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thelauramay's review
5.0
This was a difficult book to read. Like [b:Dette Chambers' Death Journal|30119421|Dette Chambers' Death Journal|L.M. du Preez|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1462491295s/30119421.jpg|50544970], ULTRA BLUE goes to some very dark places. And listening to Lana del Rey while reading the last third was probably not my best choice - but if I say that it's the most fitting possible music for this book, you'll probably start to get an impression of the book's tenor.
This novel covers abuse, rape, humiliation, despair, addiction, fear, entrapment, obsession, darkness, friendship, and female strength. It's pretty much all fucked up, the whole way through - and the writing is amazingly powerful. I couldn't put it down - the characters drew me in. Because even though the protagonist is difficult, self-centred, and she keeps making the same mistakes, she's very, very real. I don't think it's possible to have had any kind of history of abuse and not see the bars around Sid, and feel the impulse to keep going back to your captors, because it's all that you know; and we as readers desperately want for the character to be able to subsume her situation and fly free.
A few years ago, I saw a film at the Mexican film festival, La vida precoz y breva de Sabina Rivas (the early and brief life of Sabina Rivas). It's about this girl who has gone through an almost unimaginable series of destructive events, from rape to incest, violence and prostitution. And I'll never forget this one scene, wherein Sabina is crossing the border from Honduras to make better money for the night. She's violently raped by the border guards, but afterwards, they let her shower. Her simple joy at the warmth of the water, this moment of innocence and freedom - it was an intensely powerful scene. And that's the kind of power that I see again in ULTRA BLUE.
A hard read, but a solid 10/10.
This novel covers abuse, rape, humiliation, despair, addiction, fear, entrapment, obsession, darkness, friendship, and female strength. It's pretty much all fucked up, the whole way through - and the writing is amazingly powerful. I couldn't put it down - the characters drew me in. Because even though the protagonist is difficult, self-centred, and she keeps making the same mistakes, she's very, very real. I don't think it's possible to have had any kind of history of abuse and not see the bars around Sid, and feel the impulse to keep going back to your captors, because it's all that you know; and we as readers desperately want for the character to be able to subsume her situation and fly free.
A few years ago, I saw a film at the Mexican film festival, La vida precoz y breva de Sabina Rivas (the early and brief life of Sabina Rivas). It's about this girl who has gone through an almost unimaginable series of destructive events, from rape to incest, violence and prostitution. And I'll never forget this one scene, wherein Sabina is crossing the border from Honduras to make better money for the night. She's violently raped by the border guards, but afterwards, they let her shower. Her simple joy at the warmth of the water, this moment of innocence and freedom - it was an intensely powerful scene. And that's the kind of power that I see again in ULTRA BLUE.
A hard read, but a solid 10/10.
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