What do you think?
Rate this book
The Moth Diaries
At an exclusive girls' boarding school, a sixteen-year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her obsession is her room-mate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their new and disturbing classmate. Ernessa is a mysterious presence with pale skin and hypnotic eyes. Around her swirl dark secrets and a series of ominous disasters. As fear spreads through the school, fantasy and reality mingle into a waking nightmare of gothic menace, fueled by the lusts and fears of adolescence.
And at the center of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?
And at the center of the diary is the question that haunts all who read it: Is Ernessa really a vampire? Or is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?
250 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
53 people are currently reading
7289 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Klein
17 books23 followersRachel Klein is an American novelist, translator and essayist.
She is the author of the 2002 novel The Moth Diaries.[1] Daughter of University of Pennsylvania economics professor Lawrence Klein and originally from Philadelphia, PA, Klein currently works and resides in Brooklyn, NY with her family. Her stories and translations have appeared in The Chicago Review and The Literary Review.
Source: Wikipedia
She is the author of the 2002 novel The Moth Diaries.[1] Daughter of University of Pennsylvania economics professor Lawrence Klein and originally from Philadelphia, PA, Klein currently works and resides in Brooklyn, NY with her family. Her stories and translations have appeared in The Chicago Review and The Literary Review.
Source: Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 394 reviews
November 2, 2021
Once I started this I was obsessed, just as much as the young girl who the story is about. She attends a girls' boarding school and is suffering from the death of her beloved father and the rejection of her best friend, Lucy. Lucy has changed and no longer wants to be around her. There is a new girl at school named Ernessa who has taken over Lucy's affection. The unnamed narrator starts to believe that Ernessa is a supernatural being who is bent on Lucy's destruction.
The young girl records in her diary, all the things that happen in this harrowing year at school, and all the things that seem to happen. As she plunges deeper into her psychotic hallucinations, you don't know what is real and what is only in her mind. Bad things start to happen. An animal and women and girls die. Is the evil all in her mind or is it real? You desperately want someone to pay attention to this sad, young girl, but they are oblivious.
The young girl records in her diary, all the things that happen in this harrowing year at school, and all the things that seem to happen. As she plunges deeper into her psychotic hallucinations, you don't know what is real and what is only in her mind. Bad things start to happen. An animal and women and girls die. Is the evil all in her mind or is it real? You desperately want someone to pay attention to this sad, young girl, but they are oblivious.
December 8, 2020
The Moth Diaries came into my life serendipitously. I saw someone mentioning it on Twitter - not even to me, just as part of a conversation that caught my attention (I wish I could remember who it was now, I should thank them) - and then, a couple of days later, I was in a secondhand bookshop and spotted a copy for £1. At that point, I wasn't sure it was the right kind of book for me, but the coincidence was too good to ignore. I am so glad I picked it up. This book was amazing and has immediately established itself as a new favourite.
As the title would suggest, it's presented in the form of a personal diary. An introduction from the narrator, written thirty years after the main events of the story, explains that its publication is the idea of her former psychiatrist, who believes the journal will be 'an invaluable addition to the literature on female adolescence'; all the names will be changed to protect the identities of those involved. At the time of writing her diary, the narrator is sixteen and a boarding student at what seems to be a prestigious and old-fashioned girls' school. She has for some time enjoyed a friendship with a classmate named Lucy; their bond is so strong that they have endeavoured to secure a shared suite, and at the very beginning of the book, the narrator looks forward to the year they will enjoy together. It's only a few days, however, before Lucy strikes up a new friendship with the enigmatic 'new girl' from across the hall, Ernessa. Tormented by jealousy, the narrator grows ever more suspicious of Ernessa, and - encouraged by an English course which focuses on novels of the supernatural - she becomes convinced the new arrival is, in fact, a vampire.
There is something truly magical about this book - it casts a spell. It is heavy with doom and dread, which is not to say it is dreary to read (far from it). It's so effectively gothic that I couldn't help but picture the school miles from civilisation and shrouded in mist, even though this is clearly not the case as the girls frequently travel to a neighbouring town. The atmosphere is suffocating: the boarders are pushed together, their lives are each other, they distance themselves from day students and are isolated from their families and (most of the time) from boys. Even in her meticulously detailed diary, the narrator is not always honest, casting doubt on her claims about Ernessa and Lucy, and making you wonder how much of her life is touched by fantasy. Are those occasional nightmarish experiences simply the product of an overactive imagination, fed by lurid stories? The characters' experiences illuminate the dark, strange part of this insular way of life, the flipside of the cheery image projected by most boarding school novels. But what The Moth Diaries does most effectively is to accurately recreate the sensations and emotions involved in being a teenage girl, a thing I think is very difficult and very, very rare. I have clear memories of a lot of the things I did, or that happened to me, when I was sixteen, not least because I kept diaries of my own, yet it's very rare for me to really and truly feel those memories in the context of the person I was then, with all the horrors and possibilities that time of my life entailed. I don't mean the specific experiences as much as the very specific atmospheres and attitudes of youth. This book, though, made me relive them.
Although this is a story about teenage girls, written from the point of view of a teenage girl, I am in two minds about whether it should be classed as young adult fiction. On one hand, it could certainly be read and appreciated by a teenager; on the other, I'm very, very glad I discovered and read it for the first time as an adult. If I'd read it as a teenager I think I would have been too close to it to understand it properly. My reaction (I imagine) would have been characterised by comparison and envy: I've never behaved like that with my friends; as if anybody would do that in real life; ugh, that's weird; come on, nobody seriously writes like that in their diary. The negative reviews I've come across seem to have mainly come from readers judging it in this way, reading it in the context of traditional YA. Reading it from an adult perspective and treating it as I would any other novel, I found it, well, sublime. I suspect that because the author has delved so deeply into her protagonist's teenage psyche, it needs to be read at an adult's arm's length to really make sense. (I find many YA books to be the opposite - the characters behave too much like adults and, because their actions are unrealistic, they work best when read by either their actual target audience or by adult readers who are able to inhabit that mindset with ease.)
There were only two things I didn't really like about the story. The first: the foreword and afterword by the adult version of the narrator, which serve only (as far as I can see) to frame the book as an adult novel rather than a YA one. Since the narrative is so powerful and effective on its own, the distinction doesn't matter, and this isn't necessary. The second: the involvement of Mr. Davies; to my mind, the story doesn't need any male characters at all, and would have been better without them. His involvement, minor though it is, slightly weakens it.
As far as I can tell, The Moth Diaries is Klein's only novel. I'm happy about that, it feels right - it's one of those books that stands on its own so well that it almost seems like it would be a shame if the author wrote any other fiction. (I'm aware there's also a film of it, which looks terrible and which I have no intention of seeing - the book is enough for me.) That the set-up is simple, the action sometimes mundane, is one of its strengths: it allows the mood and tone to shine through as the main strengths of the story. The Moth Diaries was published 12 years ago, and is mostly set in the mid-1970s (if one assumes the narrator's introduction was written in the 'present day'), but the narrative feels completely timeless, with the air of a classic. Perhaps that's the influence of all the classic literature the narrator reads and frequently references; in any case, it's a perfect match for the sombre flavour of the whole book.
Recommended if you enjoy books about vampires, boarding schools, and/or the intensity of friendships between adolescent girls. Recommended if you want to read a teen vampire novel that doesn't have anything to do with romance. Recommended if you want to read a teen vampire novel that is truly worth analysing, obsessing over and writing essays about. Recommended if you like modern fiction with a classic feel. Recommended if you want to read a book about sixteen-year-olds that will make you want to read Nietzsche, Proust and le Fanu, among others. Recommended if you like gothic fiction. Recommended if you like books.
