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Berlin Syndrome
2006, Berlin. The once-divided city still holds its share of secrets.
One afternoon, near the tourist trap of Checkpoint Charlie, Clare meets Andi. He's a native Berliner and English teacher; she's an architectural photographer who has taken leave from her job in Australia to travel through Eastern Europe. There is an instant attraction, and when Andi invites her to stay, Clare thinks she may finally have found somewhere to call home.
But as the days pass and the walls of Andi's apartment close in, Clare begins to wonder if it's really love that Andi is after … or something more sinister.
This closely observed and gripping psychological thriller shifts between Andi's and Clare's perspectives, revealing the power of obsession, the fluidity of truth, and the kaleidoscopic nature of human relationships. Berlin Syndrome is a startling debut from a talented new writer.
Watch the book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugyu4F...
One afternoon, near the tourist trap of Checkpoint Charlie, Clare meets Andi. He's a native Berliner and English teacher; she's an architectural photographer who has taken leave from her job in Australia to travel through Eastern Europe. There is an instant attraction, and when Andi invites her to stay, Clare thinks she may finally have found somewhere to call home.
But as the days pass and the walls of Andi's apartment close in, Clare begins to wonder if it's really love that Andi is after … or something more sinister.
This closely observed and gripping psychological thriller shifts between Andi's and Clare's perspectives, revealing the power of obsession, the fluidity of truth, and the kaleidoscopic nature of human relationships. Berlin Syndrome is a startling debut from a talented new writer.
Watch the book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugyu4F...
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2012
65 people are currently reading
2229 people want to read
About the author
Melanie Joosten
12 books62 followersMelanie Joosten is a writer who lives in Melbourne. Her first novel, Berlin Syndrome (2011) saw her named as a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist and awarded the Kathleen Mitchell Award for Young Writers. Berlin Syndrome is currently being turned into a film with a screenplay by Shaun Grant, to be directed by Cate Shortland.
Melanie holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours), a Master of Arts (Editing) and a Master of Social Work. She has had work published in Best Australian Stories 2014, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and Sleepers Almanac. She is a recipient of grants from the Australia Council and Arts Victoria and residencies from Writing Australia and Varuna.
Melanie holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours), a Master of Arts (Editing) and a Master of Social Work. She has had work published in Best Australian Stories 2014, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings and Sleepers Almanac. She is a recipient of grants from the Australia Council and Arts Victoria and residencies from Writing Australia and Varuna.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 123 reviews
July 16, 2019
Q: ‘Do you like strawberries?’
‘Yes.’ With one word she acquiesced to all that was to follow. (c)
Q: ‘It’s nice to come home and find you in my bed, Clare. It’s like a gift.’ (c)
A disturbingly stupid or stupidly disturbing or stupid and disturbing account of, well, a stupid and disturbing encounter. Encounter of the sort that damage lives, destinies, bodies and souls. Claustrophobic setting, creepy Andi, Clare in the grips of a full life-sized nightmare, all of these go to constitute a creepy and grippy read.
Of course, the plot and heroes actions make little sense, if any. There aren't many stupid actions they wouldn't do, if they get a chance to:
One-night stands with strangers at a foreign city? Sure. What could go wrong?
You wake up locked in a stranger's flat? Your reaction? None? You stay another 2 nights? Clever girl, is she now?
Q: 'The foot of the bed. Why was it hands but not foots? Feet but not hend? What the fuck was she going to do all day? ...
A deadbolt. Had he locked her in?
She felt slighted, wanted to kick something. She gave the door a half-hearted nudge with the toe of her shoe. It was one thing not to be able to get in. But not get out? How could he have forgotten she was here? How could he have locked her in? She kicked the door again, harder, and a scuff mark appeared like a rebuke. ...
How did he forget her long enough to lock the door? It was almost insulting. Annoyed at his oversight, she still smiled when she thought about how mortified he would be when he returned. Sipping her coffee, she turned the pages of the Klimt book. It was just a door, she reminded herself. A simple door, in a regular apartment. It was not Fort Knox. Where was Fort Knox? If Andi had a computer, she would Google it. It sounded American. It must be something to do with the Civil War. A short, strong American name. Square. Democratic. It was a quarter past one. Hours of confinement to go.' Something went wrong with editing here: 'hands' not 'hend'.
Ok, you are a captive. You fucked up, you are in damn deep trouble. Would one learn maybe a little something from it?
NO!!! Q:
What went wrong? When should she have made a different decision? When they met? When she accepted the first strawberry? Of course, but she knows that she would do that again. When she stood behind him in the bookstore, was that it? Did he think her so alone that she needed this? Or when she went home with him, when she drank, when she undressed, when they fucked? But all of these she would do again, every single one of them. (c) This is probably supposed to have been the onset of the Stockhold syndrome. Instead, it illustrated zero propensity to learn. Seriously? She would do it all again? Just how dim can she be? Then she writes a letter to her mom saying she wouldn't do 'anything as stupid again' and... of course she would do it all again to repeat this wonderful experience:
Q:
She spends her listless days wishing she knew where she went wrong but knowing that she would do it all again. (c)
The guy's also behaving like a prize halfwit. Holding a girl captive in your flat and being mad at her for being there and being a pest?
No prob.Q:
He is amazed by how easy it has been to complete each step. To lock the door. To not leave a key. To take the SIM card. Each of these things is just a tiny action, but each one allows him to breathe a little easier. ...
It’s ridiculous. And criminal. But what is the alternative? He cannot let her go. He just cannot. It’s going to be alright — he knows it is. ...
But he doesn’t plan on keeping her trapped forever; it’s just until she understands. ... Time and effort and things will come right. ...
This relationship is like nothing he has ever known.(c) Uh-huh. Very bright guy he isn't.
Keeping knives at home with your captive?
Surefire! Q:
Are knives dangerous? Surely to confiscate those would be going too far. (c)
Keeping pens at same place?
NO! Q:
And pens? Should he get rid of those? He fears what she might write down, what kind of memories she will create for herself if she keeps a record. He tiptoes around the apartment one night, gathering them together into a rubber-banded bouquet that he dumps in a bin on the way to school in the morning. Better safe than sorry. (c)
Are those MCs all damn idiotic? Frankly, I was so damn irritated with them. It was like they were competing in dimwittedness.
All the quagmire of thoughts shown jumping around Clare's head, it's borderline ADHD. Little rhyme or reason to it all. She's literally warming a room by placing around steaming cups of coffee, watching plants grow and enjoying the company of 'a record spinning in its final groove'.
Constant references to the Berlin wall and the USSR illustrate that the author's dabbling in propaganda fiction, trying to somehow match these 2 dumbasses stumbling upon each other with the 'Soviets'. Seriously, USSR or no USSR but these 2 are incredibly, irritatingly, fantastically, out-of-this world stupid.
The ending is a joke. So, this guy gets fed up with his captive and leaves her in a flat with open doors and... AND it seems likely that it took her a long time to notice that and get the freak out. Learned helplessness? Yes. A joke? Yes.
This is gonna be reworked into a film. (And I think I know why - propaganda fiction needs to be shown to everyone to make it like it was Stalin that did this mess.) I wonder if the film turns out better than a book. Maybe, if they have the cojones to cut out all the unrelated pretense. I doubt I will bother watching it, though, even for all its atmospherically glum qualities.
Some random ideas are intriguing:
Q:
In the living room, she whirls around, tries to catch the plant watching her. (c)
Q:
Each item of furniture is steeped in importance, heavy with meaning and signifying something — she is determined to find out exactly what. (c)
Q:
... she reaches out to touch his hair, conjuring up some of the absent weather for herself. (c)
Q:
I could end this, Clare. Anytime I want. You know that, don’t you?’
She nods. And she wishes that he would. (c)
Q:
His was a voice worth pausing for, his turn of phrase was endearing. (c)
Q:
They talked about places they had been and others they would like to go, and she wondered at the way his brain could work in two languages while hers felt weighted down by one. (c) Her brain does seem to have been really weighted down to get into that shit.
Q:
He was not really following her, he told himself, he was just curious to see where she was going. (c)
Q:
... she was from elsewhere — Australia. Where the people were laid back and had no worries. She even used that phrase. (c)
Q:
She told him that she had been watching his city all day; an architectural photographer, she saw the city in cubes and planes, shapes and shadows. (c)
Q:
‘Sometimes I like to just sit there and complicate the world.’ He had watched for her reaction. ...
‘Complicate? You mean contemplate … but it’s very funny.’
He had laughed with her. It was a good choice. He had almost gone with compensate. Consummate. Concentrate. Consecrate. Complicate had definitely been the best choice. (c)
Q:
She was tired of creating purpose for herself and ashamed at this tiredness. Could she not just enjoy this as a holiday? (c)
Q:
She was tired of the smoke and mirrors or, more accurately, the mirrors and Photoshop of architectural photography. The way the architects who employed her insisted the images be more than each building was, or ever could be. That the hero shot must show the structure thrusting into the city skyline, as though it was tearing a hole in the atmosphere, despite architecture in Australia only ever being deserving of the term ‘tasteful’. Wanting to see buildings that were designed with purpose, she mapped out a trip through the former Eastern Bloc. In each city and town she found these buildings, most in a state of neglect, that spoke of the utopian future that never arrived. Strictly places in which to live and to work, they were designed as an extension of a collective, rather than a personal, identity. Yet she was under no illusions about the brutal nature of communism and its socialist sisters... (c) Actually, communistic governments brought on a bit different architecture that the 'thrusting up' type. Anyway, what's this, propaganda fiction? The girl's a photographer, and bit dim one at that.
Q:
Curious to see how a society driven by an unrelenting search for the ideal could become so invalid, she had packed her studio and house into a rented storage space. Made an agreement with a gallery for an exhibition on concrete-block housing and Soviet architecture, and signed a contract with a publisher for a coffee-table book on the same. (c) And she went to Berlin to study that? Why not Moscow or any other countries that would be more appropriate? No, it's definitely propaganda fiction. Lame one.
