Innocents

by Cathy Coote

Book Overview

Written when Cathy Coote was nineteen, Innocents is a taut, wickedly clever descent into the anatomy of an obsession, the debut of a precociously assured and provocative young literary voice. Forcing someone vulnerable and naive into a sexual relationship to satisfy a twisted desire is perverted, even evil. But when the perpetrator is a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, is she culpable? And if the victim is her thirty-four-year-old teacher, shouldn't he...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802139272
• ISBN13: 9780802139276
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

An incredible experience

Her writing is beautiful- and it reminds me MUCH more of Kathryn Harrison's style than of Nabakov. The fact that so many people are underating her just proves they are paying too much attention to her age and can't get back into the mindset of a teenager. The people reading it saying it left them unfulfilled are probably just angry that the heroine of the story didn't get punished. The point is that the "Lolita" in this story is just as aware of her youthfulness as the her adults are- that's not very common. She is also intent on remaining ashamed. What ties her and her lover together appears to be their dark urges. She wasn't even a character in the first chapter except for the pictures. The whole point of the book is that the main character doesn't have an identity she can feel until she tries to engorge herself into somebody. I mean the girl even dreams of rescuing her older man from the people who have abused him!! "Then I'd gather you to me. I'd swallow you whole. I'd absorb you into my bloodstream, and you'd circle around inside me, endlessly." Coote writes. I think the authors choice to leave out the rest of the world and focus on the relationship, having our main character play less and less of a role in the "Real World" as time passes was a deliberate literary decision. She has panic of a dancer twirling themselves to death... or a drunk like Cage from the movie "Leaving Las Vegas" about to drink himself to his reckless end. This is a MUST READ.

amazing!

I made it through this gem in a matter of hours, sweating it out on the back deck because I was too interested in the book to actually get up and go inside. I was sucked in and held captive til the last few pages. I almost didn't want it to end!

The most eloquent, heart wrenching art I've ever experienced

Nothing more beautiful has ever entered my life. The narrarator while cruel and perverse in her manipulative ways makes you love her and even have sympathy for her. She's as evil as the antichrist and you cry for her for reasons you probably won't understand. Even after she manipulates and seduces a good (older) man, and turns him into a violent sadomassochist you still hope in the end for things to work out for her.

Deliciously dark and clever!

I have often wondered what goes through the mind of a pedophile. Having read Innocents, I have gotten a glimpse into the mind of the aforementioned person -- from a sixteen-year-old girl's point of view. The nameless young character describes her thirty-four-year-old schoolteacher's desire for her. He is drawn to her naivete and innocence -- what he doesn't know is that she's manipulating him. Thus, making this one of the most twisted psychological novels out there. The subject matter is deliciously dark and disturbing. The novel questions morality and innocence by making said notions seem abstract. This is one of the cleverest reads I have had in a long time.

Darkness with a message

Dark, disturbing, weird and funny. If you've ever been to Catholic school, you need to read this gripping, sexy story of seduction and power. Despite the graphically erotic writing, it has an intelligent message at its core, which is that the need to control can itself enslave - control freaks are prisoners of their nature even as they try to exert their influence over others.