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Innocents
Written when Cathy Coote was nineteen, Innocents is a taut, wickedly clever descent into the anatomy of an obsession, the debut of a precociously assured and provocative young literary voice. Forcing someone vulnerable and naive into a sexual relationship to satisfy a twisted desire is perverted, even evil. But when the perpetrator is a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, is she culpable? And if the victim is her thirty-four-year-old teacher, shouldn't he have known better? When the nameless young narrator of Innocents decides to seduce her teacher, she immediately realizes that the power of her sexuality is greater than she ever imagined. She leaves the aunt and uncle who are her guardians and moves in with her teacher; together, they quickly embark on a journey into their darkest desires. Unforgettable, disturbing, and morally complex, Innocents permanently unsettles our notions of innocence, experience, and power, and suggests that we all are culpable.
248 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1999
83 people are currently reading
6207 people want to read
About the author
Cathy Coote
1 book24 followersCathy Coote is an Australian author who was born in 1977. She attended Narrabundah College and Australian National University.
She was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year award in 1995 and the Canberra Times Young Writer of the Year award, in 1993 and 1995.
Cathy Coote, who grew up in Australia, the daughter of two doctors, told the ACT Writers Centre: "I have [been writing] ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil." While still in her teens, she received three Young Writer of the Year Awards—one from the Sydney Morning Herald and two from the Canberra Times— and had stories and columns published in other Australian newspapers.
Her novel Innocents was originally published in Australia, in 1999.
She was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year award in 1995 and the Canberra Times Young Writer of the Year award, in 1993 and 1995.
Cathy Coote, who grew up in Australia, the daughter of two doctors, told the ACT Writers Centre: "I have [been writing] ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil." While still in her teens, she received three Young Writer of the Year Awards—one from the Sydney Morning Herald and two from the Canberra Times— and had stories and columns published in other Australian newspapers.
Her novel Innocents was originally published in Australia, in 1999.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 225 reviews
September 7, 2014
WARNING. DO NOT READ THIS. (Unless you want to feel more sane by comparing yourself to this protagonist, but seriously, this is one of those highly tabooed, epitome-of-fucked-up kinda books)
Innocents, what misleadingly simple title...
I seriously can't remember when is the last time I've thought What-the-fuck in one book. Obviously, I braced myself for some pretty dark taboos because of the description and the quick skims of reviews but damn if Coote didn't take dark to a whole new level!
Okay, first of all,
I'm still astounded by the fact that I grew to know the protagonist so intimately,
learned how she thinks,
learned that she's a raging freaking psychopath who has to fake all her emotions and gets off on manipulating and seducing her unfortunate teacher-lover who ends up being almost as fucked up as she is.
I've never read a book from a psychopath's perspective before.
That was kinda interesting I suppose, but then I started getting really freaked out when I could sympathise with her. And, you can't even distinguish who the victim is here.
The ending was kind of expected though, I don't know if it was just me but I'm glad it didn't end up being all redemption and let's-forgive-and-fuck kinda stories. There are some relationships that just shouldn't work.
I'm really glad I picked it up though, I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it considering it's context and everything, but hey, I can appreciate good writing...
Innocents, what misleadingly simple title...
I seriously can't remember when is the last time I've thought What-the-fuck in one book. Obviously, I braced myself for some pretty dark taboos because of the description and the quick skims of reviews but damn if Coote didn't take dark to a whole new level!
Okay, first of all,
I'm still astounded by the fact that I grew to know the protagonist so intimately,
learned how she thinks,
learned that she's a raging freaking psychopath who has to fake all her emotions and gets off on manipulating and seducing her unfortunate teacher-lover who ends up being almost as fucked up as she is.
I've never read a book from a psychopath's perspective before.
That was kinda interesting I suppose, but then I started getting really freaked out when I could sympathise with her. And, you can't even distinguish who the victim is here.
The ending was kind of expected though, I don't know if it was just me but I'm glad it didn't end up being all redemption and let's-forgive-and-fuck kinda stories. There are some relationships that just shouldn't work.
I'm really glad I picked it up though, I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed it considering it's context and everything, but hey, I can appreciate good writing...
September 7, 2025
⋰˚☆ 3
ೃ⁀➷
Now this, this book was something else.
In this book we follow another teacher & student relation, 16 year old teenager, 34 year old teacher. What do you do when the “child” is actually the morally corrupt one? The pedophile is no saint, but in this book, portrayed by the author, he seems the most “innocent.”
The teenager in this book is immoral - you’d think she met her match by having a relationship with a repugnant older man, but he is no where near her level. In this book we can actually confirm there was seduction on the child’s behalf, ludicrous - but it’s true. This teenager is severely depraved, exponentially so. Her actions are increasingly unethical, extremely problematic for someone so young. This 16 year old is also tremendously manipulative, acting in petulant manners & is very degrading. After all, she’s the one with power - he’s at her mercy. It was empowering to her.
This was an interesting weird, explicit… book, I did binge it so I’d say it was an okay book overall. It’s a bit unambiguous, though..
ೃ⁀➷
Now this, this book was something else.
In this book we follow another teacher & student relation, 16 year old teenager, 34 year old teacher. What do you do when the “child” is actually the morally corrupt one? The pedophile is no saint, but in this book, portrayed by the author, he seems the most “innocent.”
The teenager in this book is immoral - you’d think she met her match by having a relationship with a repugnant older man, but he is no where near her level. In this book we can actually confirm there was seduction on the child’s behalf, ludicrous - but it’s true. This teenager is severely depraved, exponentially so. Her actions are increasingly unethical, extremely problematic for someone so young. This 16 year old is also tremendously manipulative, acting in petulant manners & is very degrading. After all, she’s the one with power - he’s at her mercy. It was empowering to her.
This was an interesting weird, explicit… book, I did binge it so I’d say it was an okay book overall. It’s a bit unambiguous, though..
December 16, 2013
Review from Way Too Hot Books
"My darling, all of this is my fault. I know you think your to blame for what happened. You’re wrong, my love. I’ve been guilty all along..."