Q:
If ever a day was set for premonitions, this one was it. It was the sort of clear, overwhelming morning where bright-eyed people could see forever, and it was then that she decided she would leave Melbourne and see what life was hiding for her over the horizon. (c)
Q:
She wished someone would take away her thoughts, wring them out and pass them back, clean, fresh and renewed. (c)
Q:
Clare is strangely removed from her body. Sometimes when he sees her crash her hip into the table or misjudge the distance between herself and the bed, he wonders whether she is aware of her body at all. (c)
Q:
She never could differentiate between her mind’s attraction and her body’s needs. (c)
Q:
‘I want you, Clare. Stay.’
‘But I want to be away.’...
‘Everywhere is away from somewhere else.’ (c)
Q:
... But what I want is to live in the moment. Don’t you think that would be amazing? To never be wondering what will happen next and whether it will be better than this?’ She passed a towel to him, took one for herself. ‘I wish I always wanted to be wherever I am.’ (c) An adoringly harebrained wish.
Q:
She was at the front door and reaching for the handle when she realised she did not have a key. Damn. She couldn’t go out; she couldn’t get back in. ...
She tried to open a window but could not. ... She wanted to be angry with Andi for not thinking of her need for a key. But she expected he felt as hung-over as she did, and he’d had to go to work. Poor thing. ...
She closed her eyes and imagined she was far away. (c)
Q:
Andi watches ribbons of rain flap against the window frame. (c)
Q:
‘I’m bored, Clare.’ He looks over to her. She is lying on her back, reading a book he gave her, her feet pressed up against the radiator.
‘Clare?’ He can hear the whine in his voice. He is jealous of her ability to get lost in a book. Whenever he buys her one, he feels like he is giving her permission to ignore him. ‘Clare, what can we do?’ (c) Attachment/abandonment issues?
Q:
His memories are all of school and the Young Pioneers. Of organised sports and camping. He spent so much time with his friends and classmates he was never lonely, but he mainly remembers activities that were supervised and always for the good of something other than himself.
‘Even then it never felt real,’ he says. ‘It was always mediated, as though even childhood had to be commandeered to the socialist cause.’ (c) Modern corporate trainings and workshops and coaching sessions aren't far behind that. Frankly. About as premeditated and annoying and cloying.
Q:
She always found herself so very aware of time — of its passing, of its residue, of its promise. It was one of the things that initially attracted her to photography, the way it managed to hold time still. There was a peacefulness about the final image that belied any urgency to capture the moment. When pressing the shutter button, she felt as though she was protecting her subjects from their future, allowing them to stay at their best. (c)
Q:
‘But what is wrong with the future, Clare?’ He did not look at her as he asked, gave her the space to answer. ‘Are you afraid of what might happen?’
‘Not afraid,’ she replied too quickly. He would think she was lying. She had never needed to be afraid, never been in any kind of danger. ‘But just so very aware of it.’
She tried to speak as Andi did, selecting each word carefully to isolate its meaning. ‘The future crowds out the present. If I knew the future would be no different from now, I would just enjoy it. But I never know, so I can’t ever stop wondering.’ (c)
Q:
‘It’s amazing, Andi! I can’t believe all of that is right here. I have to come back in the daytime with my camera.’ Her words ran on, tumbling out of her mouth in her excitement. ‘It’s like a dedication to all the fun that people are not having. Those little cars were so adorable! And the swans, they’re so forlorn.’ She paused, waited for him to tie his shoelace. ‘But there’s something kind of hopeful about it all, don’t you think?’ (c)
Q:
Splashing through the streets, Andi pointed out favourite places and endeavoured to make his neighbourhood her own, and briefly she dared to think that perhaps this was what life had in store for her. Under the influence of such unfettered happiness, she wondered why she had not believed in fate all along. Was it too sentimental to start now? As the rain pattered in fat drops, they slunk into a bar and, legs pressed up against each other’s, fingers entwined, they participated in their own private call and return deep into the night. (c)
Q:
‘Why buildings?’ ...
‘Because buildings can lie. People think that they don’t — and that photography doesn’t lie. But they both do. They manipulate perspective, influence memory. They hide things in shadows, draw your eye away from detail.’ ...
‘You can only be in one bit of a building at a time and a person’s eye can only focus on one thing at a time. I like playing on these presumptions. There’s so much going on out of the shot, but people refuse to think about that. They think photography is the whole, captured truth.’...
‘There are no people.’
‘Exactly!’ ... ‘Do you know how long I had to wait to photograph some of those places?’...
‘But why? People live here. They use these buildings every day. That is what makes them important. Otherwise they are just shells.’
‘But they’re not. Buildings make us do certain things. I wanted to cut out all the people so the viewer can’t humanise the buildings.’ ...
‘But don’t you worry that it’s not your story to tell?’ It was not her history. ‘You can exhibit your photos, put together your book, but it’s not your story, you were not there.’ (c)
Q:
‘Why don’t you have any tattoos?’ ...
‘It’s like cattle branding, isn’t it?’ ... ‘A way of identifying who owns what.’
‘I suppose it is nice to belong to something.’ ... ‘Isn’t it?’ (c)
Q:
In the end, he learned so much about the tattoos that he respected their meaning too much to get one. (c)
Q:
... her coffee uninviting and lukewarm. Who was this man, Luke Warm? A man of tepid personality, dull as dishwater? (c)
Q:
She watches the blood trickle down her thigh. Blood down a leg runs much slower than rain down a windowpane. She likes it when he is not here and she can see her body, blood sliding to escape. (c)
Q:
But as her excuses got more convoluted, the facts stubbornly refused to change. He had left her the wrong key. He had taken her SIM card. She was locked in an apartment, and nobody knew she was there. (c) She's really slow on the uptake, isn't she?
Q:
She had only herself to blame. (c) Definitely.
Q:
Nothing seems to mean anything; she cannot understand what it is all for.
In the bathroom everything is cold. The tube of toothpaste is clammy in her hand, the bar of soap appears dry, but when she takes it from its dish its bottom is soggy to touch. Surely the soap is useful; she could rub it against something, make something come loose, and take her leave. She returns it to its dish. In the bedroom her socks catch on the matting, and she opens the wardrobe, hoping for a Narnia escape. But the wardrobe holds only clothes; her imagination is not rich enough for this situation. ...
She thinks about drinking gin slings, she thinks of fun parks and bookstores. Why did she never think of this? Sun glints off the tower; arching an eyebrow, it is sceptical of her excuses. She curls into a ball on the couch, her toes digging into the cleft between the cushions. She is too scared to cry. (c) While this is supposed to be a description of going into shock, it's more of a description of how damn it all came to that. And it should be 'skeptical' not 'sceptical'.
Q:
She wishes she knew more about how things worked. Locks and combinations and radios. (c)
Q:
The longer he is away, the more surely her disbelief in the situation dissipates in the apartment’s close air; as Andi is reduced to vague memories, the good clouding the bad, she begins to wonder whether she has made the whole thing up. Yet when she fingers the bandage on her hand, her thoughts come to a teetering stop. (c) She comes off as more dissociated than Stockholmed.
Q:
There is a pub near her old house in Melbourne called The Perseverance. Right across the road from The Labor in Vain. (c)
Q:
Clare is not the person she thought she would be. She is not her real self; she has become some other being. (c)
Q:
His father’s life was amongst his books these days; he travelled in the manner he always had, through stories. (c)
Q:
Once she has decided that time no longer exists, she feels relieved. The sun will rise and set: this is true. (c)
Other ideas didn't really make sense or were too fanciful:
Q:
‘Many people think they are art.’ (c)
Q:
It was pride she felt at having slept with him, a feeling she would never admit to another. (c) Uh-huh. Interesting choice of things to be proud of.
Q:
She dreams that there are no more words left in the world. (c)
Q:
She wished there were more rules now. A rule that Andi had to be back at a definite time. A rule that if he went out he had to leave a key. Relationships established their rules quickly: the permissible and the unthinkable were soon separated, the latter quarantined until further notice. And when the rules were broken, the relationship was weakened. Snap, snap, snap, until it fell over. So maybe a relationship without rules was not so bad. No rules to break, no way to end. The logic was astounding. (c) For a tipsy gal, maybe.
Q:
What was it in German? Did it matter? Was ‘help’ universal? It should be. Like Control-Z. Undo. She wanted to go back a level to a time when flirting with an attractive stranger on a street corner was okay. Because it still felt like a game. Surely it was some kind of game? ... What the fuck had she gotten herself into? (c)
Q:
If only she could be sealed up in a bag and delivered without ceremony back into her own life. (c)
Q:
her charcoal snowman eyes (c)
Q:
Space and time are absolutes that one is not supposed to question, let alone neglect. She is sure her skewing of their existence will have consequences and she wants to be prepared. She supposes that her lost thoughts must be out there somewhere, being had by somebody else. (c)
‘Yes.’ With one word she acquiesced to all that was to follow. (c)
Q: ‘It’s nice to come home and find you in my bed, Clare. It’s like a gift.’ (c)
A disturbingly stupid or stupidly disturbing or stupid and disturbing account of, well, a stupid and disturbing encounter. Encounter of the sort that damage lives, destinies, bodies and souls. Claustrophobic setting, creepy Andi, Clare in the grips of a full life-sized nightmare, all of these go to constitute a creepy and grippy read.
Of course, the plot and heroes actions make little sense, if any. There aren't many stupid actions they wouldn't do, if they get a chance to:
One-night stands with strangers at a foreign city? Sure. What could go wrong?
You wake up locked in a stranger's flat? Your reaction? None? You stay another 2 nights? Clever girl, is she now?
Q: 'The foot of the bed. Why was it hands but not foots? Feet but not hend? What the fuck was she going to do all day? ...
A deadbolt. Had he locked her in?
