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.
more
This book is triple x rated. It’s about an evil mad man who repeatedly rapes his daughter and then a little 9 year old girl that he picks up at a convenience store. The little girl cries for her “mom” who probably left her at the convenience store in the first place. The protagonist, a 14 year old girl calling herself, Turtle, can’t figure out how to handle her situation due to isolation and no social skills. There are all sorts of unsavory characters except Anna, a teacher and councilor who also is trying to figure out how to help Turtle who has no mind of her own. This is a convincing reason why certain people need to be sterilized.
It was one of the hardest books to read and yet one of the most compelling I’ve picked up in a long time. This won’t be for everyone. Abuse is ugly and vividly detailed, yet- there is ultimately redemption for the main character. Incredible prose, really tough subject matter.
I don’t like reading the thoughts of demented child killers. I don’t want to hear their inner thoughts and motivations. I can’t go there. I stopped reading early on.
Chilling and sad! I wanted to jump into the book and rescue the main character
I don’t know why I finished this story of a daughter’s abuse by her father. Yes, the girl’s development is remarkable, but what an ugly situation.
Too hard to read from an emotional standpoint. I just don’t want to read about such painful parts of humanity–or lack thereof.
Difficult to read subject matter, but I couldn’t put it down.
Although it sometimes reads like poetry, the father character upset me. I did not finish it nor will I ever finish it.
The content of this book was just too disturbing to read.
I could hardly get through this one. The theme is off-putting and I didn’t really know what it was about, just that it was highly recommended. This is not a book I would have chosen to read if I had known what it was about beforehand. However, it will stay with you, and is a window into the horrors of a life very few people would want be familiar with in one sense, yet in another the earthiness and beauty of the natural the protagonist inhabits is beautifully told.
A book I won’t forget. Disturbing, all too real, brilliantly executed and beautifully drawn.
A very details oriented style of writing that can be irritating . A good read overall.
Read this book with an open mind and always remember that, whether you like it or not, there are people living among us whose lives would be both alien and shocking to us…but they are there. I was at turns horrified and mesmerized by Turtle and her determination to be strong, to live life on her own terms. Yet she knows that she cannot easily escape the draw of her powerful and deranged father.
I would one minute say I hate this story next minute I loved it, but I couldn’t lay it down, to many adjetives apply to it so read it and decide for yourself how it makes you feel.
This will take up residence inside your head for awhile after you finish it. It’s very intense. Be prepared for that. Remarkable book.
Too hard to read.
This is a tough read and not for the squeamish, but once you start you need to know how it ends.
You shouldn’t need incest and child sexual abuse to write a page-turner.
It stunk.
This book is powerful, suspenseful and complex. The bond between an abused daughter and a demented father, though impossible to understand, is portrayed with compassion and insight. Gabriel Tallent will arouse every emotion you have.