SHE is a 16 year old manipulative, cold, calculating and sadistic control freak and she is aggressor here. This Lolita , seed of evil, who's also the protagonist isn't even likable. She lives with her aunt and uncle who "don't understand her", and spends time drawing pornographic and sadistic sketches where she is the one in control and inflicting pain and humiliation on her female school friends.
This book is written in the form of a letter that this girl is writing to her ex-lover, teacher, to explain her side of things...
"I wasn´t born innocent.
My instincts were vicious, predatory, from the start. When I met you, I had been a voyeur as long as I´d had eyes. My very reflexes were sadistic. The ascent of my reason from the animal ways of infanthood served only to give a form to my state, as a painter gives shape to a colour. It seemed I learned to think in order to fantasise."
HE is the 34-year-old teacher and he begins by worshipping this girl from afar because he knows how morally wrong it would be for him to act upon his desire. He puts her on her a pedestal and becomes obsessed with her, but from afar. She initiates everything, she manipulates him and seduces and controls. She is really topping him from below.
But...she teased and pushed and pushed "her darling" (the teacher) until his untamed sexual beast was unleashed and he hurt her in the unforgivable way. She awakened something violent and kinky in this poor guy and she is devastated just because that one time she wasn´t in control...
WHO IS GUILTY HERE?
In this extraoridinarily dark psihosexual book they are both innocents: she´s inexperienced but manipulative aggressor, and he is naive but experienced victim.
"I understood that there is another path of innocence: that it can be attained like wisdom. I knew that I am a kind of Holy Innocent, after all. One of God´s special cases. Blundering around inside my own instincts, handicapped.
I´m like a Holy Idiot; a retarded child who is closer to Heaven because of his disability. A kind of holy pervert, who struggles every day to be good"
It´s extraoridinary that author Cathy Coote was only 19 years old when she wrote this extremely complex book. Whole the time I was wondering where were aunt and uncle all this time and why they never done anything to stop her from running away from home. I thought that this was some plot hole. But, later I found out that in Australia, where this story takes place, the age of consent is 16.
BE AWARE: This IS NOT a romatic love story!
Sexual scenes are too graphic and obscene. They were detailed, but I didn't think they were horrific. I can't recommend this as a general read, but for those interested in the subject matter of Lolita Complex or student-teacher relationship.
September 17, 2014
Cathy Coote was 19 when she wrote this book, and I can see that woven through on every. single. page. It reeks of teenage prestige and self-importance. I'm not trying to be shitty when I say anything about her personally, but I can just see a young girl writing this and thinking that she has DONE IT, that this book is a masterpiece.
Here's the story. The narrator is writing her "truth" to her former lover. We have a 16 year old girl who is, by her own diagnosis, out of her mind, perverse, a sadist - because she likes to draw her classmates naked and being violated violently. Her uncle (she's orphaned, imagine that) finds her sketch book, casts her aside, forcing her to conveniently skip off to move in with the bookish teacher that lives a block or so over.
Unable to resist her seductress ways, he quits his job at the school, sequesters them off to a new house in a different part of town when rumors start to swirl about, and they live together. He replaces her incessant need to draw sexual violence (yeah… that was a really weak plot point for me), and since she no longer has to worry about hovering over her sketchpad at all hours of the day and night, she, in turn, focuses all of her strength and cunning on making him putty in her hands by intentionally playing up her youth and sexuality.
So all the while, 75% or more of the book, we are constantly being told again and again the story of how he is madly in love with her, while the whole thing is a game for her to play - his sexual obsession with her renders him stupid, while she plays her coy and coquettish cards to keep him tied in her web. This was one of the things I disliked SO much about this book … the constant "praise" the narrator (she is never named, which I literally only just realized … I'm smart) shed on herself for being so cunning and so twisted and so deliciously removed and evil, while he's basically just ejaculating geysers at the sight of her. Like, I get it. You trapped a 30 something man in your web and now he's stuck because he's ensnared by your golden and youthful lady parts. Fine. But give me a plot. Give me SOMETHING.
She eventually discovers a secret stash of BDSM porn in the house, and she likens the hiding of his porn stash to her former obsession with drawing // her current obsession with him - so she deliberately tries to awaken his inner BDSM beast. The book then takes a strange turn with unwanted butt sex, which is, as we find, the reason the couple broke up. Our male lead has gone full animal after he catches her naked in a window, purposely sticking her butt out for him to look at, and he ties her up and takes her from behind. The surprise of this different penetration makes her feel powerless for the first time. This lead her to lock herself in the bathroom and then squat on the floor and dribble semen out of her butt onto the tile. And I'm sharing that with you all because I cannot suffer it alone. So anyway! ….
The unfortunate bit about this book is that Coote actually has some keen talent as a writer - it just comes across as contrived, textbook, and obscenely melodramatic. Not to mention boring. There is a particular passage (this is just one of many examples where I actually found her writing to be quite good) where she likens the handwriting in the the notes that her departed lover is leaving her at the house after the butt sex incident to the times they were together, as the shapes of the letters in the alphabet remind her of intimacies and memories. It was thoughtful and pretty and sentimental. But it doesn't save the book.
The thing about Lolita (and I only reference it because the narrator did) is that Lolita, a child, was a cunning and selfish little brat, just like the narrator here - but Lolita played a game she didn't understand. She opened Pandora's box. That's how you pity her, that's how your heart breaks for her. She's playing grown up, but she doesn't understand what she's doing until it has been done - and then there is no going back.
What doesn't work here, but maybe could in a different setting, with more thought, etc, is the Lolita who knows it all and orchestrates it, the Lolita that is equal parts Lolita and Humbert - she plays the famous "Lolita" knowingly, says so herself, and instead of it coming off as scary or chilling, it just comes across as wank. Lolita, bless her, was a little girl with her chest puffed up big and brave, but she was so broken from the start. Lolita seduced Humbert, sure - but she didn't know what it meant, or what it would cost. I never once felt pity for this narrator like I do for Lo, plain Lo, in the morning. She came across insufferable for no good reason other than to be difficult. Dirty sketchbooks aren't enough to convince me, I'm afraid.