As the title would suggest, it's presented in the form of a personal diary. An introduction from the narrator, written thirty years after the main events of the story, explains that its publication is the idea of her former psychiatrist, who believes the journal will be 'an invaluable addition to the literature on female adolescence'; all the names will be changed to protect the identities of those involved. At the time of writing her diary, the narrator is sixteen and a boarding student at what seems to be a prestigious and old-fashioned girls' school. She has for some time enjoyed a friendship with a classmate named Lucy; their bond is so strong that they have endeavoured to secure a shared suite, and at the very beginning of the book, the narrator looks forward to the year they will enjoy together. It's only a few days, however, before Lucy strikes up a new friendship with the enigmatic 'new girl' from across the hall, Ernessa. Tormented by jealousy, the narrator grows ever more suspicious of Ernessa, and - encouraged by an English course which focuses on novels of the supernatural - she becomes convinced the new arrival is, in fact, a vampire.
There is something truly magical about this book - it casts a spell. It is heavy with doom and dread, which is not to say it is dreary to read (far from it). It's so effectively gothic that I couldn't help but picture the school miles from civilisation and shrouded in mist, even though this is clearly not the case as the girls frequently travel to a neighbouring town. The atmosphere is suffocating: the boarders are pushed together, their lives are each other, they distance themselves from day students and are isolated from their families and (most of the time) from boys. Even in her meticulously detailed diary, the narrator is not always honest, casting doubt on her claims about Ernessa and Lucy, and making you wonder how much of her life is touched by fantasy. Are those occasional nightmarish experiences simply the product of an overactive imagination, fed by lurid stories? The characters' experiences illuminate the dark, strange part of this insular way of life, the flipside of the cheery image projected by most boarding school novels. But what The Moth Diaries does most effectively is to accurately recreate the sensations and emotions involved in being a teenage girl, a thing I think is very difficult and very, very rare. I have clear memories of a lot of the things I did, or that happened to me, when I was sixteen, not least because I kept diaries of my own, yet it's very rare for me to really and truly feel those memories in the context of the person I was then, with all the horrors and possibilities that time of my life entailed. I don't mean the specific experiences as much as the very specific atmospheres and attitudes of youth. This book, though, made me relive them.
Although this is a story about teenage girls, written from the point of view of a teenage girl, I am in two minds about whether it should be classed as young adult fiction. On one hand, it could certainly be read and appreciated by a teenager; on the other, I'm very, very glad I discovered and read it for the first time as an adult. If I'd read it as a teenager I think I would have been too close to it to understand it properly. My reaction (I imagine) would have been characterised by comparison and envy: I've never behaved like that with my friends; as if anybody would do that in real life; ugh, that's weird; come on, nobody seriously writes like that in their diary. The negative reviews I've come across seem to have mainly come from readers judging it in this way, reading it in the context of traditional YA. Reading it from an adult perspective and treating it as I would any other novel, I found it, well, sublime. I suspect that because the author has delved so deeply into her protagonist's teenage psyche, it needs to be read at an adult's arm's length to really make sense. (I find many YA books to be the opposite - the characters behave too much like adults and, because their actions are unrealistic, they work best when read by either their actual target audience or by adult readers who are able to inhabit that mindset with ease.)
There were only two things I didn't really like about the story. The first: the foreword and afterword by the adult version of the narrator, which serve only (as far as I can see) to frame the book as an adult novel rather than a YA one. Since the narrative is so powerful and effective on its own, the distinction doesn't matter, and this isn't necessary. The second: the involvement of Mr. Davies; to my mind, the story doesn't need any male characters at all, and would have been better without them. His involvement, minor though it is, slightly weakens it.
As far as I can tell, The Moth Diaries is Klein's only novel. I'm happy about that, it feels right - it's one of those books that stands on its own so well that it almost seems like it would be a shame if the author wrote any other fiction. (I'm aware there's also a film of it, which looks terrible and which I have no intention of seeing - the book is enough for me.) That the set-up is simple, the action sometimes mundane, is one of its strengths: it allows the mood and tone to shine through as the main strengths of the story. The Moth Diaries was published 12 years ago, and is mostly set in the mid-1970s (if one assumes the narrator's introduction was written in the 'present day'), but the narrative feels completely timeless, with the air of a classic. Perhaps that's the influence of all the classic literature the narrator reads and frequently references; in any case, it's a perfect match for the sombre flavour of the whole book.
Recommended if you enjoy books about vampires, boarding schools, and/or the intensity of friendships between adolescent girls. Recommended if you want to read a teen vampire novel that doesn't have anything to do with romance. Recommended if you want to read a teen vampire novel that is truly worth analysing, obsessing over and writing essays about. Recommended if you like modern fiction with a classic feel. Recommended if you want to read a book about sixteen-year-olds that will make you want to read Nietzsche, Proust and le Fanu, among others. Recommended if you like gothic fiction. Recommended if you like books.
April 12, 2016
A very dark, paranormal, contemporary that gave me the creeps and the heebie jeebies. It has all these weird elements that I found hard to reconcile and the ending to me is a bit odd. I honestly don't know how to use the ending to interpret the meaning of the story. But if you're looking for a very dark, creepy read, you're looking at the right book!^^
Want to read
October 21, 2020a retelling of Carmilla set within an all girls boarding school and featuring an unreliable narrator . . . be still, my heart
Read
November 17, 2010Being a typically huge fan of vampires, I really warmed to the idea of The Moth Diaries. I cannot even tell you how refreshing this book was, Klein has totally reinvented the myth that is the vampire and turned it into a race for survival that is triggered by the wonderful thing that is teenage anxiety. I loved how fantastically different The Moth Diaries was from other books about vampires. For one thing, the book isn't all 'Vampires! Argh! Bite me! Argh! Evil blood-sucking creatures! Argh!' (excuse my poor summary of the genre of books I am in love with really). Okay, maybe it was a little bit, but it not in that way exactly, plus it was intertwined into actual human life and it just felt so much more realistic.
The novel is told through the diary of a young teenage girl in a private school, who is unusually obsessed with her classmate (and best friend turned ex-best friend) Lucy, and Lucy's potential vampire roommate Ernessa.
I understood the narrator's paranoia. The more she thought about what the hell Ernessa could be, the more she was driving herself into the wrong direction. I don't believe she was crazy. But perhaps still flustered over the tragedy of her father's death. She was more thoughtful, intelligent than the other girls in the school.
At first I didn't know what to make of the book, until I let my mind linger on the events that happened. The story is left unfinished and we are left uncertain about whether there really is a vampire amongst the school or that the narrator is just umm, *cough*deranged*cough*. It is up to you to decide for yourself what is real and what is not. I loved how lots of parts were left to our own imagination.
To really understand the story, you need to read between the lines, because there is more to Klein's novel than just what meets the eye. Mysterious and thrilling, The Moth Diaries is a complex, atmospheric story that requires a lot of thought. For all its simplicity, subtlety and gothicness, reading The Moth Diaries will give you a real taste of indulgence - the brain stimulating kind that we all pretend we don't like. I think you should read it, really.
The novel is told through the diary of a young teenage girl in a private school, who is unusually obsessed with her classmate (and best friend turned ex-best friend) Lucy, and Lucy's potential vampire roommate Ernessa.
I understood the narrator's paranoia. The more she thought about what the hell Ernessa could be, the more she was driving herself into the wrong direction. I don't believe she was crazy. But perhaps still flustered over the tragedy of her father's death. She was more thoughtful, intelligent than the other girls in the school.
At first I didn't know what to make of the book, until I let my mind linger on the events that happened. The story is left unfinished and we are left uncertain about whether there really is a vampire amongst the school or that the narrator is just umm, *cough*deranged*cough*. It is up to you to decide for yourself what is real and what is not. I loved how lots of parts were left to our own imagination.