She felt slighted, wanted to kick something. She gave the door a half-hearted nudge with the toe of her shoe. It was one thing not to be able to get in. But not get out? How could he have forgotten she was here? How could he have locked her in? She kicked the door again, harder, and a scuff mark appeared like a rebuke. ...
How did he forget her long enough to lock the door? It was almost insulting. Annoyed at his oversight, she still smiled when she thought about how mortified he would be when he returned. Sipping her coffee, she turned the pages of the Klimt book. It was just a door, she reminded herself. A simple door, in a regular apartment. It was not Fort Knox. Where was Fort Knox? If Andi had a computer, she would Google it. It sounded American. It must be something to do with the Civil War. A short, strong American name. Square. Democratic. It was a quarter past one. Hours of confinement to go.' Something went wrong with editing here: 'hands' not 'hend'.
Ok, you are a captive. You fucked up, you are in damn deep trouble. Would one learn maybe a little something from it?
NO!!! Q:
What went wrong? When should she have made a different decision? When they met? When she accepted the first strawberry? Of course, but she knows that she would do that again. When she stood behind him in the bookstore, was that it? Did he think her so alone that she needed this? Or when she went home with him, when she drank, when she undressed, when they fucked? But all of these she would do again, every single one of them. (c) This is probably supposed to have been the onset of the Stockhold syndrome. Instead, it illustrated zero propensity to learn. Seriously? She would do it all again? Just how dim can she be? Then she writes a letter to her mom saying she wouldn't do 'anything as stupid again' and... of course she would do it all again to repeat this wonderful experience:
Q:
She spends her listless days wishing she knew where she went wrong but knowing that she would do it all again. (c)
The guy's also behaving like a prize halfwit. Holding a girl captive in your flat and being mad at her for being there and being a pest?
No prob.Q:
He is amazed by how easy it has been to complete each step. To lock the door. To not leave a key. To take the SIM card. Each of these things is just a tiny action, but each one allows him to breathe a little easier. ...
It’s ridiculous. And criminal. But what is the alternative? He cannot let her go. He just cannot. It’s going to be alright — he knows it is. ...
But he doesn’t plan on keeping her trapped forever; it’s just until she understands. ... Time and effort and things will come right. ...
This relationship is like nothing he has ever known.(c) Uh-huh. Very bright guy he isn't.
Keeping knives at home with your captive?
Surefire! Q:
Are knives dangerous? Surely to confiscate those would be going too far. (c)
Keeping pens at same place?
NO! Q:
And pens? Should he get rid of those? He fears what she might write down, what kind of memories she will create for herself if she keeps a record. He tiptoes around the apartment one night, gathering them together into a rubber-banded bouquet that he dumps in a bin on the way to school in the morning. Better safe than sorry. (c)
Are those MCs all damn idiotic? Frankly, I was so damn irritated with them. It was like they were competing in dimwittedness.
All the quagmire of thoughts shown jumping around Clare's head, it's borderline ADHD. Little rhyme or reason to it all. She's literally warming a room by placing around steaming cups of coffee, watching plants grow and enjoying the company of 'a record spinning in its final groove'.
Constant references to the Berlin wall and the USSR illustrate that the author's dabbling in propaganda fiction, trying to somehow match these 2 dumbasses stumbling upon each other with the 'Soviets'. Seriously, USSR or no USSR but these 2 are incredibly, irritatingly, fantastically, out-of-this world stupid.
The ending is a joke. So, this guy gets fed up with his captive and leaves her in a flat with open doors and... AND it seems likely that it took her a long time to notice that and get the freak out. Learned helplessness? Yes. A joke? Yes.
This is gonna be reworked into a film. (And I think I know why - propaganda fiction needs to be shown to everyone to make it like it was Stalin that did this mess.) I wonder if the film turns out better than a book. Maybe, if they have the cojones to cut out all the unrelated pretense. I doubt I will bother watching it, though, even for all its atmospherically glum qualities.
Some random ideas are intriguing:
Q:
In the living room, she whirls around, tries to catch the plant watching her. (c)
Q:
Each item of furniture is steeped in importance, heavy with meaning and signifying something — she is determined to find out exactly what. (c)
Q:
... she reaches out to touch his hair, conjuring up some of the absent weather for herself. (c)
Q:
I could end this, Clare. Anytime I want. You know that, don’t you?’
She nods. And she wishes that he would. (c)
Q:
His was a voice worth pausing for, his turn of phrase was endearing. (c)
Q:
They talked about places they had been and others they would like to go, and she wondered at the way his brain could work in two languages while hers felt weighted down by one. (c) Her brain does seem to have been really weighted down to get into that shit.
Q:
He was not really following her, he told himself, he was just curious to see where she was going. (c)
Q:
... she was from elsewhere — Australia. Where the people were laid back and had no worries. She even used that phrase. (c)
Q:
She told him that she had been watching his city all day; an architectural photographer, she saw the city in cubes and planes, shapes and shadows. (c)
Q:
‘Sometimes I like to just sit there and complicate the world.’ He had watched for her reaction. ...
‘Complicate? You mean contemplate … but it’s very funny.’
He had laughed with her. It was a good choice. He had almost gone with compensate. Consummate. Concentrate. Consecrate. Complicate had definitely been the best choice. (c)
Q:
She was tired of creating purpose for herself and ashamed at this tiredness. Could she not just enjoy this as a holiday? (c)
Q:
She was tired of the smoke and mirrors or, more accurately, the mirrors and Photoshop of architectural photography. The way the architects who employed her insisted the images be more than each building was, or ever could be. That the hero shot must show the structure thrusting into the city skyline, as though it was tearing a hole in the atmosphere, despite architecture in Australia only ever being deserving of the term ‘tasteful’. Wanting to see buildings that were designed with purpose, she mapped out a trip through the former Eastern Bloc. In each city and town she found these buildings, most in a state of neglect, that spoke of the utopian future that never arrived. Strictly places in which to live and to work, they were designed as an extension of a collective, rather than a personal, identity. Yet she was under no illusions about the brutal nature of communism and its socialist sisters... (c) Actually, communistic governments brought on a bit different architecture that the 'thrusting up' type. Anyway, what's this, propaganda fiction? The girl's a photographer, and bit dim one at that.
Q:
Curious to see how a society driven by an unrelenting search for the ideal could become so invalid, she had packed her studio and house into a rented storage space. Made an agreement with a gallery for an exhibition on concrete-block housing and Soviet architecture, and signed a contract with a publisher for a coffee-table book on the same. (c) And she went to Berlin to study that? Why not Moscow or any other countries that would be more appropriate? No, it's definitely propaganda fiction. Lame one.
Q:
If ever a day was set for premonitions, this one was it. It was the sort of clear, overwhelming morning where bright-eyed people could see forever, and it was then that she decided she would leave Melbourne and see what life was hiding for her over the horizon. (c)
Q:
She wished someone would take away her thoughts, wring them out and pass them back, clean, fresh and renewed. (c)
Q:
Clare is strangely removed from her body. Sometimes when he sees her crash her hip into the table or misjudge the distance between herself and the bed, he wonders whether she is aware of her body at all. (c)
Q:
She never could differentiate between her mind’s attraction and her body’s needs. (c)
Q:
‘I want you, Clare. Stay.’
‘But I want to be away.’...
‘Everywhere is away from somewhere else.’ (c)
Q:
... But what I want is to live in the moment. Don’t you think that would be amazing? To never be wondering what will happen next and whether it will be better than this?’ She passed a towel to him, took one for herself. ‘I wish I always wanted to be wherever I am.’ (c) An adoringly harebrained wish.
Q:
She was at the front door and reaching for the handle when she realised she did not have a key. Damn. She couldn’t go out; she couldn’t get back in. ...
She tried to open a window but could not. ... She wanted to be angry with Andi for not thinking of her need for a key. But she expected he felt as hung-over as she did, and he’d had to go to work. Poor thing. ...
She closed her eyes and imagined she was far away. (c)
Q:
Andi watches ribbons of rain flap against the window frame. (c)
Q:
‘I’m bored, Clare.’ He looks over to her. She is lying on her back, reading a book he gave her, her feet pressed up against the radiator.
‘Clare?’ He can hear the whine in his voice. He is jealous of her ability to get lost in a book. Whenever he buys her one, he feels like he is giving her permission to ignore him. ‘Clare, what can we do?’ (c) Attachment/abandonment issues?
Q:
His memories are all of school and the Young Pioneers. Of organised sports and camping. He spent so much time with his friends and classmates he was never lonely, but he mainly remembers activities that were supervised and always for the good of something other than himself.
‘Even then it never felt real,’ he says. ‘It was always mediated, as though even childhood had to be commandeered to the socialist cause.’ (c) Modern corporate trainings and workshops and coaching sessions aren't far behind that. Frankly. About as premeditated and annoying and cloying.
Q:
She always found herself so very aware of time — of its passing, of its residue, of its promise. It was one of the things that initially attracted her to photography, the way it managed to hold time still. There was a peacefulness about the final image that belied any urgency to capture the moment. When pressing the shutter button, she felt as though she was protecting her subjects from their future, allowing them to stay at their best. (c)
Q:
‘But what is wrong with the future, Clare?’ He did not look at her as he asked, gave her the space to answer. ‘Are you afraid of what might happen?’
‘Not afraid,’ she replied too quickly. He would think she was lying. She had never needed to be afraid, never been in any kind of danger. ‘But just so very aware of it.’