All that and a little butt sex aside, I did enjoy the "postscript" portion of this book, I think that was handled really well. I like the idea that two perverse souls end up trapped together, struggling to hide their realities. He eventually reads the letter (the book we, the audience, have read), he forgives her because his love is enough to accept the fact that she's just a cold and insane bitch (she is crying as he accepts her back and tells him that she is faking the tears at that very moment, and all he does is coddle her and tell her its alright). So "happily" together they return, and justly so. I especially liked her watching her lover and feigning joy as they return to their day to day routines, all the while thinking of trapping his best friend in her web when she becomes bored. That's the kind of approach and horror this book should have projected all throughout. Instead, I just found myself rolling my eyes waaaay too much.
2.5 seems fair here.
Here's the story. The narrator is writing her "truth" to her former lover. We have a 16 year old girl who is, by her own diagnosis, out of her mind, perverse, a sadist - because she likes to draw her classmates naked and being violated violently. Her uncle (she's orphaned, imagine that) finds her sketch book, casts her aside, forcing her to conveniently skip off to move in with the bookish teacher that lives a block or so over.
Unable to resist her seductress ways, he quits his job at the school, sequesters them off to a new house in a different part of town when rumors start to swirl about, and they live together. He replaces her incessant need to draw sexual violence (yeah… that was a really weak plot point for me), and since she no longer has to worry about hovering over her sketchpad at all hours of the day and night, she, in turn, focuses all of her strength and cunning on making him putty in her hands by intentionally playing up her youth and sexuality.
So all the while, 75% or more of the book, we are constantly being told again and again the story of how he is madly in love with her, while the whole thing is a game for her to play - his sexual obsession with her renders him stupid, while she plays her coy and coquettish cards to keep him tied in her web. This was one of the things I disliked SO much about this book … the constant "praise" the narrator (she is never named, which I literally only just realized … I'm smart) shed on herself for being so cunning and so twisted and so deliciously removed and evil, while he's basically just ejaculating geysers at the sight of her. Like, I get it. You trapped a 30 something man in your web and now he's stuck because he's ensnared by your golden and youthful lady parts. Fine. But give me a plot. Give me SOMETHING.
She eventually discovers a secret stash of BDSM porn in the house, and she likens the hiding of his porn stash to her former obsession with drawing // her current obsession with him - so she deliberately tries to awaken his inner BDSM beast. The book then takes a strange turn with unwanted butt sex, which is, as we find, the reason the couple broke up. Our male lead has gone full animal after he catches her naked in a window, purposely sticking her butt out for him to look at, and he ties her up and takes her from behind. The surprise of this different penetration makes her feel powerless for the first time. This lead her to lock herself in the bathroom and then squat on the floor and dribble semen out of her butt onto the tile. And I'm sharing that with you all because I cannot suffer it alone. So anyway! ….
The unfortunate bit about this book is that Coote actually has some keen talent as a writer - it just comes across as contrived, textbook, and obscenely melodramatic. Not to mention boring. There is a particular passage (this is just one of many examples where I actually found her writing to be quite good) where she likens the handwriting in the the notes that her departed lover is leaving her at the house after the butt sex incident to the times they were together, as the shapes of the letters in the alphabet remind her of intimacies and memories. It was thoughtful and pretty and sentimental. But it doesn't save the book.
The thing about Lolita (and I only reference it because the narrator did) is that Lolita, a child, was a cunning and selfish little brat, just like the narrator here - but Lolita played a game she didn't understand. She opened Pandora's box. That's how you pity her, that's how your heart breaks for her. She's playing grown up, but she doesn't understand what she's doing until it has been done - and then there is no going back.
What doesn't work here, but maybe could in a different setting, with more thought, etc, is the Lolita who knows it all and orchestrates it, the Lolita that is equal parts Lolita and Humbert - she plays the famous "Lolita" knowingly, says so herself, and instead of it coming off as scary or chilling, it just comes across as wank. Lolita, bless her, was a little girl with her chest puffed up big and brave, but she was so broken from the start. Lolita seduced Humbert, sure - but she didn't know what it meant, or what it would cost. I never once felt pity for this narrator like I do for Lo, plain Lo, in the morning. She came across insufferable for no good reason other than to be difficult. Dirty sketchbooks aren't enough to convince me, I'm afraid.
All that and a little butt sex aside, I did enjoy the "postscript" portion of this book, I think that was handled really well. I like the idea that two perverse souls end up trapped together, struggling to hide their realities. He eventually reads the letter (the book we, the audience, have read), he forgives her because his love is enough to accept the fact that she's just a cold and insane bitch (she is crying as he accepts her back and tells him that she is faking the tears at that very moment, and all he does is coddle her and tell her its alright). So "happily" together they return, and justly so. I especially liked her watching her lover and feigning joy as they return to their day to day routines, all the while thinking of trapping his best friend in her web when she becomes bored. That's the kind of approach and horror this book should have projected all throughout. Instead, I just found myself rolling my eyes waaaay too much.
2.5 seems fair here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2013
While perusing one of the book communities I was apart of, I came across this book. The promise of intensive sex scenes certainly sparked my interest, but the initial premise of the characters also caught my eye. This book focuses on an age-gap relationship, and coming from such a thing, I was inspired to take on literature regarding this subject matter.
The plot is simple: A 16-year old girl falls for her 34-year old teacher, a la Lolita. But the complexities within the story really help to shape it. Once the book gets into their relationship, it starts to taper off into less fathomable circumstances. But, isn't fiction supposed to be slightly unrealistic?
Coote was only 19 when she wrote this book, but her use of the metaphorical language is amazing. What really grabbed me about this book was how easily it was to identify with the nameless narrator. Not just because she was dating an older man (much like I had), but the way she spoke of her relationship as more a game than an actual event struck an all-too-familiar chord. The book plays out as a confessional letter to her ex-lover, explaining bit by bit the details of their relationship. It reminds me of an unsent letter I wrote to an old flame years ago, chronicling our relationship and the unspoken words surrounding it.
