- and in the process she discovers two friends. But what will Martin, her father, make of this?
What did it make me think about?
This novel is so dark that I could hardly read it at times- and I don’t mind dark. This novel is fiction and I am glad about that. It is unbearable that children live this way.
Should I read it?
This is beautifully written and the second half of the book just flies by. It was a good book. The characters were so real and the plot picks up the pace as it moves forward. Turtle is a hero in every sense of the word! Having said that- I would recommend this book with BIG reservations. If you are someone that likes to keep it light- do not pick up this book!
Quote-
“A girl should have a grandfather in her life, I guess. Christ. I would’ve said his capacity to hurt me was all run out, but it was something else, I tell you to watch him with you. I tell you what. You come up as a child with such a man as that for a father and you have to spend a lot of your life persuading yourself that it was nothing to do with you, because I tell you- he was not so gentle with me. He was the most sadistic kind of fuck, kibble. So it takes some persuading. And it’s hard, because it comes so natural to think that. It’s somehow easier than thinking his hate is inscrutable. That makes no kind of sense to a child. It is quite a thing, I tell you. And yet I have seen him be the most patient kind of man with you, kibble. I hated him for that. Isn’t that strange? Years and years later. I would’ve said his capacity to hurt me was all done. Well. ”
If you like this try-
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinit
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
*Ruby by Cynthia Bond
Warning: extremely disturbing material!
I was given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I struggled to read this book in all honesty. The sexual violence was very difficult to read. I found it difficult not only because it was sexual violence but because of the way the author sorry of seemed to normalize it.
This book is really getting a lot of attention. I do think it's radical and different but neither appealed to me.
I was given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
I struggled to read this book in all honesty. The sexual violence was very difficult to read. I found it difficult not only because it was sexual violence but because of the way the author sorry of seemed to normalize it.
This book is really getting a lot of attention. I do think it's radical and different but neither appealed to me.
This book has its moments of being a bit slow and drags with unnecessary details, which is why this review earned a 4 star, but when you get into the meat and potatoes of this piece of art, it's one helluva ride. It has strong triggering instances of pedophilia and manipulation of a young person. If that doesn't bother some readers, then this is a great read.
Riveting. Horrible. I bit down on my fingers, wincing through several scenes. I haven't been this invested in getting through a book at lightning speed in a while.
If you can stomach the profane speech and living, graphic descriptions of abuse, rape, and violence (usually I can't), then you will be have a chance to read a Writer. Tallent succeeded in writing the book that Barbara Kingsolver bombed (her retelling of David Copperfield, Demon Copperhead). Convincing. Heart-rending.
I definitely have mixed feelings about this one. Warning, there are instances of violence and rape. Turtle is a STRONG main character and makes you want to keep reading to see what happens next. There are so many complicated emotions depicted throughout the story you really can’t put it down. Very much a coming of age story, you hope no child would have to endure.
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