She tried to speak as Andi did, selecting each word carefully to isolate its meaning. ‘The future crowds out the present. If I knew the future would be no different from now, I would just enjoy it. But I never know, so I can’t ever stop wondering.’ (c)
Q:
‘It’s amazing, Andi! I can’t believe all of that is right here. I have to come back in the daytime with my camera.’ Her words ran on, tumbling out of her mouth in her excitement. ‘It’s like a dedication to all the fun that people are not having. Those little cars were so adorable! And the swans, they’re so forlorn.’ She paused, waited for him to tie his shoelace. ‘But there’s something kind of hopeful about it all, don’t you think?’ (c)
Q:
Splashing through the streets, Andi pointed out favourite places and endeavoured to make his neighbourhood her own, and briefly she dared to think that perhaps this was what life had in store for her. Under the influence of such unfettered happiness, she wondered why she had not believed in fate all along. Was it too sentimental to start now? As the rain pattered in fat drops, they slunk into a bar and, legs pressed up against each other’s, fingers entwined, they participated in their own private call and return deep into the night. (c)
Q:
‘Why buildings?’ ...
‘Because buildings can lie. People think that they don’t — and that photography doesn’t lie. But they both do. They manipulate perspective, influence memory. They hide things in shadows, draw your eye away from detail.’ ...
‘You can only be in one bit of a building at a time and a person’s eye can only focus on one thing at a time. I like playing on these presumptions. There’s so much going on out of the shot, but people refuse to think about that. They think photography is the whole, captured truth.’...
‘There are no people.’
‘Exactly!’ ... ‘Do you know how long I had to wait to photograph some of those places?’...
‘But why? People live here. They use these buildings every day. That is what makes them important. Otherwise they are just shells.’
‘But they’re not. Buildings make us do certain things. I wanted to cut out all the people so the viewer can’t humanise the buildings.’ ...
‘But don’t you worry that it’s not your story to tell?’ It was not her history. ‘You can exhibit your photos, put together your book, but it’s not your story, you were not there.’ (c)
Q:
‘Why don’t you have any tattoos?’ ...
‘It’s like cattle branding, isn’t it?’ ... ‘A way of identifying who owns what.’
‘I suppose it is nice to belong to something.’ ... ‘Isn’t it?’ (c)
Q:
In the end, he learned so much about the tattoos that he respected their meaning too much to get one. (c)
Q:
... her coffee uninviting and lukewarm. Who was this man, Luke Warm? A man of tepid personality, dull as dishwater? (c)
Q:
She watches the blood trickle down her thigh. Blood down a leg runs much slower than rain down a windowpane. She likes it when he is not here and she can see her body, blood sliding to escape. (c)
Q:
But as her excuses got more convoluted, the facts stubbornly refused to change. He had left her the wrong key. He had taken her SIM card. She was locked in an apartment, and nobody knew she was there. (c) She's really slow on the uptake, isn't she?
Q:
She had only herself to blame. (c) Definitely.
Q:
Nothing seems to mean anything; she cannot understand what it is all for.
In the bathroom everything is cold. The tube of toothpaste is clammy in her hand, the bar of soap appears dry, but when she takes it from its dish its bottom is soggy to touch. Surely the soap is useful; she could rub it against something, make something come loose, and take her leave. She returns it to its dish. In the bedroom her socks catch on the matting, and she opens the wardrobe, hoping for a Narnia escape. But the wardrobe holds only clothes; her imagination is not rich enough for this situation. ...
She thinks about drinking gin slings, she thinks of fun parks and bookstores. Why did she never think of this? Sun glints off the tower; arching an eyebrow, it is sceptical of her excuses. She curls into a ball on the couch, her toes digging into the cleft between the cushions. She is too scared to cry. (c) While this is supposed to be a description of going into shock, it's more of a description of how damn it all came to that. And it should be 'skeptical' not 'sceptical'.
Q:
She wishes she knew more about how things worked. Locks and combinations and radios. (c)
Q:
The longer he is away, the more surely her disbelief in the situation dissipates in the apartment’s close air; as Andi is reduced to vague memories, the good clouding the bad, she begins to wonder whether she has made the whole thing up. Yet when she fingers the bandage on her hand, her thoughts come to a teetering stop. (c) She comes off as more dissociated than Stockholmed.
Q:
There is a pub near her old house in Melbourne called The Perseverance. Right across the road from The Labor in Vain. (c)
Q:
Clare is not the person she thought she would be. She is not her real self; she has become some other being. (c)
Q:
His father’s life was amongst his books these days; he travelled in the manner he always had, through stories. (c)
Q:
Once she has decided that time no longer exists, she feels relieved. The sun will rise and set: this is true. (c)
Other ideas didn't really make sense or were too fanciful:
Q:
‘Many people think they are art.’ (c)
Q:
It was pride she felt at having slept with him, a feeling she would never admit to another. (c) Uh-huh. Interesting choice of things to be proud of.
Q:
She dreams that there are no more words left in the world. (c)
Q:
She wished there were more rules now. A rule that Andi had to be back at a definite time. A rule that if he went out he had to leave a key. Relationships established their rules quickly: the permissible and the unthinkable were soon separated, the latter quarantined until further notice. And when the rules were broken, the relationship was weakened. Snap, snap, snap, until it fell over. So maybe a relationship without rules was not so bad. No rules to break, no way to end. The logic was astounding. (c) For a tipsy gal, maybe.
Q:
What was it in German? Did it matter? Was ‘help’ universal? It should be. Like Control-Z. Undo. She wanted to go back a level to a time when flirting with an attractive stranger on a street corner was okay. Because it still felt like a game. Surely it was some kind of game? ... What the fuck had she gotten herself into? (c)
Q:
If only she could be sealed up in a bag and delivered without ceremony back into her own life. (c)
Q:
her charcoal snowman eyes (c)
Q:
Space and time are absolutes that one is not supposed to question, let alone neglect. She is sure her skewing of their existence will have consequences and she wants to be prepared. She supposes that her lost thoughts must be out there somewhere, being had by somebody else. (c)
June 10, 2017
Video review will be up Wednesday!
September 23, 2017
He was not really following her, he told himself, he was just curious to see where she was going.
I discovered this novel because of its movie adaptation, which came out earlier this year. I decided to read the novel before watching the film, and both turned out to be quite different from one another - more on it later.
Berlin Syndrome is the debut novel of Melanie Joosten, an Australian novelist and an amateur backpacker who undertook a trip to Europe by herself, and her experience of the German capital inspired her to write this book. Having witnessed the fall of the Wall on television as a child she was eager to see how people lived in the city years after it fell. She found a bustling place which seemed to be at the heart of history in the making, where people were eager to accomplish everything and where the wall and its forced separation were just a monument to a bygone, no longer all-defining. However, for her it still provoked haunting questions: "What was it like to live with one’s freedom so curtailed? To not be able to leave (and return) at will, not to mention all of the other restrictions imposed on a person’s life?" She answers her own question, stating that " For many people it was a life of frustration, constantly coming up against the authorities with dire consequences. For others it was a changed life, but a life all the same. Adapted to circumstances, yet with all the joys that are found anywhere: births, celebrations – and love."
Can you adapt to an impossible situation to the point where you actually begin to consider it to be normal? This is the question faced by Clare, an Australian photographer who travels to Berlin on her trip through the countries of the former eastern Bloc. There she meets Andi, an English teacher and native inhabitant of the city. The two develop a mutual interest in one another, and after several meetings Clare agrees to go with Andi to his apartment. This decision will prove to be crucial, as she'll soon discover that he doesn't want her to leave; and that he'll do anything to make her stay.
The novel is narrated alternatingly by both characters, similar to Gone Girl, and provides interesting portrait of them both. Although Clare finds herself trapped by Andi, she begins to understand the reasoning behind his decision: "who can argue with being loved,", she asks, realizing that no one before has loved her so much as to be willing to literally not let her go. Although she is horrified by what is happening to her, a part of her realizes that she craves the intensity of the feelings that he has for her. She is not a typical damsel in distress; although she cannot agree with what Andi is doing to her, at least a part of her genuinely does not want to leave him.
Andi, on the other hand, is not a stereotypical abusive kidnapper as often encountered in fiction and real life. When we see the world through his eyes, we want to sympathize with him: he strikes us as someone who is incredibly alone, and full of sadness. Andi is as much a prisoner to his own history as Clare is a prisoner to his apartment. His mother has left the family and escaped to the West when he was still a young child, and he hasn't - or even wanted to have -any relations with her since; his relations with his father are cold and impersonal, as if he was only having them because of familial obligations. Andi is fully aware that what he is doing to Clare is very wrong, but he can't stop - his loneliness is so incredible that he is terrified of being alone, without her. He knows that she is not his to keep, but he cannot bring himself to release her.
Although what he does to Clare is utterly despicable, we cannot help but see Andi as a tragic character: it is obvious that he pays great attention to Clare and genuinely cares about her, but his fear of her leaving him makes it unable to let her be free and get close to him on her own free volition. His deep fear of losing her stops him from giving her the ability to leave, which in return paralyzes her and makes it unable for her to get close to him. I think that Clare understands this too, and is sympathetic to him at least on some level; we can easily imagine her trying to overpower or trick him to escape from his apartment, but she genuinely seems unable to do that, to harm him. This interplay between Clare and Andi is really well done, and keeps the reader turning the pages all the way to the very end.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the book was adapted into a film starring Teresa Palmer and Max Riemelt as Clare and Andi. The film differs significantly from the book in that it is much darker, and the character of Andi is much more malicious and cruel than he is in the book. Whereas in the book readers can find it in themselves to at least try to understand Andi, the film's portrayal of the character - played admirably by Max Riemelt - is cold, distant and disturbing, leaving no room for sympathy of any kind. The movie is definitely worth watching, and the novel is definitely worth reading - but I would advise to read it first before watching the film.
I discovered this novel because of its movie adaptation, which came out earlier this year. I decided to read the novel before watching the film, and both turned out to be quite different from one another - more on it later.
Berlin Syndrome is the debut novel of Melanie Joosten, an Australian novelist and an amateur backpacker who undertook a trip to Europe by herself, and her experience of the German capital inspired her to write this book. Having witnessed the fall of the Wall on television as a child she was eager to see how people lived in the city years after it fell. She found a bustling place which seemed to be at the heart of history in the making, where people were eager to accomplish everything and where the wall and its forced separation were just a monument to a bygone, no longer all-defining. However, for her it still provoked haunting questions: "What was it like to live with one’s freedom so curtailed? To not be able to leave (and return) at will, not to mention all of the other restrictions imposed on a person’s life?" She answers her own question, stating that " For many people it was a life of frustration, constantly coming up against the authorities with dire consequences. For others it was a changed life, but a life all the same. Adapted to circumstances, yet with all the joys that are found anywhere: births, celebrations – and love."