On Amazon (since it's my prime source for any book review), this book received mixed reviews. It was criticized, though, for the sexual scenes being too "graphic" and "obscene". They were detailed, but I didn't think they were horrific. It's certainly no Harlequin Romance cheese, but it doesn't use unfruitful language like some four-letter c words I know every five seconds, either. Or maybe my generation is just numb to those sorts of perverse things. I think the sex scenes really make the meat of the book, since the most character development happens within them.
This book was an enjoyable read mainly because it encouraged me to write a letter of my own. As I began writing the letter, I noticed my style mimicked hers: my paragraphs were short and splotchy, the original topic was dodged with a few irrelevant ones, and my writing took on a second-person narrative. I've always believed the best books are those that inspire you.
I also must commend this book for actually having an ending. Far too often I read books that merely end without much of a conclusion. This story is not for everyone, and I believe many people will have difficulty identifying with the characters, given their eccentricities. I enjoyed it immensely though, and could easily read it again.
The plot is simple: A 16-year old girl falls for her 34-year old teacher, a la Lolita. But the complexities within the story really help to shape it. Once the book gets into their relationship, it starts to taper off into less fathomable circumstances. But, isn't fiction supposed to be slightly unrealistic?
Coote was only 19 when she wrote this book, but her use of the metaphorical language is amazing. What really grabbed me about this book was how easily it was to identify with the nameless narrator. Not just because she was dating an older man (much like I had), but the way she spoke of her relationship as more a game than an actual event struck an all-too-familiar chord. The book plays out as a confessional letter to her ex-lover, explaining bit by bit the details of their relationship. It reminds me of an unsent letter I wrote to an old flame years ago, chronicling our relationship and the unspoken words surrounding it.
On Amazon (since it's my prime source for any book review), this book received mixed reviews. It was criticized, though, for the sexual scenes being too "graphic" and "obscene". They were detailed, but I didn't think they were horrific. It's certainly no Harlequin Romance cheese, but it doesn't use unfruitful language like some four-letter c words I know every five seconds, either. Or maybe my generation is just numb to those sorts of perverse things. I think the sex scenes really make the meat of the book, since the most character development happens within them.
This book was an enjoyable read mainly because it encouraged me to write a letter of my own. As I began writing the letter, I noticed my style mimicked hers: my paragraphs were short and splotchy, the original topic was dodged with a few irrelevant ones, and my writing took on a second-person narrative. I've always believed the best books are those that inspire you.
I also must commend this book for actually having an ending. Far too often I read books that merely end without much of a conclusion. This story is not for everyone, and I believe many people will have difficulty identifying with the characters, given their eccentricities. I enjoyed it immensely though, and could easily read it again.
May 13, 2016
** For the sake of decency, all sexually explicit comments will be censored through the use of the spoiler function **
This is a genuine warning: if you can't stomach any of the warnings I put in the tags, you really shouldn't read this book. Even I was retching a little reading this book- this book definitely isn't for the faint of heart and, in the aftermath, I'm not exactly comfortable with what the ending concluded.
True to its summary, Innocents provides a narrative that makes us question whether or not the teenage girl is culpable in a relationship with an adult. In fact, I think one of the best parts of this book is that it's so easy to get lost in their (very, very gross) relationship and forget that what's going on is very, very wrong. Like its predecessor Lolita, Innocents puts the rose-tinted glasses on you to make you doubt your own perceptions. The summary asks: is the sixteen-year-old girl culpable for entering a relationship with an older man? Shouldn't he have known better?
The novel answers (in spades): she isn't culpable, no matter how manipulative or adultlike she acts. This is muddled by the prose that she employs but, even throughout the novel, you have to come to the realization that she . Even though the narrator is very aware of her surroundings and how to manipulate (the teacher? Was he ever given a name?) her ""lover"" (and I use this word very loosely), and she counts his reactions as trophies, it was about thirty percent in what I realized that he's her last option. , ostracized by her friends, isolated from society, ... She has no other choice but the play nice with him, to try and enact a power play on him.
Long before , the narrator consistently talks about the fact that she doesn't actually want any of the sexual parts of their relationship- while she initially used them to manipulate them, he quickly shows that he always has the upper hand. I can distinctively remember twice that she was raped before the ending- . I think this is the main reason why I'm so skeptical of others' reviews- this is viewed as erotica, where it really, really shouldn't.
If you shelved this as erotica, congratulations, Cathy Coote slipped the wool over your eyes. In a borderline nonconsensual relationship between a thirty-something year old man and a sixteen year old girl, you were fooled into thinking this book outlining a grown man's manipulation and against a young girl was sexy. Think about what that says about you, to begin with.
While you could argue that the narrator had a heavy hand in starting the relationship, one scene is very telling into how little she actually controls- towards the beginning of their relationship, he mentions that he'd noticed her long before she'd noticed him. In a relationship between two adults or two minors, that would've been alright- but, in a relationships with a grown man and a young girl- that's predatory. The writing is punctuated with little moments like these that reveal the actual nature of their relationship- the gift-giving is a very obvious example that I don't think anyone else has brought up. It's called 'grooming' and it's when a pedophile continuously gives a child gifts in order to lower their inhibitions for sexual abuse.
Whether it's the modicum of power that The Man (I really don't think he was ever named) allows the narrator to have (little things like asking to go out places, seemingly having control over their sexual encounters) or when he , he's creating an environment where the narrator believes that she's in control, but he's completely calling the shots. This culminates .
Again, back to the summary, though. I think what this book does very, very well is force the media narrative that girls 'seduce' older men when they are raped by them. While the media essentially exculpates the rapist, the girl is usually framed as some sort of harlot for entering a relationship with an older man (as if he isn't the grown man and she dragged him into it!). This book forces you to look at the details of this narrative, drags out the "lecherous" actions of the narrator and tries to elevate The Man to some saintlike platform that you're surprised . This book is offensive to the eyes (painfully so) in that it forces you to deal with the consequences of feeding into the victim-blaming/shaming of modern media. If a girl has is her sexual abuse/assault really sexual abuse/assault? If a girl , is her sexual abuse/assault really sexual abuse/assault?