To really understand the story, you need to read between the lines, because there is more to Klein's novel than just what meets the eye. Mysterious and thrilling, The Moth Diaries is a complex, atmospheric story that requires a lot of thought. For all its simplicity, subtlety and gothicness, reading The Moth Diaries will give you a real taste of indulgence - the brain stimulating kind that we all pretend we don't like. I think you should read it, really.
February 6, 2012
I picked this up at a second-hand booksale for five dollars simply because of the title and the promise of a boarding school that may or may not be creepy and awesome.
I am really glad I did.
First off, the biggest thing about this novel is that it's one of those, "is she/is she not" things, i.e., it plays big on whether or not the narrator (a sixteen year old boarder, who's lonelier and lovelier than I think she gave herself credit for) is descending into a spiral of madness, or if the disjointed, often-unanswered version of reality she gives us is the real one.
Honestly, I feel like there is a certain answer to that, at the end, but it's ambiguous enough that if you wanted to believe in a different ending (she's crazy, Ernessa is another facet of herself, Ernessa is actually a vampire) then you'd have enough in the text to support that.
The whole thing just... flowed like liquid for me. Klein really did a beautiful job of drawing me into these girls' world, their secluded, lonely, lovely world. My version has the word "gothic" thrown on the back as a descriptor of it, and it really is - gothic in that heady, Victorian way, romantic and dark, making wading through it like running fingers through syrup.
That's another thing; the narrator is poetic, whether she tries or doesn't, and I've seemed to cotton onto that a bit (haha!), so if you don't like that in your reading than this book might not be for you.
It is beautiful, though. Take away the talk of vampires and mental health and what you're left with is a look at friendships, girls' friendships, how they work and how easily they can fall apart. That was the other really well done part about this book: everything those girls went through and especially how they all related to each other, or treated one another... it felt so real.
It's a terrible and amazing thing, being that age. This book brought a little bit of that back for me, and aside from the magic, I love it even more for that.
I am really glad I did.
First off, the biggest thing about this novel is that it's one of those, "is she/is she not" things, i.e., it plays big on whether or not the narrator (a sixteen year old boarder, who's lonelier and lovelier than I think she gave herself credit for) is descending into a spiral of madness, or if the disjointed, often-unanswered version of reality she gives us is the real one.
Honestly, I feel like there is a certain answer to that, at the end, but it's ambiguous enough that if you wanted to believe in a different ending (she's crazy, Ernessa is another facet of herself, Ernessa is actually a vampire) then you'd have enough in the text to support that.
The whole thing just... flowed like liquid for me. Klein really did a beautiful job of drawing me into these girls' world, their secluded, lonely, lovely world. My version has the word "gothic" thrown on the back as a descriptor of it, and it really is - gothic in that heady, Victorian way, romantic and dark, making wading through it like running fingers through syrup.
That's another thing; the narrator is poetic, whether she tries or doesn't, and I've seemed to cotton onto that a bit (haha!), so if you don't like that in your reading than this book might not be for you.
It is beautiful, though. Take away the talk of vampires and mental health and what you're left with is a look at friendships, girls' friendships, how they work and how easily they can fall apart. That was the other really well done part about this book: everything those girls went through and especially how they all related to each other, or treated one another... it felt so real.
It's a terrible and amazing thing, being that age. This book brought a little bit of that back for me, and aside from the magic, I love it even more for that.
May 27, 2023
Irrational fixation, ambiguous sexuality, and the inner working of a girls’ private school in the 1960s. Top it off with luscious prose, and throw in an antagonist who might be a vampire. You have an ingredient for something special.
Horrible movie adaptation though, even if Sarah Bolger was in it.
In honor of AURORA's album coming out today, I want to reread it.
Addendum: This is nothing but loving memory of a war I forgot to paint.
August 9, 2016
Probably the only thing you should know about The Moth Diaries is that when I sat down to write this review, I spent the first 30 minutes composing a nine part list of questions, subquestions, and subsubquestions about what the hell I just read.
I seriously have no idea. And I really really like that I have no idea.
A diverse mélange of genres—boarding school tale, coming of age story, vampire gothic (well, maybe…), psychological thriller—The Moth Diaries resists easy definition. What is this book? What is it even about? And most pressingly, what does it all mean?
Although this novel eschews certainties, I’ll venture to say that it’s about the tenuousness of teenage identity. As the 16 year-old unnamed narrator chronicles her junior year at boarding school, she constantly probes those common almost-adult questions: who am I, who do I want to be, who am I expected to be?
It’s also about jealousy. The hateful jealousy the narrator feels towards Ernessa, a new student who dazzles her peers with her deconstruction of Nietzsche and her apathy towards school rules, leads her to label Ernessa as a vampire. Whether or not Ernessa truly is a vampire—indeed whether or not Ernessa even actually exists—depends on your appraisal of the narrator’s deteriorating mental state as she grows more and more jealous. In many ways, Ernessa seems to be a facsimile of the narrator—both are intelligent Jewish girls with dead dads and accompanying outsider cachet—though Ernessa is the more content, confident facsimile. She is simply a better, truer version of the narrator, and this self-assuredness may just inspire the narrator to suffer a psychotic break and persecute Ernessa as an abomination, a supernatural other who sleeps in a coffin.
This jealousy is compounded by the microenvironment of the narrator’s boarding school. Most of the drama unrolls in a single dormitory hallway. And so the novel is about the destructiveness of isolated groups. A small social circle leads us to study others and ourselves too closely. No one can really like herself or other people when viewed so intimately. No one can contain jealousies in such a limited environment. The narrator’s delusions thus don’t seem delusional but reasonable. Perhaps anyone’s skin can adopt a pale, heliophobic sheen when being observed daily, for hours, at a distance of less than a few meters. It’s only normal.
The Moth Diaries is ambiguous, rewarding repeated close readings. Klein’s writing is exquisite. Ethereal yet harsh, it is the gospel of a girl, a faithful record of how she sees things to truly be. True or not, these are her words. The prose suffocates you with its terrible insularity. You are caught in the narrator’s nightmare. Whether the nightmare is real or self-created is unimportant, because you are caught in it.
I seriously have no idea. And I really really like that I have no idea.
A diverse mélange of genres—boarding school tale, coming of age story, vampire gothic (well, maybe…), psychological thriller—The Moth Diaries resists easy definition. What is this book? What is it even about? And most pressingly, what does it all mean?
Although this novel eschews certainties, I’ll venture to say that it’s about the tenuousness of teenage identity. As the 16 year-old unnamed narrator chronicles her junior year at boarding school, she constantly probes those common almost-adult questions: who am I, who do I want to be, who am I expected to be?
It’s also about jealousy. The hateful jealousy the narrator feels towards Ernessa, a new student who dazzles her peers with her deconstruction of Nietzsche and her apathy towards school rules, leads her to label Ernessa as a vampire. Whether or not Ernessa truly is a vampire—indeed whether or not Ernessa even actually exists—depends on your appraisal of the narrator’s deteriorating mental state as she grows more and more jealous. In many ways, Ernessa seems to be a facsimile of the narrator—both are intelligent Jewish girls with dead dads and accompanying outsider cachet—though Ernessa is the more content, confident facsimile. She is simply a better, truer version of the narrator, and this self-assuredness may just inspire the narrator to suffer a psychotic break and persecute Ernessa as an abomination, a supernatural other who sleeps in a coffin.
This jealousy is compounded by the microenvironment of the narrator’s boarding school. Most of the drama unrolls in a single dormitory hallway. And so the novel is about the destructiveness of isolated groups. A small social circle leads us to study others and ourselves too closely. No one can really like herself or other people when viewed so intimately. No one can contain jealousies in such a limited environment. The narrator’s delusions thus don’t seem delusional but reasonable. Perhaps anyone’s skin can adopt a pale, heliophobic sheen when being observed daily, for hours, at a distance of less than a few meters. It’s only normal.
