averyrhyan 's review for:

Tampa by Alissa Nutting

4.5

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In the similar vain of disgustingly vile protagonists, Tampa’s Celeste Price is a genderbent Patrick Bateman or Humbert Humbert of Nabokov’s Lolita. She is a depraved sociopath who revolves her entire life around her vanity and her sexual attraction to young teenage boys. I can only imagine the lower ratings for this novel is because of the fact that this book is extremely graphic in its erotic relationship with a minor that is (purposely) sickening to read. Books centering sexual violence, particularly involving children can be viewed as trauma for the sake of entertainment, but the plot pacing of this novel and Nutting’s weirdly beautiful prose shows the authors intentions in writing this book—Celeste is a repulsive character, but her selfish and careless actions also make her an object of satire, and we should hate her. The ending of this book adds to the nuanced conversations of gender dynamics in instances of sexual assault; cases in which there are female perpetrators of sexual assault against male victims aren’t treated with the same severity as the opposite, and being a young, attractive white woman also makes her the perfect defendable case, despite the heinous behavior she has done. I enjoyed this book, but it is one that needs frequent breaks for your sanity and is obviously not for readers who feel traumatized by graphic depictions of sexual violence. This book is a HORROR in every sense of the word; sometimes reading from the perspective of a psychopath villain is cathartic, but this book will not be enjoyed by general audiences.