Sophie Mackintosh

Atmospheric, evocative, and non-straightforward novel inspired by the "mass poisoning" that occurred in small French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit during the summer of 1951. No cause was ever discovered. In this telling it has something to do with the mysterious couple, an "ambassador" and his wife Violet, who arrive in town and fascinate everyone, most of all Elodie, wife of the local baker. Did this couple, bored with their sado-masochistic sexual games, manipulate and engineer the whole incident for their own amusement? Did the non-poisoned villagers exact revenge on them? Did Elodie commit murder? Who the hell knows? If this book had been longer I probably would not have finished it, but I kept at it hoping for clarity that never came. The writing is is very beautiful at times, but I did not care for the constant references to blood and decapitation, nor the strange shifts in point of view.… (more)

This book is truly wild.

I sometimes felt that the writing style got in the way or took up too much space, but I still enjoyed it. I have always agreed that poets make excellent fiction writers. Sometimes that has its pros and cons .

It’s definitely not feminist. The beliefs of this family is in no way remotely related to what feminism is. Even a misandrist wouldn’t agree with some of the stuff they think, at least in my opinion.

I felt a bit weird about the cutting scenes (ex. minor, conciliatory slices in my thigh) just because it felt too “pretty”. It portrayed self harm as some sort of stress reliever that wasn’t meant to be associated with mental illness. That was handled poorly and a bit insensitively.

I felt that the ending was cheap and confusing. Killing these men didn’t do much for me. We could’ve delved a bit deeper by getting off the damn island ya know? I also am not sure what the ending is getting at. They’re just walking around the island, trying to pass the “border”? What is the border and where does it lead to? Reading comprehension is not my strength, so if you DO know what the very end is doing, let me know. I am genuinely confused.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“There is a fluidity to his movements, despite his size, that tells me he has never had to justify his existence, has never had to fold himself into a hidden thing, and I wonder what that must be like, to know that your body is irreproachable.”

“If we were to spit at them, they would spit back harder. We expected that – we were prepared for it even. What we didn’t expect was their growing outrage that we even dared to have moisture in our mouths. Then outrage that we had mouths at all. They would have liked us all dead, I know that now.”

“I forgave her easily because the scream was proof of concern, of love, the same way she would have screamed had a viper been raising its head, fangs bared towards my outstretched hand.”… (more)