The Moth Diaries is ambiguous, rewarding repeated close readings. Klein’s writing is exquisite. Ethereal yet harsh, it is the gospel of a girl, a faithful record of how she sees things to truly be. True or not, these are her words. The prose suffocates you with its terrible insularity. You are caught in the narrator’s nightmare. Whether the nightmare is real or self-created is unimportant, because you are caught in it.
October 21, 2017
5 / 5
Haunting, ethereal, beautiful.
Apologies in advance if this review is a little... much. It seems as if the lyrical writing style of this book has infected me, and no matter how many times I've attempted to write this, I can't help but fall back into it.
To me, this book was like a fever dream whereupon waking, you feel as if you've lost some essential knowledge of the universe that you learned as you slept. But instead of feeling a loss, you feel strangely fulfilled, like even though you don't remember what you had learned, somewhere deep in your soul the knowledge has left a lasting mark.
I'm not really sure if that makes any sense, but needless to say this book had an impact. The writing was so captivating and ominous, I truly felt completely transported somewhere far from myself for the entirety of my reading. It's very rare that I feel so fully captured by something, and I do think that to feel this way about a book is a deeply personal, nearly spiritual experience. (Unfortunately, that makes it very hard to review, because not everyone can or will feel the same way as I do about this book.)
I've already mentioned the writing, so I'll move on to the characters. Every character, from our nameless narrator, to Ernessa - our perhaps vampire, perhaps fever dream herself, felt like someone I knew. They felt so real to me (especially our narrator). I honestly felt as if I'd met these girls myself, as if I'd known them as deeply as I know the people that I grew up with. It's the type of knowledge where you feel simultaneously as if you could read their very soul, but also as if you don't truly know them at all.
I find myself at the end of this review, and hell, even at the end of this book in a sort of content state of confusion. Was Ernessa a vampire? A delusion? Was she simply a girl? Was our narrator growing madder with each passing day? Or did she see a truth that everyone else ignored? Is it the supernatural or our own minds that lead us down these darkened rabbit holes? I don't have any answers at all. I know absolutely nothing with any certainty, and I feel perfectly okay with it.
This book was an exploration of adolescence and the teenage psyche, that maddening time where nothing is too much and everything is not enough. That time that we adults find alien and incomprehensible, despite having been there ourselves. And while I don't think this book is for everyone, for me it was utterly perfect, eerie, and unforgettable.
Haunting, ethereal, beautiful.
Apologies in advance if this review is a little... much. It seems as if the lyrical writing style of this book has infected me, and no matter how many times I've attempted to write this, I can't help but fall back into it.
To me, this book was like a fever dream whereupon waking, you feel as if you've lost some essential knowledge of the universe that you learned as you slept. But instead of feeling a loss, you feel strangely fulfilled, like even though you don't remember what you had learned, somewhere deep in your soul the knowledge has left a lasting mark.
I'm not really sure if that makes any sense, but needless to say this book had an impact. The writing was so captivating and ominous, I truly felt completely transported somewhere far from myself for the entirety of my reading. It's very rare that I feel so fully captured by something, and I do think that to feel this way about a book is a deeply personal, nearly spiritual experience. (Unfortunately, that makes it very hard to review, because not everyone can or will feel the same way as I do about this book.)
I've already mentioned the writing, so I'll move on to the characters. Every character, from our nameless narrator, to Ernessa - our perhaps vampire, perhaps fever dream herself, felt like someone I knew. They felt so real to me (especially our narrator). I honestly felt as if I'd met these girls myself, as if I'd known them as deeply as I know the people that I grew up with. It's the type of knowledge where you feel simultaneously as if you could read their very soul, but also as if you don't truly know them at all.
I find myself at the end of this review, and hell, even at the end of this book in a sort of content state of confusion. Was Ernessa a vampire? A delusion? Was she simply a girl? Was our narrator growing madder with each passing day? Or did she see a truth that everyone else ignored? Is it the supernatural or our own minds that lead us down these darkened rabbit holes? I don't have any answers at all. I know absolutely nothing with any certainty, and I feel perfectly okay with it.
This book was an exploration of adolescence and the teenage psyche, that maddening time where nothing is too much and everything is not enough. That time that we adults find alien and incomprehensible, despite having been there ourselves. And while I don't think this book is for everyone, for me it was utterly perfect, eerie, and unforgettable.
August 31, 2021
This was a book I returned to again and again as a teenager, and when I reread it as an adult, I'm always surprised by how well the story and prose hold up. The diary of an unnamed narrator, during a year at a boarding school during the 1970s, the narrative is framed by a prologue and afterward written by her older self. The older self looks back on the diary and sees it as the work of an unhinged narcissist, but the reader, having read the diary, challenges that perspective. We never know if the narrator is psychotic or if her fellow student, Ernessa, really is a vampire, or if both things are true. I think this ambivalence is what makes the novel so engaging and so subtle: just at the narrator doesn't know who she can trust, or even if she can trust herself, the reader also picks up on the hints and clues but doesn't know if she has all the facts. It also gives the narrator a space rarely allowed to young women: a place for uncertainty and for anger and dread. I love sense the autonomy and complexity given to the narrator by the text, and the space the reader has to experience the chilling events as they unfold. This book has so many elements that I love: the hyper-intelligent narrator, obsessed with books, the space for the sexual and emotional longing of young women, as well as the exploration of the supernatural and vampires in the context of grief and trauma. What makes this book so special to me is its ambiguous relationship with perceived reality, and its questioning of how we can interpret our past selves and our own perspectives. It's also a beautiful and subtle portrayal of how it feels to be a young woman who is in thrall to the expectations of society around her, and of grief, betrayal and self-discovery. Every time I read it, I find it exciting, and discover new elements to the story.
Review from 2017:
This is one of those books that I reread and return to regularly. It's an amazing exploration of a young woman, and one that shaped my thinking for years after I first read it. The unnamed narrator is fiercely intelligent and isolated, as she struggles with her own deteriorating mental health and her certainty that her best friend is under the sway of a vampire. I love how Klein brings novels and myths about the vampire and supernatural within the story, and her narrative is rich in details about the literature that shapes the narrator's mind-set, as well as her relationship with the other young women. This book would not have universal appeal, but when approached in the right frame of mind, it's unforgettable.
Review from 2017:
This is one of those books that I reread and return to regularly. It's an amazing exploration of a young woman, and one that shaped my thinking for years after I first read it. The unnamed narrator is fiercely intelligent and isolated, as she struggles with her own deteriorating mental health and her certainty that her best friend is under the sway of a vampire. I love how Klein brings novels and myths about the vampire and supernatural within the story, and her narrative is rich in details about the literature that shapes the narrator's mind-set, as well as her relationship with the other young women. This book would not have universal appeal, but when approached in the right frame of mind, it's unforgettable.
February 14, 2015
At the the start of her junior year as a boarder at a small New England girls' school, the narrator buys a bound journal and begins writing with high hopes. She and her closest friends are all rooming on the same hallway, and she's sharing a suite with her very best friend, Lucy. But then Ernessa, a mysterious new girl, arrives and steals Lucy away as her own best friend. As Ernessa begins to seem stranger and stranger, an English class dedicated to the supernatural in literature gets the narrator wondering: Could Ernessa possibly be a vampire?
This is hands-down one of the most unusual books I've read. And I'm seriously not sure how to review it without major spoilers, but here goes.
The book opens with a prologue from the narrator thirty years later, so the reader knows she's been treated for psychological issues, but has come out all right -- she's married and has two daughters.
The narrator, who I'll call N -- I was two-thirds of the way through before I realized she is never named -- begins her diary in good spirits. She's crazy about Lucy, partly with a major girl-crush and partly because Lucy really made an effort to befriend N when she was a lonely newcomer the year before, entering the school mid-semester following her poet father's suicide. N truly believes that she and her floormates are destined for a wonderful year of studying and hanging out smoking in the "Playroom" (the story is set in 1971-72, but the only indicator of the year is repeated references to Cat Stevens. I had to look up "Moon Shadow"'s release date to figure the time out).
