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A review by meghan_readsbooks
Nobody But Us by Laure Van Rensburg
3.0
Thank you Grand Central Publishing for the ebook copy of Nobody But Us. This book is available now. I appreciated many aspects of this atmospheric thriller and I feel Laure Van Rensburg shows a lot of strengths in terms of style and tone. The plot involves an older literature professor and a young graduate student on a long weekend away together, fairly cut off from all the things people want to cut off from; the plot has a fairly obvious focus on the age differences, academia, and the definite foreboding of chaos (the first chapter leads into the backstory that leads back to the first chapter).
there are a lot of references to gothic type literature and women's poetry (plath, dickinson) and at times some readers are going to find this too much or not connect with this aspect of the book. For me the academic vibes worked, I am a psych lecturer and sadly a lot of what is here in terms of ego/fragile male ego vibes, feelings of insecurity, and men not always being upstanding aren't untrue (not my personal experience but broadly speaking)... misogyny is ever present for many. This book captures some of that mood but I think in a way that alienates readers unfortunately, the writing is a bit too heavy handed and the dialogue at times just feels stilted or not really how a couple would talk (though are they a couple?).
What does work as noted is the mood, the atmosphere and for me the value in always trying to explore ways to share stories about women's lives, how women/young girls are mistreated in their daily lives; I saw some reviews that felt this book and narrative have been written before and though true there is always space for attention to themes explored in this book.
there are definite content warnings for this one: grooming, self harm, violence, sexual abuse, manipulation
there are a lot of references to gothic type literature and women's poetry (plath, dickinson) and at times some readers are going to find this too much or not connect with this aspect of the book. For me the academic vibes worked, I am a psych lecturer and sadly a lot of what is here in terms of ego/fragile male ego vibes, feelings of insecurity, and men not always being upstanding aren't untrue (not my personal experience but broadly speaking)... misogyny is ever present for many. This book captures some of that mood but I think in a way that alienates readers unfortunately, the writing is a bit too heavy handed and the dialogue at times just feels stilted or not really how a couple would talk (though are they a couple?).
What does work as noted is the mood, the atmosphere and for me the value in always trying to explore ways to share stories about women's lives, how women/young girls are mistreated in their daily lives; I saw some reviews that felt this book and narrative have been written before and though true there is always space for attention to themes explored in this book.
there are definite content warnings for this one: grooming, self harm, violence, sexual abuse, manipulation