My Absolute Darling

By Gabriel Tallent

Book Overview

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST
NBCC JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FINALIST
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S MOST NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2017
ONE OF NPR'S 'GREAT READS' OF 2017
A USA TODAY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN AMAZON.COM BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A BUSINESS INSIDER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

"Impossible to put down." --NPR

"A novel that readers will gulp down, gasping." --The Washington Post

"The word 'masterpiece' has been cheapened by too many blurbs, but My Absolute Darling absolutely is one." --Stephen King

A brilliant and immersive, all-consuming read about one fourteen-year-old girl's heart-stopping fight for her own soul.

Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At fourteen, she roams the woods along the northern California coast. The creeks, tide pools, and rocky islands are her haunts and her hiding grounds, and she is known to wander for miles. But while her physical world is expansive, her personal one is small and treacherous: Turtle has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father.

Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high-school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And for the first time, the larger world begins to come into focus: her life with Martin is neither safe nor sustainable. Motivated by her first experience with real friendship and a teenage crush, Turtle starts to imagine escape, using the very survival skills her father devoted himself to teaching her. What follows is a harrowing story of bravery and redemption. With Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage, the reader watches, heart in throat, as this teenage girl struggles to become her own hero--and in the process, becomes ours as well.

Shot through with striking language in a fierce natural setting, My Absolute Darling is an urgently told, profoundly moving read that marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735211183
• ISBN13: 9780735211186
• Release Date: June 2018
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Hard to read but definitely great

The first couple chapters are disturbing but you have to remember stuff like this happens daily. The main character is brave and great! Only thing I did not like is the descriptions of the forest chapters kinda dragged

This book is trash

After reading just 2 chapters I threw this book in the trash. The fowl language is horrible. Incest in the first couple of chapters. How can anyone an think this is entertaining? I do not recommend this book to anyone.

I did not enjoy this book

This book was recommended by a television personality that I admire. However, the book was full of extended detail about the environment and much discussion of different types of guns. I found it tedious and skimmed much of the book to get to the actual story. I would not recommend this one.