But then Ernessa -- a new girl whose father is also dead -- moves onto their hallway, and Lucy's fascination quickly shifts from N to Ernessa. N, already obsessed with Lucy's activities and whereabouts, begins to track Ernessa with the same minute detail. And what she notices is creepy. Ernessa never eats. Ernessa never appears in classes. Ernessa's room smells of decay. Ernessa talks about her childhood as if it were a long time ago. N's jealousy and resentment lead her to hate Ernessa with a deep intensity, and to spy on her ... except no one seems to actually occupy Ernessa's room.
Meanwhile, other disturbing things are happening on campus. A dog Ernessa hates is brutally killed. So is a gym teacher. A classmate falls to her death. Could Ernessa be behind these atrocities? When Lucy begins to waste away and doctors can't figure out what is wrong with her, N becomes convinced that Ernessa is a vampire, feeding from Lucy's energy.
Then things get even weirder, if that's even possible.
By the end of the story, it's impossible to tell what's real, and what's a product of N's madness and paranoia. Does Ernessa, who has so much in common with N, actually exist -- or not? If not, then what was the cause of Lucy's illness? Was everything else that happened just coincidence?
This is a horror novel that plays hardball with the reader's head. It's suspenseful, deeply creepy, taut, tense, and, by the end, outright frightening. It's left me a bit shaken, wondering how on earth anyone can tell the difference between psychosis and reality. The author presents N's madness so convincingly that the story becomes a total mind***k. It came from the YA section of my library system, but the way it's bookended with a prologue and an epilogue from N's adult self makes me think it's intended more as an adult book.
It's definitely not to everyone's tastes. But even though I'm finding it squirmily unsatisfying, at the same time, I think it was absolutely brilliant. If you want to read Carmilla as done by Barbara Vine, give this book a try.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2025
No one ever talks about Ernessa in front of me. Sometimes they even stop talking when I come into a room. (PG 185)
I didn't enjoy the story. The (No Name) narrator is a privileged teenage girl obsessed with her best friend Lucy. A new girl, Ernessa, comes to the boarding school and befriends Lucy much to the dismay of No Name. It drives her up the wall! Then No Name decides Ernessa must be a vampire. In the background are suicides and drug use, boarding school usual stuff. Except the reader doesn't know what is mental illness or reality. Also, No Name is obsessed with being a Jewess and even calls her teacher an anti-Semite, with no proof given to the reader. Maybe the teacher specifically didn't like her attitude? The author inserted this so much it became annoying until a character yells at No Name, No one gives a shit you are a Jew. You have a persecution complex. It was so effin annoying here I am talking about it.
I really thought I would like this because of the way it's written in diary entries but by the end we don't even know what is what. Was No Name imagining all the stuff happening or was it really happening?
I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience but a good story is still a good story.
I didn't enjoy the story. The (No Name) narrator is a privileged teenage girl obsessed with her best friend Lucy. A new girl, Ernessa, comes to the boarding school and befriends Lucy much to the dismay of No Name. It drives her up the wall! Then No Name decides Ernessa must be a vampire. In the background are suicides and drug use, boarding school usual stuff. Except the reader doesn't know what is mental illness or reality. Also, No Name is obsessed with being a Jewess and even calls her teacher an anti-Semite, with no proof given to the reader. Maybe the teacher specifically didn't like her attitude? The author inserted this so much it became annoying until a character yells at No Name, No one gives a shit you are a Jew. You have a persecution complex. It was so effin annoying here I am talking about it.
I really thought I would like this because of the way it's written in diary entries but by the end we don't even know what is what. Was No Name imagining all the stuff happening or was it really happening?
I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience but a good story is still a good story.
dropped
May 10, 2012
[ trailer ]
August 30, 2012
The Moth Diaries by Rachel Klein is a psychological horror novel for the older YA crowd that relies on slow building tension to paint a tale of obsession and paranoia. The Unnamed Narrator tells the story of her final year in a posh 1960’s all girls boarding school. A strange new girl, Ernessa, has joined the cast of boarders at the school and has begun to threaten our Narrators friendship/infatuation with her roommate Lucy. Rather than accept Lucy’s betrayal, the Narrator begins to imagine that Ernessa is monster leeching the life out of Lucy and causing strange accidents and illnesses at the school.
The Moth Diaries is a very slow read. Most of the action takes place between the lines rather than on the page. The diary format is frustrating at times. Characters waltz in and out of the entries without introduction and in many places, storytelling is blocked by laundry lists of homework assignments and tedious accounts of daily life. At times, the book also feels like an exercise in literary style writing. Sometimes it worked and I was spellbound; other times it fell flat and I felt like I was wasting my time.
The things I liked most about the book were the tone and the setting. I really felt like I was a part of a society of cloistered, faux intellectual school girls living in the kind of lush boarding school world that only exists in books and movies. The characters were given adequate personality despite minimal description.
But in general, the book was a mixed bag. It didn't quite meet my expectations. If you’re looking for something to challenge your mind and like untrustworthy narrators, your time may be better spent reading The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket).
The Moth Diaries is a very slow read. Most of the action takes place between the lines rather than on the page. The diary format is frustrating at times. Characters waltz in and out of the entries without introduction and in many places, storytelling is blocked by laundry lists of homework assignments and tedious accounts of daily life. At times, the book also feels like an exercise in literary style writing. Sometimes it worked and I was spellbound; other times it fell flat and I felt like I was wasting my time.
The things I liked most about the book were the tone and the setting. I really felt like I was a part of a society of cloistered, faux intellectual school girls living in the kind of lush boarding school world that only exists in books and movies. The characters were given adequate personality despite minimal description.
But in general, the book was a mixed bag. It didn't quite meet my expectations. If you’re looking for something to challenge your mind and like untrustworthy narrators, your time may be better spent reading The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket).
August 17, 2013
Third read:
It is just as amazing reading it again. I wish I could express myself more eloquently... It deserves more than I can say. If only there was no preface and afterward - especially the preface, too many preconceptions about the girl - it would be absolutely perfect. I wish I had someone to discuss it with, but at the same time I don't want to share it with my friends because I don't think they would appreciate it and that would spoil it.
There is so much atmosphere; it's all so bleak, so gothic, so isolating, so claustrophobic.
Second read:
This has been my favourite book for many years. I find the best way to read it is to skip the preface and read the journal portion first - it is much more mysterious that way and allows you to follow the life of this girl with no preconceptions.
It is just as amazing reading it again. I wish I could express myself more eloquently... It deserves more than I can say. If only there was no preface and afterward - especially the preface, too many preconceptions about the girl - it would be absolutely perfect. I wish I had someone to discuss it with, but at the same time I don't want to share it with my friends because I don't think they would appreciate it and that would spoil it.
There is so much atmosphere; it's all so bleak, so gothic, so isolating, so claustrophobic.
Second read:
This has been my favourite book for many years. I find the best way to read it is to skip the preface and read the journal portion first - it is much more mysterious that way and allows you to follow the life of this girl with no preconceptions.
March 14, 2012
I remain terribly impressed with this eerie tale, one where figuring out what really happens remains a perhaps insoluble mystery. The narrator clearly suffers a mental breakdown during the narrative, and we see that all too clearly in the pages of her diary. But does that mean her suspicions about Enessa were false? Looking back, how odd is it that a teenage girl had a "psychotic break" yet never had another? And what about those deaths?
Clearly inspired by Le Fanu's seminal CARMILLA, Rachel Klein's debut novel may earn the whining of those who say nothing happens. In other words, no car chases or gun fights or explosions. Just a friendship dissolving for no reason anyone understands. A psyche falling apart. A swarm of teenaged girls reacting to weird happenings none of them understand (and equally none are capable of handling).