In the raw emotions , the answer remains: yes, no matter how 'lecherous' a girl might've acted, she is not the guilty party in this. No matter how much she might defend her abuser, he remains her abuser and knew better than to engage in a relationship.
In the end, when the narrator , I can't help but find it sad. This is a girl left with her abuser, who has been sexually assaulted/abused , thinking about seeking out another older man to instigate a relationship with so that she can be in control again.
Another thing that the narrator does very well (especially in comparison to the victim-shaming narrative I'm convinced this was supposed to mirror) is that, in making herself the villain, seeming to always be in control, she is always the one that the blame is placed on. I see you, other Goodreads reviewers. This seemed incredibly deliberate to me- in modern rape culture, even when the girl is the victim, she is placed as the perpetrator. She is the one that made the good man stray. She is the one that woke the beast in him. There's never a question that he had anything to do with it- she had to have been in control the whole time.
But was she?
This is a genuine warning: if you can't stomach any of the warnings I put in the tags, you really shouldn't read this book. Even I was retching a little reading this book- this book definitely isn't for the faint of heart and, in the aftermath, I'm not exactly comfortable with what the ending concluded.
True to its summary, Innocents provides a narrative that makes us question whether or not the teenage girl is culpable in a relationship with an adult. In fact, I think one of the best parts of this book is that it's so easy to get lost in their (very, very gross) relationship and forget that what's going on is very, very wrong. Like its predecessor Lolita, Innocents puts the rose-tinted glasses on you to make you doubt your own perceptions. The summary asks: is the sixteen-year-old girl culpable for entering a relationship with an older man? Shouldn't he have known better?
The novel answers (in spades): she isn't culpable, no matter how manipulative or adultlike she acts. This is muddled by the prose that she employs but, even throughout the novel, you have to come to the realization that she . Even though the narrator is very aware of her surroundings and how to manipulate (the teacher? Was he ever given a name?) her ""lover"" (and I use this word very loosely), and she counts his reactions as trophies, it was about thirty percent in what I realized that he's her last option. , ostracized by her friends, isolated from society, ... She has no other choice but the play nice with him, to try and enact a power play on him.
Long before , the narrator consistently talks about the fact that she doesn't actually want any of the sexual parts of their relationship- while she initially used them to manipulate them, he quickly shows that he always has the upper hand. I can distinctively remember twice that she was raped before the ending- . I think this is the main reason why I'm so skeptical of others' reviews- this is viewed as erotica, where it really, really shouldn't.
If you shelved this as erotica, congratulations, Cathy Coote slipped the wool over your eyes. In a borderline nonconsensual relationship between a thirty-something year old man and a sixteen year old girl, you were fooled into thinking this book outlining a grown man's manipulation and against a young girl was sexy. Think about what that says about you, to begin with.
While you could argue that the narrator had a heavy hand in starting the relationship, one scene is very telling into how little she actually controls- towards the beginning of their relationship, he mentions that he'd noticed her long before she'd noticed him. In a relationship between two adults or two minors, that would've been alright- but, in a relationships with a grown man and a young girl- that's predatory. The writing is punctuated with little moments like these that reveal the actual nature of their relationship- the gift-giving is a very obvious example that I don't think anyone else has brought up. It's called 'grooming' and it's when a pedophile continuously gives a child gifts in order to lower their inhibitions for sexual abuse.
Whether it's the modicum of power that The Man (I really don't think he was ever named) allows the narrator to have (little things like asking to go out places, seemingly having control over their sexual encounters) or when he , he's creating an environment where the narrator believes that she's in control, but he's completely calling the shots. This culminates .
Again, back to the summary, though. I think what this book does very, very well is force the media narrative that girls 'seduce' older men when they are raped by them. While the media essentially exculpates the rapist, the girl is usually framed as some sort of harlot for entering a relationship with an older man (as if he isn't the grown man and she dragged him into it!). This book forces you to look at the details of this narrative, drags out the "lecherous" actions of the narrator and tries to elevate The Man to some saintlike platform that you're surprised . This book is offensive to the eyes (painfully so) in that it forces you to deal with the consequences of feeding into the victim-blaming/shaming of modern media. If a girl has is her sexual abuse/assault really sexual abuse/assault? If a girl , is her sexual abuse/assault really sexual abuse/assault?
In the raw emotions , the answer remains: yes, no matter how 'lecherous' a girl might've acted, she is not the guilty party in this. No matter how much she might defend her abuser, he remains her abuser and knew better than to engage in a relationship.
In the end, when the narrator , I can't help but find it sad. This is a girl left with her abuser, who has been sexually assaulted/abused , thinking about seeking out another older man to instigate a relationship with so that she can be in control again.
Another thing that the narrator does very well (especially in comparison to the victim-shaming narrative I'm convinced this was supposed to mirror) is that, in making herself the villain, seeming to always be in control, she is always the one that the blame is placed on. I see you, other Goodreads reviewers. This seemed incredibly deliberate to me- in modern rape culture, even when the girl is the victim, she is placed as the perpetrator. She is the one that made the good man stray. She is the one that woke the beast in him. There's never a question that he had anything to do with it- she had to have been in control the whole time.
But was she?
April 26, 2016
This book is, ultimately, an impressive accomplishment -- a serious look at a taboo relationship from the standpoint of examining it on its own terms; with the understanding of how desire and power can work from both ends of the innocence and experience spectrum. Coote, refreshingly, examines the disturbing moral aspects without succumbing to a hamfisted, moralistic denouement.
