You are mine

Author : Gabriel Tallent
Title : My Absolute Darling
Published : 29/08/2017
Pages : 432
Format : Hardback
Publisher : Fourth Estate






     At 14, Turtle Alveston knows the use of every gun on her wall.  She knows that chaos is coming and only the strong will survive it. She knows that her daddy loves her more than anything else in this world, and he'll do whatever it takes to keep her with him. She doesn't know why she feels so different from the other girls at school or why the line between love and pain can be so hard to see.  She doesn't know why making a friend may be the bravest and most terrifying thing she has ever done and what her daddy will do when he finds out ...

     As I walked in to my local bookshop. This was sat on the table front and center in their just out section. I’d never heard of it so I picked up a copy of the table and scanned the blurb in the inside cover. I was intrigued by the premise a survivalist family locked in isolation . And what happens when some one new enters this world of there’s . If I’d know then what I know now would I still have picked it up. I will try and keep spoilers to a minimum.

     Martin is one of the most sickening, narcissistic and manipulative characters I’ve every come across in a book I’ve read. He’s need to controls his little kingdom in the wild hills dominates his every action. He essentially has no redeeming features which I think is something you don't come across in literature to often. Turtle is is a young girl lost in a world she believes to be how everyone else lives. It is only through her interactions with the two boys does she begin to realise that what is happening to her is not right. That the abuse she suffers at the hand of Martin is far from normal. She is far from a simple  creation. The complexity of he decisions and the way she chose to deal with the conflicting emotions for her father is one we can try to understand but at time I struggled with. I'm lucky to have never found my self in her situation. Her emotional and broken mental state I suppose is one that unless you've been in her position is one few will be able to reconcile with.  Add to that her naivety about the outside world having been kept far away from the modern world.Her bond with her grandfather is one that I believe kept her going throughout her early years. It becomes all to apparent he knows little of what his son is doing to turtle. This is a complex selection of people and with the exception of martin are all I think trying to help turtle escape from her situation yet most don't really understand the full depth of her suffering.

     The book Tallent has created is one I will not forget in a hurry. His writing is oddly hypnotic drawing you in. In some ways it feel like Martin is trying to controlling you as much as he does turtle.  The story he presents to us is one of bleak desolation. The contrast to this is the oddly beautiful way in which he describe the land in which the story takes place of rolling hills and calming seas.   But also about friendship He does how ever give some lighter moments to a very dark story the interactions between turtle and the boys have some genuine and funny situations. From the moment  she saves them they have an unwavering faith in her. And their deep and caring nature towards turtle. What he ends up giving us is a harrowing story of a girl fighting to survive. In which you will be rooting for turtle to break free and survive.
   
     This was a review I found hard to write. The subject matter is one that a lot of people will not want to contemplate let along read about. There are moments when you want to toss this book across the room. The description of abuse is disturbingly visceral. It's done in such a way that by the end you will feel drained. It will pull emotions deep down from you and keep your mind racing till the last chapter. But I think its one worthy of reading if for nothing else do it for turtle.