It haunts me, this book.
Clearly inspired by Le Fanu's seminal CARMILLA, Rachel Klein's debut novel may earn the whining of those who say nothing happens. In other words, no car chases or gun fights or explosions. Just a friendship dissolving for no reason anyone understands. A psyche falling apart. A swarm of teenaged girls reacting to weird happenings none of them understand (and equally none are capable of handling).
It haunts me, this book.
April 26, 2018
A delicate bubble of adolescence and vampirism, perfectly capturing the neuroses and uncertain shadows of growing up away from home while recounting the unnamed heroine's cocktail of feelings for her school-friend and growing suspicions about the new girl across the corridor.
This isn't the YA novel its cover and premise suggest - Klein's writing is rather more reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, and The Moth Diaries has a lot of Hangsaman about it - although this is a far more gothic and haunted tale than Jackson's.
The foreword and afterword add very little - they put a prosaic spin on the book's events, and have none of its carefully-spun paranoia - but the central story is extraordinary, and sorely overlooked.
This isn't the YA novel its cover and premise suggest - Klein's writing is rather more reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, and The Moth Diaries has a lot of Hangsaman about it - although this is a far more gothic and haunted tale than Jackson's.
The foreword and afterword add very little - they put a prosaic spin on the book's events, and have none of its carefully-spun paranoia - but the central story is extraordinary, and sorely overlooked.
September 28, 2018
Creepy boarding school tales with possible vampires usually sounds like my thing so I´m not really sure what went wrong here that I didn't really enjoy it.
The story is told in a teenager's diary and tells a tale of growing up in a claustrophobic setting full of girls who fall in and out all the time. A new girl who never eats comes in and suddenly weird stuff starts happening. The thing is, our narrator can't be trusted. She's lost her father so it may just be her PTSD playing with her.
The idea and setting seems right but the story just didn't feel right to me. I was bored by most of the diary entries and overall found the narrator pathetic and not worth my time. I also didn't know if the author wants to focus on the becoming of age part and the vampire acts as a metaphor or if it was two separate ideas to spice things up but didn't work.
The story is told in a teenager's diary and tells a tale of growing up in a claustrophobic setting full of girls who fall in and out all the time. A new girl who never eats comes in and suddenly weird stuff starts happening. The thing is, our narrator can't be trusted. She's lost her father so it may just be her PTSD playing with her.
The idea and setting seems right but the story just didn't feel right to me. I was bored by most of the diary entries and overall found the narrator pathetic and not worth my time. I also didn't know if the author wants to focus on the becoming of age part and the vampire acts as a metaphor or if it was two separate ideas to spice things up but didn't work.
August 11, 2020
Summary: Grieving and lonely sixteen year old girl gets jealous of a mysterious new girl at her posh boarding school somewhere in America. She thinks she's stealing her best friend Lucy away. Is new girl Ernessa a vampire or is the girl narrator going crazy? Strings of murders signify some kind of supernatural presence...
Eh, this was an ok book. I'd been meaning to read it for a while, so I finally got round to it.
I appreciated the fact that the structure was composed of journal entries. It added a confessional element to this eerie Dracula/Carmilla inspired tale.
Unlike Harry Potter, TMD's boarding school is no Hogwarts. It's a place where girls suffer from eating disorders, suicide attempts, nervous breakdowns, you name it, it's there. Along with unsubstantiated gossip, teen dances, drug-taking and sexual experimentation. It doubles as both a coming of age tale about lost girls and a gothic vampire story going by the numerous literary allusions to other gothic works. The castle the girls live in is definitely a location where ghastly goings-on could happen!
The writing was a bit repetitive, but effective in conveying the intense schoolgirl boredom experienced by our nameless narrator. We're not really sure if the events she's describing are a figment of an overactive imagination, drug-infused dreams or real. It's up to the reader to decipher and decide on an interpretation. Personally, I think Ernessa is a vampire as there were too many murders and/or sudden deaths of people who had pissed her off in some way or another.
This reminded me a lot of Plath's The Bell Jar, as both are set in the 1960s featuring young heroines that slowly lose their mind. I think I enjoyed The Moth Diaries more though. There's a nice touch of irony which injects some much needed humour to the gloomy events in this gothic novel.
Thought the epilogue tied things up pretty well.
A 2004 movie is based on the book, but having watched the trailer, I'm not too eager in viewing it.
Eh, this was an ok book. I'd been meaning to read it for a while, so I finally got round to it.
I appreciated the fact that the structure was composed of journal entries. It added a confessional element to this eerie Dracula/Carmilla inspired tale.
Unlike Harry Potter, TMD's boarding school is no Hogwarts. It's a place where girls suffer from eating disorders, suicide attempts, nervous breakdowns, you name it, it's there. Along with unsubstantiated gossip, teen dances, drug-taking and sexual experimentation. It doubles as both a coming of age tale about lost girls and a gothic vampire story going by the numerous literary allusions to other gothic works. The castle the girls live in is definitely a location where ghastly goings-on could happen!
The writing was a bit repetitive, but effective in conveying the intense schoolgirl boredom experienced by our nameless narrator. We're not really sure if the events she's describing are a figment of an overactive imagination, drug-infused dreams or real. It's up to the reader to decipher and decide on an interpretation. Personally, I think Ernessa is a vampire as there were too many murders and/or sudden deaths of people who had pissed her off in some way or another.
This reminded me a lot of Plath's The Bell Jar, as both are set in the 1960s featuring young heroines that slowly lose their mind. I think I enjoyed The Moth Diaries more though. There's a nice touch of irony which injects some much needed humour to the gloomy events in this gothic novel.
Thought the epilogue tied things up pretty well.
A 2004 movie is based on the book, but having watched the trailer, I'm not too eager in viewing it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 14, 2012
Thoroughly enjoyed swimming around in Klein's rich, vivid prose. It's a book of obsession: with people, with death, with clues both real and imagined (with both blending into themselves, indistinguishable). The isolated, almost ethereal atmosphere of a boarding school, secluded, hushed, away from everybody else, makes the ideal foreign, unreal location for these series of creepy happenings and for such a deep, strangling, consuming thought to take hold. Everything is intense there: from the thoughts which stretch out and grasp every inescapable detail both mundane and chilling to the close-knitted (too close?) relationships the girls share, which might be disturbing if not for the convenient excuse of their boarding school - old, perhaps elite and therefore these things become a classical element, almost forgiveable but as the main character puts it in an almost languid manner, rehashing these experiences in generous detail, it all sounds rather unsurprising, 'I've heard it all before; girls that go too far'.
Klein's writing permeates the pages and soaks it with the vitality of a girl and the exuberant, sparkling drink of her experience. It entrances and it swallows.
Was a little disappointed when I kept my eyes peeled for further plot development with Mr Davis but found little else except that piece of startling detail.
Klein's writing permeates the pages and soaks it with the vitality of a girl and the exuberant, sparkling drink of her experience. It entrances and it swallows.
Was a little disappointed when I kept my eyes peeled for further plot development with Mr Davis but found little else except that piece of startling detail.
March 14, 2013
I found out about this book by chance and watched the movie version first. I was surprised by how much I liked it because, initially, I had thought I would be yet another paranormal romance/teen vampire story. Thankfully, it wasn't. This is a story of growing up, of struggling with adolescence and the ghosts of the past, of people so wrapped up in their pain that they cannot see the world around them. The writing was reminiscent of a young girl's and transported my back to my own adolescence. Familiar passages from familiar books turned the "Moth Diaries" into something I could connect with, almost as if I could remember those memories myself.
July 12, 2016
Po dlouhém a dlouhém uvažování nakonec nedám plných 5 hvězd, i když se k tomu jedna moje část stále přiklání.
