INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALISTNBCC JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FINALISTONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST’S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017ONE OF NPR’S ‘GREAT READS’ OF 2017A 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 … 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.
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Very raw
Do not miss this book! Guaranteed to be one you can’t put down.
Too disturbing to enjoy
After 2 chapters couldn’t read any more…incest is not a subject that entertains me.
This book is some of the most troubling writing I have ever read. But it is excellent in that it allows the reader to begin to grasp the enormous conflict an abused child experiences toward their abusing parent. I never want to read anything like this again, yet I am very glad I have.
Outstanding
I couldn’t get past the fact of the relationship with the child and her father. A real No-No for me.
The male protagonist is one of the most irredeemable characters I can imagine. But the heroine beats him at his own game, holds him while he dies, and comes out of many stresses with hope for her future.
This book will remain with me a long time. Turtle is a wonderful, gritty character who is quite the survivor of a tragic family situation. My eyes were opened to the thought processes of victims of abuse. To me, the only downside was the exhaustive (and exhausting) description of plant life specific to this part of California.
Did not like it
I almost stopped reading because it was so brutal. I’m glad I didn’t. Really well written
Hard subject to read but good none the less.
Sick story. Language horrible. Do not recommend this book to anyone. Depressing and haunting.
Heart-pounding
Hard to believe this is the author’s first book.
This was a dark and disturbing, yet engrossing novel of a teenage girl being raised by her dysfunctional, abusive father. The writing, the audio narration, and the story were all very well done with a good pace and the right amount of drama. You can’t help root for Turtle and hold your breath, hoping she will escape her father’s emotional control. Her father’s love is all she knows, and although she hates and fears him, she also has a misplaced desire for him. Definitely an interesting psychological read, but some awfully strong language. I guess the ending was appropriate, although I thought it was a little flat.
This book is absorbing!!
I became the “fly on the wall” and saw the small mushrooms growing on the windowsill of the bathroom, the space where the floor of the living room had pulled away from the fireplace hearth and the bullet holes in all of the walls!
It is the story of survival, love and loyalty.
Amazing plot and characters.
I highly recommend it!!
A wonderfully descriptive book when it comes to natural surroundings. It is thankfully more stilted and vague when it glosses over the incestuous ugliness of the story. A horrific storyline nicely written. You will want to hug and protect the heroine from the first page.
Couldn’t finish it. Didn’t like the writing style or the story line
This is a hard story to read. it is a dark topic that many don’t want to admit occurs. What was truly special about this book was how well the feelings, thoughts, and perspectives the main character has and the author describes so well. This is a book to read when you are ready to challenge your own desire to not think about how often this happens and you near your head. i am glad I read this story. It stretched me in ways I didn’t expect.