Can you adapt to an impossible situation to the point where you actually begin to consider it to be normal? This is the question faced by Clare, an Australian photographer who travels to Berlin on her trip through the countries of the former eastern Bloc. There she meets Andi, an English teacher and native inhabitant of the city. The two develop a mutual interest in one another, and after several meetings Clare agrees to go with Andi to his apartment. This decision will prove to be crucial, as she'll soon discover that he doesn't want her to leave; and that he'll do anything to make her stay.
The novel is narrated alternatingly by both characters, similar to Gone Girl, and provides interesting portrait of them both. Although Clare finds herself trapped by Andi, she begins to understand the reasoning behind his decision: "who can argue with being loved,", she asks, realizing that no one before has loved her so much as to be willing to literally not let her go. Although she is horrified by what is happening to her, a part of her realizes that she craves the intensity of the feelings that he has for her. She is not a typical damsel in distress; although she cannot agree with what Andi is doing to her, at least a part of her genuinely does not want to leave him.
Andi, on the other hand, is not a stereotypical abusive kidnapper as often encountered in fiction and real life. When we see the world through his eyes, we want to sympathize with him: he strikes us as someone who is incredibly alone, and full of sadness. Andi is as much a prisoner to his own history as Clare is a prisoner to his apartment. His mother has left the family and escaped to the West when he was still a young child, and he hasn't - or even wanted to have -any relations with her since; his relations with his father are cold and impersonal, as if he was only having them because of familial obligations. Andi is fully aware that what he is doing to Clare is very wrong, but he can't stop - his loneliness is so incredible that he is terrified of being alone, without her. He knows that she is not his to keep, but he cannot bring himself to release her.
Although what he does to Clare is utterly despicable, we cannot help but see Andi as a tragic character: it is obvious that he pays great attention to Clare and genuinely cares about her, but his fear of her leaving him makes it unable to let her be free and get close to him on her own free volition. His deep fear of losing her stops him from giving her the ability to leave, which in return paralyzes her and makes it unable for her to get close to him. I think that Clare understands this too, and is sympathetic to him at least on some level; we can easily imagine her trying to overpower or trick him to escape from his apartment, but she genuinely seems unable to do that, to harm him. This interplay between Clare and Andi is really well done, and keeps the reader turning the pages all the way to the very end.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the book was adapted into a film starring Teresa Palmer and Max Riemelt as Clare and Andi. The film differs significantly from the book in that it is much darker, and the character of Andi is much more malicious and cruel than he is in the book. Whereas in the book readers can find it in themselves to at least try to understand Andi, the film's portrayal of the character - played admirably by Max Riemelt - is cold, distant and disturbing, leaving no room for sympathy of any kind. The movie is definitely worth watching, and the novel is definitely worth reading - but I would advise to read it first before watching the film.
June 19, 2019
تعریفشو زیاد شنیده بودم
خیلی هیجانی
نمی شه گفت ترسناک اما ژانرش ترس و هیجان و راز آلود
اسیر شدن یه عکاس خبری که به نوعی توریست توسط مردی که معلمه و از لحاظ روانی مشکل داره اولش عاشقانه و بعد تبدیل به وحشت می شه ...
من معمولا اینجور داستانا رو دوست دارم
فیلمشم خوب بود
خیلی هیجانی
نمی شه گفت ترسناک اما ژانرش ترس و هیجان و راز آلود
اسیر شدن یه عکاس خبری که به نوعی توریست توسط مردی که معلمه و از لحاظ روانی مشکل داره اولش عاشقانه و بعد تبدیل به وحشت می شه ...
من معمولا اینجور داستانا رو دوست دارم
فیلمشم خوب بود
March 22, 2022
3.5 Stars
I have always been fascinated by kidnapping stories so I was naturally drawn to this one. The story is slower paced with the situation not actually transpiring until the 40% mark. I liked this one, but my enjoyment was partially spoiled by my comparisons to the movie adaptation which I watched first. The villain in the movie is portrayed as a perpetrator which made for a terrifying experience. However the kidnapper in the original book is written to be much more sympathetic and naive. I preferred the movie which showcased the horrors of the situation with more violence. The book instead is more a character study of a person dealing with Stockholm Syndrome. Personally I wanted the scarier version.
I have always been fascinated by kidnapping stories so I was naturally drawn to this one. The story is slower paced with the situation not actually transpiring until the 40% mark. I liked this one, but my enjoyment was partially spoiled by my comparisons to the movie adaptation which I watched first. The villain in the movie is portrayed as a perpetrator which made for a terrifying experience. However the kidnapper in the original book is written to be much more sympathetic and naive. I preferred the movie which showcased the horrors of the situation with more violence. The book instead is more a character study of a person dealing with Stockholm Syndrome. Personally I wanted the scarier version.
July 1, 2011
While travelling in Berlin taking photographs of architecture, Clare meets the charming Andi, a German English teacher. What seems to be a tale of holiday romance quickly turns sour, as Clare comes to realize that Andi is not what he seems and finds herself being kept captive in his apartment. During her captivity she submits to Stockholm Syndrome, simultaneously hating and desiring her captor and her situation. Most interesting about Melanie Joosten's debut novel Berlin Syndrome is that the story is told from the perspective of both characters.
Told mainly through internal monologues of the two central characters, we become aware of the ambivalence of both: Clare wanting to escape and not wanting to escape, Andi knowing what he is doing is wrong, but not knowing how to stop it. There seems to be a very vague suggestion that the situation in Andi's apartment is meant to mirror the experience of the divide in post-war Berlin, a similarity between feeling trapped in by the walls and The Wall. I don't yet know enough about the history of Berlin to sense if this is applicable here, but I did pick up on a parallel being drawn.
Berlin Syndrome is a fast-paced novel told with claustrophobic tension. You feel as though you too are trapped in the apartment, staring aimlessly through the window at the television tower. As the violence, both emotional and physical, escalates, their relationship and Clare's entrapment becomes more complex, almost seeming impossible to resolve. Though the ending works on a thematic and symbolic level, I'm not sure if it is narratively satisfying. However, Berlin Syndrome is a powerfully taut examination of the psychology of captivity from both the captor and the captive perspectives and the tension and suspense created is more than enough to keep the reader hooked.
Told mainly through internal monologues of the two central characters, we become aware of the ambivalence of both: Clare wanting to escape and not wanting to escape, Andi knowing what he is doing is wrong, but not knowing how to stop it. There seems to be a very vague suggestion that the situation in Andi's apartment is meant to mirror the experience of the divide in post-war Berlin, a similarity between feeling trapped in by the walls and The Wall. I don't yet know enough about the history of Berlin to sense if this is applicable here, but I did pick up on a parallel being drawn.
Berlin Syndrome is a fast-paced novel told with claustrophobic tension. You feel as though you too are trapped in the apartment, staring aimlessly through the window at the television tower. As the violence, both emotional and physical, escalates, their relationship and Clare's entrapment becomes more complex, almost seeming impossible to resolve. Though the ending works on a thematic and symbolic level, I'm not sure if it is narratively satisfying. However, Berlin Syndrome is a powerfully taut examination of the psychology of captivity from both the captor and the captive perspectives and the tension and suspense created is more than enough to keep the reader hooked.
May 23, 2019
"She is home, she is waiting for me."
This is a wonderful creepy book. The atmosphere and the few words and conversations - it definitely gives you the feel of the isolation, the confusion and how scary and easy it would be to disappear in a foreign land.
I'd heard of the movie and realized it was based on a book. I like to read before I watch a movie so I quickly ordered the book and waited for it to arrive. but I've been hesitant - this type of novel isn't easy to read. It's not light and fluffy but it gives the perfect confusion and syndrome that comes with being held captive. I appreciated the good writing and the story. I can't wait to watch the movie too!
This is a wonderful creepy book. The atmosphere and the few words and conversations - it definitely gives you the feel of the isolation, the confusion and how scary and easy it would be to disappear in a foreign land.
I'd heard of the movie and realized it was based on a book. I like to read before I watch a movie so I quickly ordered the book and waited for it to arrive. but I've been hesitant - this type of novel isn't easy to read. It's not light and fluffy but it gives the perfect confusion and syndrome that comes with being held captive. I appreciated the good writing and the story. I can't wait to watch the movie too!
November 21, 2011
I would have preferred to give this book a 3.5 but am feeling generous so opted for a 4. I did prefer this book to Room (another hostage story) mainly because I didn't feel manipulated while reading this. The author sets the story in what was once East Berlin and the symbolism of being trapped behind walls is very obvious. Despite few characters and little action I did not get bored and found the way the victim and the perpetrator view the kidnapping very interesting. Great ending even though I was left wanting a little bit more.
June 1, 2017
I don't know why this doesn't get better reviews. Joosten's writing is superb. She casts no judgment on her characters and lets them and their situations speak for themselves. While right and wrong is obvious to the reader, the insight she gives into Andi's thinking is very interesting and very sad. I was wondering how this might end, and I felt that Joosten ended it very appropriately.
It reminded me a lot of John Fowlers' The Collector.
It reminded me a lot of John Fowlers' The Collector.
July 21, 2017
This book started off well, creepy but intriguing, however it fell flat. The author built suspense slowly and made me want to keep reading but the story never went anywhere, or at least not anywhere interesting. I liked thinking about the psychological aspects, but it wasn't deep enough to make it great.