Tahle knížka měla tu výhodu, že jsem čekala podle hodnocení něco "horšího", ale příjemně mě překvapila. A já ráda příjemná překvapení. :)
Sice si nejsem úplně jistá, jestli jsem pochopila konec - tak hodně zvláštní a zamotaný byl - ale způsob, kterým byla kniha napsaná.... Wow. Hustá atmosféra od začátku do konce. Nádech hrůzy a šílenství. Bylo to super a já jsem ráda, že jsem podlehla těm asi 18 kačkám, které kniha stála. :)
Tahle knížka měla tu výhodu, že jsem čekala podle hodnocení něco "horšího", ale příjemně mě překvapila. A já ráda příjemná překvapení. :)
Sice si nejsem úplně jistá, jestli jsem pochopila konec - tak hodně zvláštní a zamotaný byl - ale způsob, kterým byla kniha napsaná.... Wow. Hustá atmosféra od začátku do konce. Nádech hrůzy a šílenství. Bylo to super a já jsem ráda, že jsem podlehla těm asi 18 kačkám, které kniha stála. :)
November 25, 2014
I thought this would be an interesting fast read as it's written in diary format. However, it just did not capture my interest and I kept waiting for some plot twist or development which never seemed to really come. It was also a bit of a bizarre premise which didn't work for me. I skimmed the second half of the book, wondering if maybe there was some plot twist that was going to grab my attention but, alas, there was not.
April 25, 2018
I just couldn't get into this writing style. Very slow moving, too.
May 6, 2018
Is Ernessa really a vampire?
Is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?
Who knows? Who cares? Not me.....
Is the narrator trapped in her own fevered imagination?
Who knows? Who cares? Not me.....
September 6, 2021
3.5⭐
Una lettura difficile da inquadrare: bellissime le atmosfere della Villa, dimora delle numerose studentesse di un prestigioso college, e anche le vibes alla Dark Academia, rese alla perfezione. La scrittura non mi e dispiaciuta, anche se a tratti risultata un po' pretenziosa.
La storia sembra realizzarsi a metà tra il sogno e la veglia, portando il lettore a domandarsi cosa stia realmente accendendo e cosa sia invece frutto dell'immaginazione della protagonista, una ragazzina ossessionata dalla sua migliore amica Lucy, specialmente dopo l'arrivo di una nuova e misteriosa studentessa.
Un romanzo di formazione, scritto sotto forma di diario, con elementi paranormali e un approfondimento psicologico della protagonista ben realizzato.
Peccato che non abbia saputo emozionarmi più di tanto.
Comunque, una bella lettura.
Voto: 7+
Una lettura difficile da inquadrare: bellissime le atmosfere della Villa, dimora delle numerose studentesse di un prestigioso college, e anche le vibes alla Dark Academia, rese alla perfezione. La scrittura non mi e dispiaciuta, anche se a tratti risultata un po' pretenziosa.
La storia sembra realizzarsi a metà tra il sogno e la veglia, portando il lettore a domandarsi cosa stia realmente accendendo e cosa sia invece frutto dell'immaginazione della protagonista, una ragazzina ossessionata dalla sua migliore amica Lucy, specialmente dopo l'arrivo di una nuova e misteriosa studentessa.
Un romanzo di formazione, scritto sotto forma di diario, con elementi paranormali e un approfondimento psicologico della protagonista ben realizzato.
Peccato che non abbia saputo emozionarmi più di tanto.
Comunque, una bella lettura.
Voto: 7+
August 15, 2017
This really should be at the top of everyone's list for modern gothic horror or just quality vampire books in general. It leans heavily on the unreliable narrator aspect- leaving you to wonder, especially in the last 50 pages or so, if the narrator is crazy or really witnessing a dark supernatural force. But, let's be honest, Ernessa acted creepy as fuck regardless of if you're looking at it from a rational or irrational lens. In fact, if she wasn't a vampire, that makes her all the more strange and out of place for saying random, threatening, hinty, philosophical stuff and living a really unnatural lifestyle (hardly any sleep, food or socializing).
Outside of the effective horror atmosphere the book creates, the story accomplishes so much by capturing a halted, confused adolescence while remaining accessible to adults, covering themes of racism/outsider paranoia that was rampant during Vietnam (when the story is set), phobia of aging & death and playing in direct tribute to the classic lesbian vampire spectacles of the Hammer Horror films and gothic stories like Carmilla. It accomplishes so many themes without ever seeming preachy or stuffy.
Unfortunately, the Moth Diaries is more well known for the failed film adaptation, which while I haven't seen it, to my knowledge does not carry over much of the genius of the thematic messages in the original work. I could be completely out of left field, but in particular I think the author was possibly subtly commenting on ethnocentrism/nationalism and the previously mentioned outsider paranoia as she makes selective references to the Vietnam war time setting in the synopsis and afterword even though the story is largely isolated from this idea, except thematically and chose to link Ernessa and the narrator by way of them both being Jewish and treated as inferior for it. The narrator despite suffering ill treatment from the staff and some of students for her ethnicity, shows a special hypocrisy by judging Ernessa for her outsider traits that threaten her standards of right behavior. It seems to be a finger pointing at the general public's ability to judge the ethics and injustice of people when they are personally attacked without taking into account the common suffering of their neighbors, friends, or enemies they hurt. The narrator takes this special judgement, hatred and paranoia of the unknown to an extreme by demonizing Ernessa and literally seeing her as a monster.
Also there is a very vivid theme about the horrors of aging, lost time, grieving, and death. The girls mock and disrespect all of the grey, senior staff and the narrator dreads the thought of becoming unrecognizably old and matronly. The narrator also seems to be repellent to the idea of even healthy levels of maturity and adulthood like realizing her sexuality or having a romantic, mature relationship. She seems to want to hold onto her friendship with Lucy because she can safely project her unrealized, developing feelings of lust and attraction onto someone she considers nonthreatening, maternal, attractive and safe. Her jealously, repressed lust and loneliness is what feeds into her superficial claim to want to protect Lucy from Ernessa and dark forces. She can't seem to admit she is just becoming possessive and isn't ready to let go of one of few solid relationships in her life.
Outside of the effective horror atmosphere the book creates, the story accomplishes so much by capturing a halted, confused adolescence while remaining accessible to adults, covering themes of racism/outsider paranoia that was rampant during Vietnam (when the story is set), phobia of aging & death and playing in direct tribute to the classic lesbian vampire spectacles of the Hammer Horror films and gothic stories like Carmilla. It accomplishes so many themes without ever seeming preachy or stuffy.
Unfortunately, the Moth Diaries is more well known for the failed film adaptation, which while I haven't seen it, to my knowledge does not carry over much of the genius of the thematic messages in the original work. I could be completely out of left field, but in particular I think the author was possibly subtly commenting on ethnocentrism/nationalism and the previously mentioned outsider paranoia as she makes selective references to the Vietnam war time setting in the synopsis and afterword even though the story is largely isolated from this idea, except thematically and chose to link Ernessa and the narrator by way of them both being Jewish and treated as inferior for it. The narrator despite suffering ill treatment from the staff and some of students for her ethnicity, shows a special hypocrisy by judging Ernessa for her outsider traits that threaten her standards of right behavior. It seems to be a finger pointing at the general public's ability to judge the ethics and injustice of people when they are personally attacked without taking into account the common suffering of their neighbors, friends, or enemies they hurt. The narrator takes this special judgement, hatred and paranoia of the unknown to an extreme by demonizing Ernessa and literally seeing her as a monster.
