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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A fabulous book. And an amazing story I totally recommend this book. It’s an eye opener to the other side of life.
Aside from the horrific situation of the main character, the writing was horrific. It begins with a sense of “ stream of conscience ,” but was rather a series of run on sentences with punctuation scattered by no rule of grammar. It is not until well into that the reader has any sense of characters and their motivations. Another problem with this book was the use vocabulary that was pedantic and unnecessary. The rule should be to never use multi syllable words when an obvious, common word will work as well. Finally, the end of the book was totally unsatisfactory and abrupt. The hinted at motivations of the characters was left in limbo
I should have paid attention when I read that Stephen King was praising this book. It is fascinating; grabs you at the beginning with a situation so horrible I almost put it down, since horror is not my thing. But I cared about the heroine right away and that’s what kept me going. Beautifully written. You might love it.
Hard to believe things like thisnha[[en but they do happen in real life. SAD
This was a disturbing and enthralling book about Turtle, an amazing young woman and her courage to find herself admidst a very unusual life. What an original and engaging story.
Although not for the faint of heart, this gripping read explores the power of the human spirit to overcome what seem like insurmountable obstacles. It also explores the inner-workings of an abused child’s mind as they wrestle with loving their abusive parent but also realizing that they need to escape. Not an easy read, but still an excellent one.
Difficult subject matter but the characters are gripping and the story wonderfully told
This novel tells so well the dynamics of how love and hate so twisted together form a chain stronger than iron. I couldn’t get this one off my mind for months after I finished it. The daughter is an example of bravery of the highest order.
This is a gripping narrative about a teenage girl in thrall to her abusive, survivalist father. It is set in the northern California coast, which is described in exquisite detail. All the way through, the reader watches guns get lovingly cleaned and gruesomely wielded. The prose haunted me, but I wish the young author would use his massive talent on a subject more universal. Less difficult to stomach, more important.
What amazing strength of will in Turtle, the book’s heroine (and heroine she is in the truest sense). Conflicted, disturbing, filled with the awesomeness and awfulness of nature and people at both their worst and their best.
A very realistic depiction of domestic abuse. The fine line it walks between love and hate. The control a person has over another with emotional abuse. There is so much more than just violence involved. A true understanding of a victim’s life.
This is a tough book. Very well written and certainly original but the subject matter — child abuse and more—is difficult. For all that I read it nonstop.
disturbing
I would have thrown this book across the room, or into the fireplace if I hadn’t been reading on my iPad. Bizarre, disturbing, tragic-words I don’t normally use to describe novels I read. There’s child endangerment, neglect, mental illness, incest and a mixed tragic, good ending.
A remarkable book with real and frightening characters. Portrait of a young woman coming of age in a very hostile environment.
So much of what was portrayed in this book was horrifying, but there were also characters with integrity.
Unfortunately, a way of life for too many! Sad story of what happens way too often in our society.
I do not recommend this book. I did not find it to be very interesting.
This book absolutely absorbed me. I quit my lunch group so I could read it. Put off a lot of things I should have been doing to read it. I feel the need to go into therapy.
Disturbing. Well written.