She's 16, the student and the aggressor. He's the 34-year-old teacher, the willing recipient of her attentions. This is one of many post-Lolita novels of recent years told from the perspective of the Lolita; manipulating the oldster and reveling in the power of her young skin and taboo aura. She ultimately finds that her posturing and manipulation, in which she thinks she has attained power, have their limits. She is an innocent who acts experienced; he is an experienced who acts innocent. The book's title obviously refers to both characters; their relationship takes them both into uncharted territory. How this plays out makes for a very interesting dichotomy. I haven't read a large number of these kinds of books yet, but based on the few I have I suspect this is one of the better examples. This does exhibit substantial literary accomplishment at times, but after awhile the story becomes a bit repetitive until the exquisitely downplayed finale. Two deus ex machina are used at the beginning, including a dying cat, to push the lovers together, which I thought was a bit chintzy, but hey, Milan Kundera has resorted to the same thing and gotten away with it.
Relatively serious though it is, make no mistake, this is a sex book, full of arousing moments. During its sensual passages, Coote captures the thoughts and feelings of her young protagonist beautifully. I did get a bit annoyed by the teacher's constant blushing; he seemed a bit too fey at times. I liked that he wouldn't let her have wine because she was too young ("drink your lemonade") but he'd fuck her. As it happens, in Australia, where this story takes place, the age of consent (EXCEPT for student-teacher relationships) is 16, which makes for interesting fodder for debate about what is appropriate according to differing rules. Thus, under that consenting age, a clerk or a banker or anyone other than a teacher would be on ethical ground. The subject matter of the book will make some people squirm. I'm not some people.
She's 16, the student and the aggressor. He's the 34-year-old teacher, the willing recipient of her attentions. This is one of many post-Lolita novels of recent years told from the perspective of the Lolita; manipulating the oldster and reveling in the power of her young skin and taboo aura. She ultimately finds that her posturing and manipulation, in which she thinks she has attained power, have their limits. She is an innocent who acts experienced; he is an experienced who acts innocent. The book's title obviously refers to both characters; their relationship takes them both into uncharted territory. How this plays out makes for a very interesting dichotomy. I haven't read a large number of these kinds of books yet, but based on the few I have I suspect this is one of the better examples. This does exhibit substantial literary accomplishment at times, but after awhile the story becomes a bit repetitive until the exquisitely downplayed finale. Two deus ex machina are used at the beginning, including a dying cat, to push the lovers together, which I thought was a bit chintzy, but hey, Milan Kundera has resorted to the same thing and gotten away with it.
Relatively serious though it is, make no mistake, this is a sex book, full of arousing moments. During its sensual passages, Coote captures the thoughts and feelings of her young protagonist beautifully. I did get a bit annoyed by the teacher's constant blushing; he seemed a bit too fey at times. I liked that he wouldn't let her have wine because she was too young ("drink your lemonade") but he'd fuck her. As it happens, in Australia, where this story takes place, the age of consent (EXCEPT for student-teacher relationships) is 16, which makes for interesting fodder for debate about what is appropriate according to differing rules. Thus, under that consenting age, a clerk or a banker or anyone other than a teacher would be on ethical ground. The subject matter of the book will make some people squirm. I'm not some people.
July 23, 2015
I couldn't figure this book out. Is it supposed to be empowering? Because I've got news for you - just because you put a female in the role of sexual dominator does not mean she's empowered. I actually thought this book was super debasing to both men and women, by playing up the whole women-use-sex-to-get-their-way and men-can't-keep-it-in-their-pants angles. And call me a square, but sex all day every day sounds like it would just get so BORING, especially since this chick didn't even seem to LIKE the guy. Like, honestly - she was playing him like a fiddle from the start, and he was just this super pathetic excuse for a man who has zero self awareness. Why couldn't she just keep drawing her creepy pictures and leave this guy alone, I ask you this. And #SPOILER the rape at the end wasn't even shocking because this whole book from the beginning just seemed to be trying way too hard to shock me. I just had flashbacks to Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but instead of the scene disturbing me, I was just kind of like "where did this come from and when did this dude become a living person who's just as messed up as she is?"
And if they called each other darling one more time I swear to goodness I was going to break one of my beloved Disney mugs, because that's how ANNOYED I was with them.
Don't read this book. It's weird and hyper-sexual and not even in a satisfying Anna Todd fanfiction way.
And if they called each other darling one more time I swear to goodness I was going to break one of my beloved Disney mugs, because that's how ANNOYED I was with them.
Don't read this book. It's weird and hyper-sexual and not even in a satisfying Anna Todd fanfiction way.
August 28, 2010
Innocents is basically the story of a 16 year girl who seduces her teacher. So enamored by her is he, that he quits his job, rents them a new house and takes her away from her life. They have sex constantly and she's constantly manipulating him.
It's written sort of as a letter. Somewhere in the first 50 pages or so we discover that she's writing down an account of their affair and that this account is being written to her lover / the teacher, at his request. There are many sentences that end with 'darling,' which is never pleasant.
I read this because someone I used to know was scandalized and titillated by it. While 16 year old girls aren't quite my cup of tea, I do have an interest in the darker sides of sexuality. However, it was written by a 19 year old. The audience was clearly people who wanted to be scandalized and titillated, without the benefit of actually having to consider alternative sexual lifestyles.
In summation : It bored me and I was not scandalized or titillated.
It's written sort of as a letter. Somewhere in the first 50 pages or so we discover that she's writing down an account of their affair and that this account is being written to her lover / the teacher, at his request. There are many sentences that end with 'darling,' which is never pleasant.
I read this because someone I used to know was scandalized and titillated by it. While 16 year old girls aren't quite my cup of tea, I do have an interest in the darker sides of sexuality. However, it was written by a 19 year old. The audience was clearly people who wanted to be scandalized and titillated, without the benefit of actually having to consider alternative sexual lifestyles.
In summation : It bored me and I was not scandalized or titillated.
July 13, 2021
This was like the female version of Lolita and so much more f up. The nameless narrator knew exactly what she was aiming for, highly calculative and so messed up in her head. This kid wasn't alright. She gaslight, gatekeep and is as twisted as you expect. The end seemed pretty predictable for me but only because I have really bad imagination.