Also there is a very vivid theme about the horrors of aging, lost time, grieving, and death. The girls mock and disrespect all of the grey, senior staff and the narrator dreads the thought of becoming unrecognizably old and matronly. The narrator also seems to be repellent to the idea of even healthy levels of maturity and adulthood like realizing her sexuality or having a romantic, mature relationship. She seems to want to hold onto her friendship with Lucy because she can safely project her unrealized, developing feelings of lust and attraction onto someone she considers nonthreatening, maternal, attractive and safe. Her jealously, repressed lust and loneliness is what feeds into her superficial claim to want to protect Lucy from Ernessa and dark forces. She can't seem to admit she is just becoming possessive and isn't ready to let go of one of few solid relationships in her life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2012
I had this one on my shelf for a long time, having bought it and never read it. And let me tell you, it's a strange read.
The nameless female narrator has found herself at boarding school for the past few years after the suicide of her father and mental breakdown of her mother. Slowly you realize (make that very slowly) that the story is set in the sixties, but I guess maybe I'm the slow one, since the boarding school allowed it's female students to indulge in a smoke break after lunch (good luck floating that now.)
Right away, I had a difficult time liking the narrator. Part of "the Moth Diaries" biggest plot points is that she is obsessed with her roommate, Lucy. But why?! For diary entry after entry we listen to her obsess over Lucy's whereabouts and behaviors, in a way that definitely speaks to the is she or isn't she insane piece, but is unpleasant to read. When Lucy begins to abandon the narrator in favor of the strange new boarder, Ernessa, who can blame her? Of course the narrator finds reasons to hate Ernessa right away, most of which indicate that Ernessa may be some type of supernatural creature, namely a vampire. She never eats at dinner, is often absent for class, her room is virtually empty and smells like "decay," and she appears and disappears in rooms. Even with these qualities, it's hard to fault Lucy for wanting to distance herself from her overprotective roommate. It isn't until other things, and then people, begin to die that the narrator believes something truly more sinister is going on with Ernessa, and her growing power over Lucy.
Klein has a knack for powerful language, and blends what may be the narrators psychotic episodes with true experiences in a way that had me re-reading them in order to try and understand. But isn't that the point? Is Ernessa really a vampire? Using the other girl's budding sexuality as a way to prey on them for their blood? Or is our already unreliable narrator quickly losing grip with reality?
Despite the these well written aspects, it's hard to stay connected to a challenging story when there's no real ally in your main character. The nameless young woman we're following is at no point very likable, especially when she wipes her own shit over Lucy's door in an attempt to dissuade any supernatural creatures, namely Ernessa, from entering the room. I have my own theories as to the book's conclusion, and you will certainly make yours. But this book read slowly, and overall, left a bad taste in my mouth. No pun intended.
The nameless female narrator has found herself at boarding school for the past few years after the suicide of her father and mental breakdown of her mother. Slowly you realize (make that very slowly) that the story is set in the sixties, but I guess maybe I'm the slow one, since the boarding school allowed it's female students to indulge in a smoke break after lunch (good luck floating that now.)
Right away, I had a difficult time liking the narrator. Part of "the Moth Diaries" biggest plot points is that she is obsessed with her roommate, Lucy. But why?! For diary entry after entry we listen to her obsess over Lucy's whereabouts and behaviors, in a way that definitely speaks to the is she or isn't she insane piece, but is unpleasant to read. When Lucy begins to abandon the narrator in favor of the strange new boarder, Ernessa, who can blame her? Of course the narrator finds reasons to hate Ernessa right away, most of which indicate that Ernessa may be some type of supernatural creature, namely a vampire. She never eats at dinner, is often absent for class, her room is virtually empty and smells like "decay," and she appears and disappears in rooms. Even with these qualities, it's hard to fault Lucy for wanting to distance herself from her overprotective roommate. It isn't until other things, and then people, begin to die that the narrator believes something truly more sinister is going on with Ernessa, and her growing power over Lucy.
Klein has a knack for powerful language, and blends what may be the narrators psychotic episodes with true experiences in a way that had me re-reading them in order to try and understand. But isn't that the point? Is Ernessa really a vampire? Using the other girl's budding sexuality as a way to prey on them for their blood? Or is our already unreliable narrator quickly losing grip with reality?
Despite the these well written aspects, it's hard to stay connected to a challenging story when there's no real ally in your main character. The nameless young woman we're following is at no point very likable, especially when she wipes her own shit over Lucy's door in an attempt to dissuade any supernatural creatures, namely Ernessa, from entering the room. I have my own theories as to the book's conclusion, and you will certainly make yours. But this book read slowly, and overall, left a bad taste in my mouth. No pun intended.
February 13, 2011
This book is a completely, and I mean completely subjective read. As for me, I loved, loved, loved every page.
The minutia of the main character’s life was so real and charming, told in a voice so authentic, that I careened through the entire novel in a little over a day. Every character feels real and alive, even through the medium of a diary, and I applaud Klein on that count.
There is nothing grandiose in the opening diary entry—it reads like one of my own school-time journals—and this kind of honesty is charming. The first clues we, as readers, get that this is going to be more than just an account of friendships, bitchiness, sex and dr
ugs, is this following line on page 14: “There is something strange about the new girl. Or else she’s totally out of it.”
One thing I will say is that the book is tragic in an epic sense. When you get so absorbed in the minute details of their world—you get drawn into what is happening, who said what to whom, who did what and when—it is impossible not to feel frustrated with what is going on around the diarist. And when, despite what she has been trying to say and do, the worst happens, it is heart-crushing.
The main character certainly has some screws loose—she does some pretty gross things—you cannot help but wonder about the reliability of our narrator. And the ending is also intentionally ambiguous, and I still haven’t completely decided—was she crazy to have thought what she did? Or was Ernessa really a vampire . . ?
I guess you guys will have to read it yourselves and tell me what you all think about it.
Review Source:http://dawnkurtagich.blogspot.com/201...
The minutia of the main character’s life was so real and charming, told in a voice so authentic, that I careened through the entire novel in a little over a day. Every character feels real and alive, even through the medium of a diary, and I applaud Klein on that count.
There is nothing grandiose in the opening diary entry—it reads like one of my own school-time journals—and this kind of honesty is charming. The first clues we, as readers, get that this is going to be more than just an account of friendships, bitchiness, sex and dr
ugs, is this following line on page 14: “There is something strange about the new girl. Or else she’s totally out of it.”
One thing I will say is that the book is tragic in an epic sense. When you get so absorbed in the minute details of their world—you get drawn into what is happening, who said what to whom, who did what and when—it is impossible not to feel frustrated with what is going on around the diarist. And when, despite what she has been trying to say and do, the worst happens, it is heart-crushing.
The main character certainly has some screws loose—she does some pretty gross things—you cannot help but wonder about the reliability of our narrator. And the ending is also intentionally ambiguous, and I still haven’t completely decided—was she crazy to have thought what she did? Or was Ernessa really a vampire . . ?
I guess you guys will have to read it yourselves and tell me what you all think about it.
Review Source:http://dawnkurtagich.blogspot.com/201...
December 27, 2013
Rebecca is eager to begin a new year at boarding school with her best friend as a roommate, but the strange student who moves in across the hall threatens to destroy everything. The Moth Diaries has been adapted into an atmospheric but sometimes unsuccessful film, which is how I discovered it; as it turns out, the film was a faithful adaptation but the story works better as a novel. What makes it succeed is its subjectivity: as a diarist, Rebecca is beautifully characterized--an erudite, bitterly selfish, sympathetic, and distinctly teenage young woman--and a consummate unreliable narrator; the war between her certainty and her strange, unsubstantiated experiences creates sense of unease which is foiled by the school's beguiling, isolated atmosphere. The Moth Diaries is romantic but unromanticized, with a littering of literary references, frequently unlikable narrator, and dreamlike atmosphere which overlays a school rendered in both enchanting and banal detail. I found it to be an unqualified success, and if the premise appeals then I recommend it enthusiastically.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 394 reviews