Innocents by Cathy Coote

 

DNF @ 8%

I don't know who thought "LOLITA-- but she was literally asking for it" was a niche that needed to be filled in the literary canon but here we are. Look, I'm pretty liberal with regard to what I read and I would consider myself pretty forgiving of unlikable antiheroines. I gave BOY PARTS five stars, and that book made me want to stick my head in a hole until my mom came to pick me up from the big bad scary place. I also loved MY DARK VANESSA, which featured a really uncomfortable relationship between an older man and a young girl who thought she wanted what she was getting into but really had no idea. Both books were transgressive and difficult to read and like, but I appreciated both how they chose to tell their stories and what they set out to accomplish.

But this. This is yuck. Apparently the author was a teenager when she wrote this and I was also a little edgelord when I was young, who thought that boundaries were things that were meant to be toppled and anyone who disagreed was one of those evil over-thirty folks who could not be trusted. But now I am one of those evil over-thirty folks and even though I still am distrustful of literary boundaries, I am honest enough to admit to mine.

1 out of 5 stars