Tampa by Alissa Nutting
Celeste
seems to have a perfect life. Her husband is a police officer with an
inheritance that allows them to live more than comfortably. She is an extremely
attractive woman, who will begin her first teaching job in the fall. Everyone
thinks they are really happy. But all Celeste really wants is for the school
year to begin so she can be surrounded by fourteen-year-old boys and find that
special one that she can do with as she pleases sexually. Celeste is well aware
of the fact that she has to be careful, that no one will understand the way she
prefers young men right on the cusp of puberty and that while others may find
her husband attractive she simply sees him as a means to an end. Celeste has
been looking forward to this for so long and then she finds him, Jack.
Tampa is a complete mind fuck of a book.
And I mean that in a good way. This book isn’t going to be for everybody and
you will know very early on if this is a book that you can actually handle
reading. Celeste is a perverted sociopath obsessed with teenage boys, has a
very specific type, finds her prey, stalks him and then makes him hers. This
book is descriptive with regard to Celeste’s inner most thoughts which really
means that Nutting is really specific when describing all the things Celeste
wants to do and will do to the man(child) of her dreams.
I
actually found this book really enjoyable. I detested everything about Celeste
and the situation she was placing herself in but Nutting did an amazing job
creating this character. She was so well fleshed out and completely
unpredictable. It was genuinely the equivalent of watching a train derail: you
sit in abject horror but you can’t look away. Celeste was on the precipice of
derailing the entire book. I wish the ending could have been slightly more
satisfying but I understand why Nutting ended it the way she did. We’re
supposed to be emotional the entire book and that does not change with Celeste
current situation. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.
Fantastic review!
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