July 5, 2011
As I won this book as part of First Reads, I'd like to thank Scribe Publications for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This was a difficult book to rate. It's very well written and has some clever and interesting parallels. Where else could this book be set but in Berlin! As the book refers to the Berlin Wall several times, it's quite obvious from the storyline that there are definite parallels here about being trapped behind walls.
I think for the most part that the author managed to pull off the monotony, frustration and bordering on sanity/insanity of being confined quite well, however I do have to say that as with any story that is written around trying to fill in your day etc (I'm also thinking Room here), there is a fine line between getting the message across and it being dull for the reader as well. There was a large section in this book from the middle onwards that I found quite tedious reading.
And the ending......let's just say that it fits with the parallels that are occurring, but is very unsatisfying, I would think, from most reader's perspective - and certainly mine.
This was a difficult book to rate. It's very well written and has some clever and interesting parallels. Where else could this book be set but in Berlin! As the book refers to the Berlin Wall several times, it's quite obvious from the storyline that there are definite parallels here about being trapped behind walls.
I think for the most part that the author managed to pull off the monotony, frustration and bordering on sanity/insanity of being confined quite well, however I do have to say that as with any story that is written around trying to fill in your day etc (I'm also thinking Room here), there is a fine line between getting the message across and it being dull for the reader as well. There was a large section in this book from the middle onwards that I found quite tedious reading.
And the ending......let's just say that it fits with the parallels that are occurring, but is very unsatisfying, I would think, from most reader's perspective - and certainly mine.
January 30, 2018
I saw the film version first, then the novel - which has a different mood and ending. Usually, when reading the book first, I am disappointed with the adaptation, but in this case I preferred the film, possibly because the acting was so good. The plot is similar to 'The Collector' by John Fowles - another book given a film treatment, which again, I thought superior to the novel. I haven't quite worked out why this should be so, except that seeing the characters portrayed ( if done well) has a lot more impact than imagining them.
May 13, 2017
This book is so well done. Read it - but don't see the movie. It's pretty well a totally different take on it. Or see it after reading the book.
Clare is such a strong character and Andi is a troubled soul and you gain empathy for both. The ending I loved because I just thought, of course! In hindsight you can see the result clearly, but you don't see it until it happens. A very easy but gripping read.
Clare is such a strong character and Andi is a troubled soul and you gain empathy for both. The ending I loved because I just thought, of course! In hindsight you can see the result clearly, but you don't see it until it happens. A very easy but gripping read.
May 31, 2017
So slow.
Read
May 18, 2018Berlin Syndrome is a compelling literary thriller.
Australian Book Review
A courageous and exciting debut ... Berlin Syndrome is an intelligent novel, and Joosten is masterful in her descriptions of the loneliness that can be found both in a foreign city full of strangers and in an apartment shared by two people.
Eloise Keating, Books + Publishing
Berlin Syndrome is a beguiling psychological dance.
Canberra Times
In language that's hypnotic and sparse, Joosten's remarkable first novel demands to be guzzled in one sitting.
Courier Mail
Begs to be guzzled in one sitting.
Daily Telegraph
This gripping psycho-thriller has put the talented Melbourne writer on our radar big time.
Grazia
Joosten’s debut novel is a taut and intimate psychological thriller … an unflinching examination of power dynamics in a relationship.
Literary Minded
[Joosten’s] frank evocative depiction of what happens when loneliness and obsession collide makes for a striking debut novel.
North & South Magazine
Startling yet understated ... Joosten writes with authority and restraint, uncommon attributes for a first-time novelist.
Patrick Allington, SA Weekend Magazine
A gripping, well-written, undisputedly strong novel.
Louise Swinn, Saturday Age
Elegantly written, especially difficult given the subject matter.
Sunday Age
A psychological thriller of the highest order, this is a strong first showing. More, please.
Sunday Herald Sun
A true psychological thriller.
Sunday Tasmanian
[A] haunting debut novel.
Sydney Morning Herald
An impressive debut.
Vogue Australia
Capture[s] the psychodynamics of a generation that is just emerging into its own on the page. I look forward to seeing what she does next.
Weekend Australian
Joosten excavates the psychology of captivity — its fear, smells, delusions and helplessness — in relentless detail and with considerable skill.
Fiona McGregor
Australian Book Review
A courageous and exciting debut ... Berlin Syndrome is an intelligent novel, and Joosten is masterful in her descriptions of the loneliness that can be found both in a foreign city full of strangers and in an apartment shared by two people.
Eloise Keating, Books + Publishing
Berlin Syndrome is a beguiling psychological dance.
Canberra Times
In language that's hypnotic and sparse, Joosten's remarkable first novel demands to be guzzled in one sitting.
Courier Mail
Begs to be guzzled in one sitting.
Daily Telegraph
This gripping psycho-thriller has put the talented Melbourne writer on our radar big time.
Grazia
Joosten’s debut novel is a taut and intimate psychological thriller … an unflinching examination of power dynamics in a relationship.
Literary Minded
[Joosten’s] frank evocative depiction of what happens when loneliness and obsession collide makes for a striking debut novel.
North & South Magazine
Startling yet understated ... Joosten writes with authority and restraint, uncommon attributes for a first-time novelist.
Patrick Allington, SA Weekend Magazine
A gripping, well-written, undisputedly strong novel.
Louise Swinn, Saturday Age
Elegantly written, especially difficult given the subject matter.
Sunday Age
A psychological thriller of the highest order, this is a strong first showing. More, please.
Sunday Herald Sun
A true psychological thriller.
Sunday Tasmanian
[A] haunting debut novel.
Sydney Morning Herald
An impressive debut.
Vogue Australia
Capture[s] the psychodynamics of a generation that is just emerging into its own on the page. I look forward to seeing what she does next.
Weekend Australian
Joosten excavates the psychology of captivity — its fear, smells, delusions and helplessness — in relentless detail and with considerable skill.
Fiona McGregor
February 20, 2012
This is a well-written novel but I'm definitely *not* the target audience.
From the start, I found the tension Joosten skilfully creates almost unbearable. The story is stark in its simplicity: a lonely young Australian woman visiting Berlin is drawn into a relationship with a troubled young man with unresolved mother issues. For me, there was almost nothing about this man I found attractive, and the fact that the girl, Clare, allows herself to be involved with him made me question her judgement from the beginning. I wanted to like her, I felt sorry for her, but I was given little confidence she could protect herself, something which made the story like watching an accident happening in slow motion and being powerless to prevent it.
If I'd been able to detach and read the novel as a fable - which it also undoubtedly is - I might have enjoyed it more. In the absurdity of its situation, it reminded me of some of the short stories in Peteer Cary's The Fat Man in History collection. But reading it as realist fiction made it so gut-wrenchingly awful I found myself skimming to get it over with. Strangely, though, I can see it working as a movie.
Given the strength of my visceral reaction, I'll be interested to see what Joosten writes next. She's obviously a talented writer.
From the start, I found the tension Joosten skilfully creates almost unbearable. The story is stark in its simplicity: a lonely young Australian woman visiting Berlin is drawn into a relationship with a troubled young man with unresolved mother issues. For me, there was almost nothing about this man I found attractive, and the fact that the girl, Clare, allows herself to be involved with him made me question her judgement from the beginning. I wanted to like her, I felt sorry for her, but I was given little confidence she could protect herself, something which made the story like watching an accident happening in slow motion and being powerless to prevent it.
If I'd been able to detach and read the novel as a fable - which it also undoubtedly is - I might have enjoyed it more. In the absurdity of its situation, it reminded me of some of the short stories in Peteer Cary's The Fat Man in History collection. But reading it as realist fiction made it so gut-wrenchingly awful I found myself skimming to get it over with. Strangely, though, I can see it working as a movie.
Given the strength of my visceral reaction, I'll be interested to see what Joosten writes next. She's obviously a talented writer.
July 8, 2017
WHOA! This story made me cringe a couple of times!I’ve heard and read mixed reviews about it especially from people who compared the story with the movie adaptation last February 2017. They said that the movie was boring, some said it was intense and gripping, while a majority said it was different from the book. I have no idea, honestly, I requested for a copy because of its synopsis. It is so intriguing, I remembered the time when I finished reading Stolen by Lucy Christopher. It was kind of similar to this story because both have victims slash prisoners and they both sort of fell in love with their captor although in this story the prisoner is also messed up and a little fucked up. This was so INTENSE. I must admit that there were moments of boredom but as the story progresses, the author made me like the flow even more! I thought it will just be another case of stockholm syndrome where the victim felt attached to the captor. I was wrong, the main character named Clare is also twisted and sick. She is as crazy as the antagonist and it made the story way better compared to previous novels published with the same plot twist. I admire the author for creating a masterpiece that talked about the effect when someone leaves a person during his vulnerable age and what might happen to his interaction with other people and his way of life as well. I was in deep awe because the female character became accustomed to being trapped in an apartment far away from anyone who can hear or notice her absence. The male antagonist on the other hand is just so freaking crazy but every move and decision that he made sort of convinced me that he was doing the right thing. I can’t believe that I even felt sorry for him. Frankly, the cover is not stunning because it is a movie tie-in edition and it looks boring. Probably I will give the movie a chance and find it out for myself how it goes.
Overall, the story is a must read for readers who enjoy dark and twisted stories. I liked it! It may be slow-paced during the first part but it definitely caught my interest! Kudos! I am giving it a four out of five for a beautiful setting (Berlin), for messy characters, for an impressive writing style, and for mind-boggling life lessons that it wants to convey to its readers. I really do appreciate novels like this one and I am definitely recommending it.
~JaNnA
Overall, the story is a must read for readers who enjoy dark and twisted stories. I liked it! It may be slow-paced during the first part but it definitely caught my interest! Kudos! I am giving it a four out of five for a beautiful setting (Berlin), for messy characters, for an impressive writing style, and for mind-boggling life lessons that it wants to convey to its readers. I really do appreciate novels like this one and I am definitely recommending it.
