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A review by starness
Open Me by Lisa Locascio
3.0
A strange coming of age tale, a girls very intimate discovery of her body and her sexuality. All told in excruciating detail.
The story revolves around Roxana a young girl who’s intention is to travel to Paris with her best friend for a study abroad program but ends up in Denmark due to a logistical mix up and for some unknown reason quickly becomes involved with Søren her intended travel guide a man she barely knows and who Roxana nonchalantly succumbs to being enslaved as his domestic hostage, a man who also happens to have deep seated Xenophobic issues, a controlling loner who basically loses his starry eyed appeal quite abruptly. Her uncomfortabilty becomes stronger the more his irrational anger comes to the fore and she starts to fantasise about escaping...right into the arms of another man! A man with his own deep seated issues. This part of the story feels like it got weirder and weirder. The author bringing to light racism and cultural estrangement but it felt a little too staged for my liking.
Honest and daring but ultimately I felt manipulated into buying into the complicated love story, I had trouble connecting with the two male characters. Roxana at least felt real with her many complex issues of self doubt, her jealousies and inadequacies, her lack of assertiveness and naïveté, some of the things I would have liked to see better explored.
The story was meant to make you feel uncomfortable but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. What I first thought was a sexual awakening story took a strange detour that sadly derailed my enjoyment of the story. It was disturbingly fascinating but not flawlessly executed.
Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for my advanced review copy. Pub date 17/8/18
The story revolves around Roxana a young girl who’s intention is to travel to Paris with her best friend for a study abroad program but ends up in Denmark due to a logistical mix up and for some unknown reason quickly becomes involved with Søren her intended travel guide a man she barely knows and who Roxana nonchalantly succumbs to being enslaved as his domestic hostage, a man who also happens to have deep seated Xenophobic issues, a controlling loner who basically loses his starry eyed appeal quite abruptly. Her uncomfortabilty becomes stronger the more his irrational anger comes to the fore and she starts to fantasise about escaping...right into the arms of another man! A man with his own deep seated issues. This part of the story feels like it got weirder and weirder. The author bringing to light racism and cultural estrangement but it felt a little too staged for my liking.
Honest and daring but ultimately I felt manipulated into buying into the complicated love story, I had trouble connecting with the two male characters. Roxana at least felt real with her many complex issues of self doubt, her jealousies and inadequacies, her lack of assertiveness and naïveté, some of the things I would have liked to see better explored.
The story was meant to make you feel uncomfortable but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. What I first thought was a sexual awakening story took a strange detour that sadly derailed my enjoyment of the story. It was disturbingly fascinating but not flawlessly executed.
Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for my advanced review copy. Pub date 17/8/18