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May 22, 2023i just… i really have no idea how to feel about this. i thought it was beautiful, but the topic at hand is just so complicated and bizarre to be written in such a beautiful, poetic way. i need to spend some time thinking about it before formulating a more concrete review
April 24, 2014
This is by far my most favorite book on the planet
June 10, 2021
okay don't judge i thought it would be psychological thriller
April 18, 2022
I’m genuinely in disbelief that this is a debut novel AND the author was nineteen at the time.
Innocents has really taken me by surprise. I went in expecting an uncomfortable story, something that would make me raise my eyebrows, which yes, was correct, but I’ve come away feeling absolutely mind fucked and I genuinely can’t decide how to accurately talk about how I feel.
This book made me ponder about my own feelings when I was a teen, the nature of dynamics, the subjects of trauma and abuse, who is the victim and who is the abuser.
I’m going to be thinking about this book for a while.
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Innocents has really taken me by surprise. I went in expecting an uncomfortable story, something that would make me raise my eyebrows, which yes, was correct, but I’ve come away feeling absolutely mind fucked and I genuinely can’t decide how to accurately talk about how I feel.
This book made me ponder about my own feelings when I was a teen, the nature of dynamics, the subjects of trauma and abuse, who is the victim and who is the abuser.
I’m going to be thinking about this book for a while.
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July 15, 2010
This is a VERY sexual book. If you don't like that type of subject, then this will not appeal to you. Especially with the older man and young girl setting. This is a story and it is a game. It's almost brilliant and it shows how smart and how terrifyingly smart this young girl is. It's written in her point of view, its a letter from her to him and she goes over how she played him every step of the way, not used, but used her body and her moves and how she planned and acted almost every part of what she was doing, just to see him clamor all over her. Good read and very interesting.
November 29, 2021
After reading this book I can’t help but still think.. who is the victim in this story? Many might point to the girl since she’s desperately trying to convince us that she’s the predator the entire time, but is she? Why would a true predator write a whole entire book just to try to convenience us they are one? Was the teacher so Innocent? If he was then he shouldn’t have any reasons to feel guilty, right? In the end I did feel bad for both people involved in this whole relationship and both need serious mental therapy.
December 4, 2013
Content Warning: This book graphically details a sexual relationship between a 16-year-old girl and her 34-year-old high school English teacher. The teenager girl willingly pursues her teacher with a single-minded determination that soon turns into pure obsession. The teenager girl is manipulative, cold, calculating, and completely unmoved my humanity. Simply put, this book is dark and twisted with BDSM undertones all mixed together that resemble fantasy more than it does contemporary fiction. THIS IS NOT A ROMANTIC LOVE STORY!!!!!! This book details a young girl’s seduction of a much older man that soon turns to obsession that eventually becomes violent. NOTE: Familiarize yourself with the “Lolita Complex”.
This book is unlike any other book that I’ve ever read about forbidden love. Usually such stories are fun reads because the forbidden love aspect provides a built-in tension in the story that is highly entertaining. This book was extremely different...it focuses on the darker side of such relationships, but not in the traditional way. The norm in Western Societies is to place all of the blame on the male involved if the relationship presents itself as a male teacher and female student. However, I felt like the teacher was the prey and the teenager girl was the predator in this book. The teacher (the male) begins by worshipping this girl from afar because he knows how morally wrong it would be for him to act upon his desire. He really puts on her a pedestal and becomes obsessed with her, but from afar. I mean, for the first 30% of the book you don’t even know that he’s interested in her. Instead you’re learning about the teenage girl’s perversions. She treats everything as a game. She treats her peer relationships as games because she feels like she must hide who she really is. She knows that she’s different from everyone else because she doesn’t feel emotions and see situations in quite the same way as other people. She also draws pornographic sketches in her notebook that depict BDSM type scenes where she is the one in control and inflicting pain and humiliation on her female peers (from school). Simply put, she’s a disturbing little girl.
Unfortunate circumstances (if you could term them as such) force the little girl from her home and she finds herself (by coincidence) in front of the teacher’s door in the middle of night injured and wet. Of course he takes her inside his home and cleans her up and puts her in bed. Then the girl finds out about his obsession with her and she uses this knowledge to willingly seduce him. She’s quite manipulative as she goes about it.
After this first encounter she pretty much moves in with the teacher and they begin a very graphic sexual relationship. I mean, it’s all about sex all of the time and I’m not talking about romantic sex, no, it’s all a power play…at least for the girl. Everything she says and does is a direct manipulation meant to keep him focused on her and her needs alone. It’s actually interesting because in the beginning of the book the story has a broad focus to include things outside of their relationship, but as the story progresses the focus becomes more and more narrow to just include the two of them inside their “home”. This is a true sign of someone obsessed. She’s becoming obsessed with the way he sees her and controlling that as well as being the center of his world. She doesn’t even like it when he talks to friends and family. She’s the epitome of controlling and manipulative (I don’t mean to keep beating a dead horse here).
As the story progresses we notice that he becomes slightly more hostile towards her and she revels in it. She loves the more…violent side of him so she begins to tease it out of him slowly. This teasing leads up to a disturbing climax that left me disgusted.
The story is basically a slow descent into madness and obsession for both parties. I mean, he obviously suffers from the “Lolita complex” and she is obviously a sociopath, so the book reads like a disaster waiting to happen. However, I must say that the ending is truly shocking…I never expected that to happen, which just made me feel more sympathy for the male character…his naivety is….well…shocking!
The book is written in the form of a letter that the girl is writing to her ex-lover to explain her side of things. The writing is also quite lyrical and poetic, which grabs your attention and keeps it. The writing is absolutely superb and makes the book a five star read despite the content.
This book will never gain mainstream popularity. It’s not a feel-good fuzzy type of read. It’s very raw and gritty. For this reason I will give the book a three star rating. The writing alone warrants five stars, but the story itself is highly disconcerting which knocks my rating down two stars.
