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tjx31 's review for:
The Confession
by Jessie Burton
Wow. Wow wow wow wow wow.
I don’t know if Jessie Burton has ever been in any of the situations she wrote about before, but the way she describes EXACTLY what it’s like to fall out of love with your forever person, to feel untethered when you’re meant to be the ‘adult’ in the room, to become ‘harder’ to some people while you simultaneously feel like you’re letting more love into your life, to feel like a side piece in someone else’s life - it has to take hell of a lot of talent to write this without ever experiencing it yourself.
This is only like her other books (the miniaturist and the muse) in the sense that the prose is beautiful - beyond that the emotions, the plot setting, the character development is far beyond her other books. For me at least.
Some key moments for me were:
1) When Elise wonders what happens to a woman after the age of mid20s that supposedly gives them so much more experience than her at 23 - as a 27 year old I see it now. Elise’s childishness, being thrust into a glamorous mature world at such a young age and not being able to handle it. Things fracturing later.
2) The understanding that motherhood is beautiful but you absolutely HAVE to know - not whether you are ready bc who is ever really ready - but whether becoming one could destroy you and your being.
3) Generally - Elise and Connie’s relationship developing so beautifully. Caring for someone else, through food, acts of service, being OPEN to love. That is what relationships are based on.
4) Commentary on Shara genuinely caring what Elise is saying - and same for Zoe’s flatmates, about being confident to talk about themselves but recognizing that not all of it is real ‘truth’
5) Rose realizing there may not be loads of tidy endings to the story she needs, reconciling with the way the reader is left wondering about certain key things in the end (while also being satisfied by the ending)
Key quotes that hit me in the gut, in that moment:
1) Rose - ‘Harder? I feel the opposite, Joey. I’m soft. I’m letting things in. Maybe for the first time ever’
2) Kelly - ‘Well all the women I know who left LTRs […] checked out of it long before they actually did. They went through all the grief […], played out all the scenarios […]
To summarise - reading this has felt like a personal support of my own journeys this year. I feel more confident walking away now in the way I’ve chosen to love and open myself up to people around me, and my life choices, supported by all the women in this gorgeous book.
I don’t know if Jessie Burton has ever been in any of the situations she wrote about before, but the way she describes EXACTLY what it’s like to fall out of love with your forever person, to feel untethered when you’re meant to be the ‘adult’ in the room, to become ‘harder’ to some people while you simultaneously feel like you’re letting more love into your life, to feel like a side piece in someone else’s life - it has to take hell of a lot of talent to write this without ever experiencing it yourself.
This is only like her other books (the miniaturist and the muse) in the sense that the prose is beautiful - beyond that the emotions, the plot setting, the character development is far beyond her other books. For me at least.
Some key moments for me were:
1) When Elise wonders what happens to a woman after the age of mid20s that supposedly gives them so much more experience than her at 23 - as a 27 year old I see it now. Elise’s childishness, being thrust into a glamorous mature world at such a young age and not being able to handle it. Things fracturing later.
2) The understanding that motherhood is beautiful but you absolutely HAVE to know - not whether you are ready bc who is ever really ready - but whether becoming one could destroy you and your being.
3) Generally - Elise and Connie’s relationship developing so beautifully. Caring for someone else, through food, acts of service, being OPEN to love. That is what relationships are based on.
4) Commentary on Shara genuinely caring what Elise is saying - and same for Zoe’s flatmates, about being confident to talk about themselves but recognizing that not all of it is real ‘truth’
5) Rose realizing there may not be loads of tidy endings to the story she needs, reconciling with the way the reader is left wondering about certain key things in the end (while also being satisfied by the ending)
Key quotes that hit me in the gut, in that moment:
1) Rose - ‘Harder? I feel the opposite, Joey. I’m soft. I’m letting things in. Maybe for the first time ever’
2) Kelly - ‘Well all the women I know who left LTRs […] checked out of it long before they actually did. They went through all the grief […], played out all the scenarios […]
To summarise - reading this has felt like a personal support of my own journeys this year. I feel more confident walking away now in the way I’ve chosen to love and open myself up to people around me, and my life choices, supported by all the women in this gorgeous book.