~JaNnA
August 10, 2017
To be perfectly honest, I decided to read this book after watching the movie because I found the movie really disturbing and unsettling. (And I only watched it because I have a celebrity crush on Max Riemelt.) Either way, the movie stuck with me and I wanted to understand the characters and their motivations better. I was not disappointed.
The book and movie differ greatly, but the overall premise is the same: A young Australian woman, Clare, is traveling alone in Berlin and meets a handsome stranger and native Berliner, Andi. There is an instant connection and sexual chemistry so a whirlwind romance ensues. Almost immediately, however, Andi becomes obsessed with Clare and accidentally (at first), and then purposely locks her in his apartment where he keeps her prisoner.
The book is told from both Clare and Andi’s perspectives so you really do get insight into motivation and inner dialogue which I found very interesting. The writing is quiet, subtle, melancholic, and dream like. You can really picture the scenes and sense the claustrophobic and lonely environment of Andi’s apartment as two strangers navigate the unnatural situation.
The story builds hour upon hour, day upon day, week upon week, as Clare and Andi work their way around and through one another. Andi, with the goal of having Clare understand how “right” it is and come to love him and her imprisonment. And Clare on how she found herself in the situation in the first place (much self-blaming and what-ifing), how to cope with her imprisonment mentally and emotionally, and how to stay safe and live through the ordeal.
Although the drama/main event unfolds fairly rapidly, the tension builds very slowly as the reader is drawn into the story. Since there is minimal physical violence, apart from Clare being held against her will, it is less heart pounding than heart wrenching. There are moments when you fear for her life, but you more often fear for her sanity.
Overall, it was well-written, interesting and absorbing. Very much a slow-building character study with an unexpected, satisfying conclusion. The story asks, “should we be judged by the sum of our intentions or by our last worst act?”
Bechdel test: Fail.
The book and movie differ greatly, but the overall premise is the same: A young Australian woman, Clare, is traveling alone in Berlin and meets a handsome stranger and native Berliner, Andi. There is an instant connection and sexual chemistry so a whirlwind romance ensues. Almost immediately, however, Andi becomes obsessed with Clare and accidentally (at first), and then purposely locks her in his apartment where he keeps her prisoner.
The book is told from both Clare and Andi’s perspectives so you really do get insight into motivation and inner dialogue which I found very interesting. The writing is quiet, subtle, melancholic, and dream like. You can really picture the scenes and sense the claustrophobic and lonely environment of Andi’s apartment as two strangers navigate the unnatural situation.
The story builds hour upon hour, day upon day, week upon week, as Clare and Andi work their way around and through one another. Andi, with the goal of having Clare understand how “right” it is and come to love him and her imprisonment. And Clare on how she found herself in the situation in the first place (much self-blaming and what-ifing), how to cope with her imprisonment mentally and emotionally, and how to stay safe and live through the ordeal.
Although the drama/main event unfolds fairly rapidly, the tension builds very slowly as the reader is drawn into the story. Since there is minimal physical violence, apart from Clare being held against her will, it is less heart pounding than heart wrenching. There are moments when you fear for her life, but you more often fear for her sanity.
Overall, it was well-written, interesting and absorbing. Very much a slow-building character study with an unexpected, satisfying conclusion. The story asks, “should we be judged by the sum of our intentions or by our last worst act?”
Bechdel test: Fail.
March 20, 2012
Wow. Stunning reading. Really interesting exploration of captivity and the complexity and layers of human interaction. Startling changes in perspective and a real feeling of suspense for a story that is essentially contained in the 4 walls of a Berlin flat. The changes in gear of the writing are superb. Suddenly we are in the midst of an intense psychological drama and then equally as suddenly, it's over. I was left wondering what would have happened has the story gone on especially with Clare's captor and his mother. I had to re-read the ending three times to make sure I got every tiny detail. My only small criticism, is that possibly towards the end of Clare's captivity the story dragged bit and thus it got a bit repetitive inside Clare's head - but that is only a small criticism. For mine, this was a real page turner.
April 9, 2012
This is the second book I've read this year by an Australian novelist that is set in Germany (the other being All That I Am by Anna Funder). Like All That I am, I was enticed to borrow this book after reading some very favourable reviews and, like All That I Am, I couldn't make it the whole way through.
I think that the problem here is that I am not the target market for these books. Both of them were well written yet with both of them I felt a distance from the narrative. I not only didn't care about the characters I actively wanted them to shut up. That feeling was exacerbated with Berlin Syndrome because the story is told from the point of view of the two main characters. I didn't experience the tension that others felt was very well built up - this book is clearly just not for me.
I think that the problem here is that I am not the target market for these books. Both of them were well written yet with both of them I felt a distance from the narrative. I not only didn't care about the characters I actively wanted them to shut up. That feeling was exacerbated with Berlin Syndrome because the story is told from the point of view of the two main characters. I didn't experience the tension that others felt was very well built up - this book is clearly just not for me.
May 27, 2017
A very strange book... from the beginning up to the whole end.
"May 27, 2017 –
50.0% "She is damn creepy... he too and should we feel bad for her or for him?
..."
May 27, 2017 –
8.0% "Screams can't be heard
Voices can't be heard
...
VIctims have been silenced..."
May 27, 2017 –
8.0% "I fucking like this novel... well written and well played... German the most scary and evil language which has ever been spoken by a human being."
May 27, 2017 –
8.0% "39:30"
May 27, 2017 –
3.0% "18:16"
May 27, 2017 –
1.0% "As far as I know... abusive relationship...
..."
May 27, 2017 –
1.0% "God, what have you prepared as for now?"
May 27, 2017 – Started Reading"
"May 27, 2017 –
50.0% "She is damn creepy... he too and should we feel bad for her or for him?
..."
May 27, 2017 –
8.0% "Screams can't be heard
Voices can't be heard
...
VIctims have been silenced..."
May 27, 2017 –
8.0% "I fucking like this novel... well written and well played... German the most scary and evil language which has ever been spoken by a human being."
May 27, 2017 –
8.0% "39:30"
May 27, 2017 –
3.0% "18:16"
May 27, 2017 –
1.0% "As far as I know... abusive relationship...
..."
May 27, 2017 –
1.0% "God, what have you prepared as for now?"
May 27, 2017 – Started Reading"
July 7, 2017
Melanie Joosten’s fresh-to-the-big-screen thriller, Berlin Syndrome, is a story about Stockholm Syndrome. Set in Berlin, obvs.
Australian photographer (with an interest in former Eastern Bloc architecture), Clare, meets native Berliner and English teacher, Andi.
He was not really following her, he told himself, he was just curious to see where she was going. An anthropological study of a foreigner in Berlin.
There is an instant attraction and suddenly a holiday fling turns into something more sinister than Clare could have anticipated. Within days, Clare realises that she is trapped in Andi’s apartment and although she initially tries to escape, her attitude changes and she becomes a compliant prisoner.
I found Clare’s lack of fight a little hard to believe, particularly as there was no back-story to suggest that she had reason to crave attention or be submissive. In contrast, Andi’s back-story, was well thought out, giving reason as to why he became obsessed with Clare – I won’t say much more than the fact that Andi, living in East Berlin before the Wall came down, was shattered when his mother escaped to the West.
“You must miss her, Andi?” He is calmed by her voice and he does not want to disappoint her. “Of course.” But the truth is, he does not miss her. There is no point missing something when you cannot have it back.
Equally difficult to accept were the logistics of Clare’s captivity – the lack of neighbours; the apartment in a remote, abandoned block; Andi being able to leave and return each day without Clare making a lunge for the door – all seemed too convenient.
However, this story had me turning the pages. The occasional glimpses at the situation from Andi’s point-of-view were fascinating, as were the implications of Andi’s relationship history. Joosten has created a frightening character in Andi and the tension is palpable in all of his scenes –
He has spent the day thinking through all the possibilities for their future, and the result is always the same. If she has the option, eventually she will leave. If she doesn’t have the option, she will stay. He sat at his desk after teaching his last class, and listed all the pros and cons on a sheet of paper. But it is far simpler than that. He can keep her here, or he can let her go.
The prisoner/ prison theme and the idea that we are all trapped by our history could have been overdone but Joosten has a light touch and the contrast between the literal and the self-inflicted is perfectly incorporated.
The ending of this story took me by surprise (a big plus for a thriller, don’t you think?) and certainly didn’t provide a neat resolution. Apparently the movie version of Berlin Syndrome is quite different to the book and I suspect the ending is where creative changes were made.
3/5 A better-than-average and not-so-predictable thriller.
Australian photographer (with an interest in former Eastern Bloc architecture), Clare, meets native Berliner and English teacher, Andi.
He was not really following her, he told himself, he was just curious to see where she was going. An anthropological study of a foreigner in Berlin.
There is an instant attraction and suddenly a holiday fling turns into something more sinister than Clare could have anticipated. Within days, Clare realises that she is trapped in Andi’s apartment and although she initially tries to escape, her attitude changes and she becomes a compliant prisoner.
I found Clare’s lack of fight a little hard to believe, particularly as there was no back-story to suggest that she had reason to crave attention or be submissive. In contrast, Andi’s back-story, was well thought out, giving reason as to why he became obsessed with Clare – I won’t say much more than the fact that Andi, living in East Berlin before the Wall came down, was shattered when his mother escaped to the West.
“You must miss her, Andi?” He is calmed by her voice and he does not want to disappoint her. “Of course.” But the truth is, he does not miss her. There is no point missing something when you cannot have it back.
Equally difficult to accept were the logistics of Clare’s captivity – the lack of neighbours; the apartment in a remote, abandoned block; Andi being able to leave and return each day without Clare making a lunge for the door – all seemed too convenient.
However, this story had me turning the pages. The occasional glimpses at the situation from Andi’s point-of-view were fascinating, as were the implications of Andi’s relationship history. Joosten has created a frightening character in Andi and the tension is palpable in all of his scenes –
He has spent the day thinking through all the possibilities for their future, and the result is always the same. If she has the option, eventually she will leave. If she doesn’t have the option, she will stay. He sat at his desk after teaching his last class, and listed all the pros and cons on a sheet of paper. But it is far simpler than that. He can keep her here, or he can let her go.
