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rachelkays 's review for:
Putney
by Sofka Zinovieff
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s very hard to review books with subject matter like this. Sometimes it feels like a critique of the story is really a critique on how the story’s victims handled their situations, and thats something I want to avoid, since this type of abuse is not my experience and I have no place to question how a victim handles herself.
First and foremost, this was really compelling and the prose was beautiful. The manipulation, grooming, and abuse were clear and there wasn’t any room to sympathize with the abuser. At the same time, it felt like a natural progression into how the victim fell in love and exactly why she did. All aspects of the abuse and grooming, including family dynamics, seemed incredibly well researched and it was easy to see how many young girls are targeted and forced into this situation. The abuse was definitely handled delicately and nothing was exploited for shock value or romanticized.
It was other aspects of the story that threw me off, specifically surrounding how the abuse effected Daphne’s adult life. We learn that she eventually gets into another abusive relationship, falls into multiple addictions, self harms, and develops an eating disorder. But all of this happens off screen, and it just mentioned as vague happenings of the past. Daphne is still brainwashed into her 50s that what happened wasn’t abuse, but eventually she comes to realize the truth. She speculates briefly that the abuse lead to the turmoil of her adult life, but none of it is really elaborated on or explained. I wish we could have seen more of how Boyd’s manipulation pushed her into these harmful behaviors and situations. I really think the story would have benefitted from several scenes of Daphne’s early twenties, when she has broken away from Boyd but its still fresh in her mind. The author was so good at getting into the mind of a groomed child and I wish we could have seen more of how this groomed child handles adulthood.
This was written in three different perspectives: Daphne, the abused child, Boyd, the pedophile, and Jane, Daphne’s childhood best friend. Daphne and Boyd’s parts were obviously needed, but for the first 75% of the book it felt like Jane’s perspective was an afterthought and written as a way of inserting grounding commentary between scenes of abuse- basically, it seemed like Jane was there to explicitly remind Daphne that what happened was abuse. It felt unneeded, like something her character could have done without needing her own dedicated chapters. Then in the last quarter of the novel, there was a -I don’t want to call it a plot twist but thats what it felt like- reveal regarding Jane that kind of felt thrown in there, imo. Like the author had realized that Jane hadn’t really been utilized much and needed more to her story.
So while I think this was a really haunting, moving story, there was some clunkiness to it that I feel like lessened the impact.
First and foremost, this was really compelling and the prose was beautiful. The manipulation, grooming, and abuse were clear and there wasn’t any room to sympathize with the abuser. At the same time, it felt like a natural progression into how the victim fell in love and exactly why she did. All aspects of the abuse and grooming, including family dynamics, seemed incredibly well researched and it was easy to see how many young girls are targeted and forced into this situation. The abuse was definitely handled delicately and nothing was exploited for shock value or romanticized.
It was other aspects of the story that threw me off, specifically surrounding how the abuse effected Daphne’s adult life. We learn that she eventually gets into another abusive relationship, falls into multiple addictions, self harms, and develops an eating disorder. But all of this happens off screen, and it just mentioned as vague happenings of the past. Daphne is still brainwashed into her 50s that what happened wasn’t abuse, but eventually she comes to realize the truth. She speculates briefly that the abuse lead to the turmoil of her adult life, but none of it is really elaborated on or explained. I wish we could have seen more of how Boyd’s manipulation pushed her into these harmful behaviors and situations. I really think the story would have benefitted from several scenes of Daphne’s early twenties, when she has broken away from Boyd but its still fresh in her mind. The author was so good at getting into the mind of a groomed child and I wish we could have seen more of how this groomed child handles adulthood.
This was written in three different perspectives: Daphne, the abused child, Boyd, the pedophile, and Jane, Daphne’s childhood best friend. Daphne and Boyd’s parts were obviously needed, but for the first 75% of the book it felt like Jane’s perspective was an afterthought and written as a way of inserting grounding commentary between scenes of abuse- basically, it seemed like Jane was there to explicitly remind Daphne that what happened was abuse. It felt unneeded, like something her character could have done without needing her own dedicated chapters. Then in the last quarter of the novel, there was a -I don’t want to call it a plot twist but thats what it felt like- reveal regarding Jane that kind of felt thrown in there, imo. Like the author had realized that Jane hadn’t really been utilized much and needed more to her story.
So while I think this was a really haunting, moving story, there was some clunkiness to it that I feel like lessened the impact.