Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Acts of Desperation

a dark and complex inner look at a toxic/abusive relationship and the roles women are expected to play in regard to men’s pleasure and needs. very well done for a debut.

(I received my copy for free from Penguin, this has not influenced my thoughts or opinions in any way)

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eleanor_rose22's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Unhinged feral morally grey female character, exploring her body and desires and the male gaze, very grotesque and excessive, so compelling

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freydawreviews's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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susannaobrien's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Oof, this book packs a punch. It's gripping yet hard to read. Many observations on love, friendship, and self-worth are incredibly intelligently described in ways I've never seen before, and lots is relatable as a twenty-something woman dating men in a city. The conversation around sex and consent was interesting and definitely an uncommon perspective in literature. A few scenes broke my heart. All the characters are flawed, and towards the end the book meditates on how you can portray your side of the story even when you've done wrong. Cool framing device to leave the protagonist unnamed.

In some places it feels a little self-indulgent and academic, which makes it feel less realistic, and hard to believe that a twenty-three year old would have that self-awareness. I also don't like that this is billed as a book on female desire because while much can be relatable to female readers, I think generalising too much from this protagonist's perspective could feed into harmful stereotypes.

Overall an impressive read that left me with some mixed emotions!

Major content warnings.

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skyealexandra's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

one of those books that i absolutely adored but never want to reread

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book...oh, my God. She's short, but she packs a fucking punch. "Acts of Desperation" follows an unnamed narrator who on the first page meets a man and falls into a "brief, all-consuming" romance with him before he abruptly dumps her. She resolves to get him back and keep him by any means necessary, even if it means degrading and destroying herself.

The writing in this book is so beautiful and harsh at the same time. I highlighted so much in this book, such a range of lines: lines that I related to, lines that I thought were interesting, lines that made this character make sense to me (because she often did not, which made her seem painfully real).

Through this narrator's voice, the reader is exposed to her confessional, her literal desperation for male attention and male love, her love addiction, her mental illness. The way at times, this man she claimed to love so fully did not even seem like someone she liked, and yet she simply couldn't be without him- without *someone* in general - God. You have a front row seat to all of it and it is sometimes so brutal that one must set the book down and just decompress.

However, in the brutality of this narrative, there are moments so poignant and relatable that I couldn't get my highlighter/pen cap off fast enough to highlight or annotate. There were parts of this that also felt too smart for me, things that didn't and do not make sense to me still, and I don't know if that's because I'm not smart enough or if it's just a reflection of what a mess this character is?

Overall, obviously, I loved this. I loved the commentary and chronicling of this woman's case of love addiction & other things throughout that I won't mention at the risk of giving things away inadvertently.

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poppyisabelle's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i wish i didn’t find parts of this so relatable

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