The prisoner/ prison theme and the idea that we are all trapped by our history could have been overdone but Joosten has a light touch and the contrast between the literal and the self-inflicted is perfectly incorporated.
The ending of this story took me by surprise (a big plus for a thriller, don’t you think?) and certainly didn’t provide a neat resolution. Apparently the movie version of Berlin Syndrome is quite different to the book and I suspect the ending is where creative changes were made.
3/5 A better-than-average and not-so-predictable thriller.
June 5, 2017
I really enjoyed this, if enjoy is the right word to describe the feeling of reading about a woman held captive by a man in a vacant apartment block not too far from the centre of Berlin. And Berlin is the perfect choice to set such a story, exploring the whole idea of walls to keep people in or out. Some have commented that they found it too slow for a psychological thriller, but I appreciated the pace as a literary allusion to the way time speeds up or slows down depending on the context of what else is happening around you. Time is dragging for Clare. Of course it is. She is literally locked in a flat by a man who wants to convince her that it's the only way, that they love each other, and that he cannot risk the possibility that she would ever leave. For Clare, time ceases to have any meaning. Instead she comes to feel her life has two states: the state where Andi is at the apartment, and the state where he's not.
The alternating viewpoints between Clare and Andi offer a fascinating insight into the mind of both captive and captor, and I feel that Melanie Joosten probably did a lot of research into the psychological understanding of Stockholm Syndrome to write this novel. (Not that it shows in the text - whatever research she did is beautifully embedded in the narrative and her characters.) We see Clare grappling with how this happened to her: At what point could she have foreseen the shape of events to come? Were there any signs that Andi was unstable? Would she have done anything differently? It troubles her that at each stage of their first meeting, she would probably have made the exact same decision if the circumstances were presented to her again. The character of Andi is similarly complex, and the difference in his perception of the situation is unsettling. As readers we are meant to be uncomfortable when presented with the inner monologue of someone who would otherwise be deemed a monster. Andi too is trying to accept that, while this is the life he chose, it is not the life he thought he wanted. Joosten handles that tension brilliantly.
I'm in two minds about whether to see the film. I fear that the film will only be able to give a very surface-level treatment of what is really a psychological book, dealing with the inner world of two characters in a captive–captor relationship. It's hard to imagine how that translates to screen, but I might get to it at some point. But I liked the book and may even read it again sometime to unpick how Joosten manages to create a mesmerising thriller with such sparse ingredients.
The alternating viewpoints between Clare and Andi offer a fascinating insight into the mind of both captive and captor, and I feel that Melanie Joosten probably did a lot of research into the psychological understanding of Stockholm Syndrome to write this novel. (Not that it shows in the text - whatever research she did is beautifully embedded in the narrative and her characters.) We see Clare grappling with how this happened to her: At what point could she have foreseen the shape of events to come? Were there any signs that Andi was unstable? Would she have done anything differently? It troubles her that at each stage of their first meeting, she would probably have made the exact same decision if the circumstances were presented to her again. The character of Andi is similarly complex, and the difference in his perception of the situation is unsettling. As readers we are meant to be uncomfortable when presented with the inner monologue of someone who would otherwise be deemed a monster. Andi too is trying to accept that, while this is the life he chose, it is not the life he thought he wanted. Joosten handles that tension brilliantly.
I'm in two minds about whether to see the film. I fear that the film will only be able to give a very surface-level treatment of what is really a psychological book, dealing with the inner world of two characters in a captive–captor relationship. It's hard to imagine how that translates to screen, but I might get to it at some point. But I liked the book and may even read it again sometime to unpick how Joosten manages to create a mesmerising thriller with such sparse ingredients.
July 10, 2015
This is a very well written book, intriguing in its development of a horrifyingly realistic situation: the Stockholm syndrome, transferred to Berlin.
Not a book I would normally choose, although I do enjoy psychological thrillers. The problem I had with it was that I could not believe that Clare, an intelligent, professional, independent traveller, would be caught up with Andi. There were too many unknowns about him, & not in an interestingly mysterious way; I'd characterise his behaviour as 'creepy' from the start! Also, the fact that she let her mobile phone battery run down, & left it for him to remove the sim card, & apparently had no-one concerned about her challenges belief.
However....part way through, as Clare's behaviour started to change, I did feel I needed to get to the end. The author's tight, taut writing made it easy reading.
I was relieved by the ending in some ways, but on reflection it was all too facile, if not exactly predictable.
Other reviewers have pointed out the parallels between this story and the history of East/ West Germany, & the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall. Hence, I suppose, the title, Berlin Syndrome.
I would read more by Melanie Joosten, she does write well.
Not a book I would normally choose, although I do enjoy psychological thrillers. The problem I had with it was that I could not believe that Clare, an intelligent, professional, independent traveller, would be caught up with Andi. There were too many unknowns about him, & not in an interestingly mysterious way; I'd characterise his behaviour as 'creepy' from the start! Also, the fact that she let her mobile phone battery run down, & left it for him to remove the sim card, & apparently had no-one concerned about her challenges belief.
However....part way through, as Clare's behaviour started to change, I did feel I needed to get to the end. The author's tight, taut writing made it easy reading.
I was relieved by the ending in some ways, but on reflection it was all too facile, if not exactly predictable.
Other reviewers have pointed out the parallels between this story and the history of East/ West Germany, & the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall. Hence, I suppose, the title, Berlin Syndrome.
I would read more by Melanie Joosten, she does write well.
December 31, 2017
I found this book very interesting and even Orwellian in its absurdity. The premise is strange - an Australian tourist in Berlin meets a charming local man she feels an immediate attraction to. He invites her over to his place, pursues her and quite simply put, entraps her.
The door is locked and she can never leave. He literally loves her so much that he cannot bear to let her go. And thus, this romantic trope is turned on its head.
With the kind of history that Berlin has, with the Wall and restriction on people's freedom, it is obvious that the story is a metaphor. We don't need to be told that this man grew up in East Germany and has been haunted for years by a woman he loved and who once left him.
The best parts of the book involve an exploration of this weird twisted relationship between captor and captive
At times, one can't make out who is more wretched. In the end, the scariest idea of all remains that the worst prisons are those whose walls we cannot even see. Because they're inside our minds, chaining up our very thoughts.
The door is locked and she can never leave. He literally loves her so much that he cannot bear to let her go. And thus, this romantic trope is turned on its head.
With the kind of history that Berlin has, with the Wall and restriction on people's freedom, it is obvious that the story is a metaphor. We don't need to be told that this man grew up in East Germany and has been haunted for years by a woman he loved and who once left him.
The best parts of the book involve an exploration of this weird twisted relationship between captor and captive
At times, one can't make out who is more wretched. In the end, the scariest idea of all remains that the worst prisons are those whose walls we cannot even see. Because they're inside our minds, chaining up our very thoughts.
June 2, 2019
This book is bleak.
There were a lot of things I liked about it: the tightness of the book - with such a small cast of characters they had to be written well and consistently and they have been.
The location - specifically the flat - because so much of the book takes place here, the location almost becomes a character itself.
The monotony of daily life is portrayed really well.
There were also a lot of things that I didn't particular like:
The monotone delivery of the story - The delivery suits the story but as a reader I want something more, I want highs and lows and changes of pace and this book doesn't have any of that.
The ending - "seriously? that's it?" was my initial response and after thinking about it - that's still my response.
Overall, it's okay but nothing spectacular.
There were a lot of things I liked about it: the tightness of the book - with such a small cast of characters they had to be written well and consistently and they have been.
The location - specifically the flat - because so much of the book takes place here, the location almost becomes a character itself.
The monotony of daily life is portrayed really well.
There were also a lot of things that I didn't particular like:
The monotone delivery of the story - The delivery suits the story but as a reader I want something more, I want highs and lows and changes of pace and this book doesn't have any of that.
The ending - "seriously? that's it?" was my initial response and after thinking about it - that's still my response.
Overall, it's okay but nothing spectacular.
Read
May 26, 2017This book is unlike the movie, but they offer an interesting look into the same situation only from with different perspectives of violence. My favorite part of reading this book was reading of all the ways Clare would occupy her thoughts during the day. Anyone with an anxiety or obsessive compulsive mental illness will be able to relate to this. That addition is what makes the character feel so real for me. Even in isolation, you see how intelligent she is and how desperate she is to make sense of her situation through logic. My heart goes out to anyone thrust in a situation similar to Clare's.
November 26, 2017
I didn't get this book at all. Repetitive, too little plot, and no twist or exciting ending that could make you go 'ah'. Somewhere in the middle I thought 'something really must happen soon' - but it didn't.
The premise of the story is weak too - I can think of ways she would have been able to get out of her situation, so it doesn't feel as if the author plugged all holes. Interestingly, I read this one the day before I read B. A. Paris' Behind Closed Doors, which, in a way, is based on the same premise, and it was interesting to note how the latter had a much better foundation for the claims it made. Try that one instead if you want an entertaining, easy read.
The premise of the story is weak too - I can think of ways she would have been able to get out of her situation, so it doesn't feel as if the author plugged all holes. Interestingly, I read this one the day before I read B. A. Paris' Behind Closed Doors, which, in a way, is based on the same premise, and it was interesting to note how the latter had a much better foundation for the claims it made. Try that one instead if you want an entertaining, easy read.
April 28, 2017
This book is very well written and had my attention throughout, that is until the end. Clare meets Andi and after a few dates together Clare is begins spending more time with Andi is then held captive and becomes a victim of Stockholm syndrome. This was a very tense and suspenseful story but as I said the end just falls short and I was left a little shocked that the story basically wrapped up in the last two pages. I am not sure what I was expecting to happen but definitely more than what did, a little disappointing for me.
August 30, 2017
DAMN... it made me cry.
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