This book is unlike any other book that I’ve ever read about forbidden love. Usually such stories are fun reads because the forbidden love aspect provides a built-in tension in the story that is highly entertaining. This book was extremely different...it focuses on the darker side of such relationships, but not in the traditional way. The norm in Western Societies is to place all of the blame on the male involved if the relationship presents itself as a male teacher and female student. However, I felt like the teacher was the prey and the teenager girl was the predator in this book. The teacher (the male) begins by worshipping this girl from afar because he knows how morally wrong it would be for him to act upon his desire. He really puts on her a pedestal and becomes obsessed with her, but from afar. I mean, for the first 30% of the book you don’t even know that he’s interested in her. Instead you’re learning about the teenage girl’s perversions. She treats everything as a game. She treats her peer relationships as games because she feels like she must hide who she really is. She knows that she’s different from everyone else because she doesn’t feel emotions and see situations in quite the same way as other people. She also draws pornographic sketches in her notebook that depict BDSM type scenes where she is the one in control and inflicting pain and humiliation on her female peers (from school). Simply put, she’s a disturbing little girl.
Unfortunate circumstances (if you could term them as such) force the little girl from her home and she finds herself (by coincidence) in front of the teacher’s door in the middle of night injured and wet. Of course he takes her inside his home and cleans her up and puts her in bed. Then the girl finds out about his obsession with her and she uses this knowledge to willingly seduce him. She’s quite manipulative as she goes about it.
After this first encounter she pretty much moves in with the teacher and they begin a very graphic sexual relationship. I mean, it’s all about sex all of the time and I’m not talking about romantic sex, no, it’s all a power play…at least for the girl. Everything she says and does is a direct manipulation meant to keep him focused on her and her needs alone. It’s actually interesting because in the beginning of the book the story has a broad focus to include things outside of their relationship, but as the story progresses the focus becomes more and more narrow to just include the two of them inside their “home”. This is a true sign of someone obsessed. She’s becoming obsessed with the way he sees her and controlling that as well as being the center of his world. She doesn’t even like it when he talks to friends and family. She’s the epitome of controlling and manipulative (I don’t mean to keep beating a dead horse here).
As the story progresses we notice that he becomes slightly more hostile towards her and she revels in it. She loves the more…violent side of him so she begins to tease it out of him slowly. This teasing leads up to a disturbing climax that left me disgusted.
The story is basically a slow descent into madness and obsession for both parties. I mean, he obviously suffers from the “Lolita complex” and she is obviously a sociopath, so the book reads like a disaster waiting to happen. However, I must say that the ending is truly shocking…I never expected that to happen, which just made me feel more sympathy for the male character…his naivety is….well…shocking!
The book is written in the form of a letter that the girl is writing to her ex-lover to explain her side of things. The writing is also quite lyrical and poetic, which grabs your attention and keeps it. The writing is absolutely superb and makes the book a five star read despite the content.
This book will never gain mainstream popularity. It’s not a feel-good fuzzy type of read. It’s very raw and gritty. For this reason I will give the book a three star rating. The writing alone warrants five stars, but the story itself is highly disconcerting which knocks my rating down two stars.
September 19, 2023
God where do I begin. This is a story in which we are lead to believe a young student is manipulating her much older teacher into a sexual relationship. Through the blurb on the back we are told she is the culpable one; the aggressor, the abuser, the pervert. She is a child. I’m not sure if Cathy intended to be manipulative with her language here, leading us to believe that, at face value, a young girl can be fully in the driver seat of this relationship dynamic. As disturbing as the girls thoughts are as she perceives her teacher and her own capabilities, her emotional detachment, it is only disturbing because it reveals how vulnerable and traumatized she really is. Cathy strategically reminds us throughout the book of her sole survivor status having lost both of her parents to a tragic car accident, never being able to fully respect her relatives attempts to parent her sending her to her teachers doorstep. It is clear she is seeking control in a world where she has had little choice over what has occurred to her. She is tired of being passive and she sees her teachers perversion as an easy escape. But as cunning as the protagonist is with using his own depravity against him, he is still a man harming her, she is still a child with no girlhood to speak of. She is sixteen, a child acting like a woman acting like a child. She is unable to experience what every 16 year old should have, a loving family, friends, crushes on age appropriate peers, hobbies that aren’t for the purpose of sexualization and infantilization. And while this story became repetitive it culminates in a mind altering, skin crawling climax that you have to believe will shake our protagonist enough to realize her victimhood. Instead, Cathy gives us a far more bleak and realistic ending, where even in her imaginations of being rescued, she cannot detach being cared for from sexual manipulation. I’ll be thinking about this monthly.
November 4, 2014
i just it's all about power and control and she thinks she has it the entire time and he thinks he does and it's all a game except it's not and they actually might be something once he finds out that she's not who she's been pretending to be and once she sees what she does to him but she's not one to be overtaken. she's the winner. she's on top. she is in control. always. ugh chills though seriously best reverse lolita book ever seriously i just
September 10, 2023
fucking ew maybe I just don’t understand books like this.
it’s similar to Lolita right? unreliable narrator and talking about how bad and twisted things like this are but it just doesn’t justify how fucked up and gross it is.
the writing is also so hard to follow and it’s so hard to like envision some of the things she writes because it’s all just muddled descriptive words that don’t actually mean anything?
whole book just felt like reading graphic scenes of assault and then the character saying “but so you see” just pissed me off and was overall disgusting.
it’s similar to Lolita right? unreliable narrator and talking about how bad and twisted things like this are but it just doesn’t justify how fucked up and gross it is.
the writing is also so hard to follow and it’s so hard to like envision some of the things she writes because it’s all just muddled descriptive words that don’t actually mean anything?
whole book just felt like reading graphic scenes of assault and then the character saying “but so you see” just pissed me off and was overall disgusting.
January 2, 2010
I haven't read such a thought provoking book in really long time. The story in itself is very disturbing and though reminiscent of Vladīmir Vladimirovich Nabokov's Lolita it's told from the prospective of the young girl and is in the form of a letter to her teacher and lover. The language is simplistic and innocent, beautifully capturing the image of a confused teenager masking her inner turmoil by trying to be just like everyone else. Her brazen honesty is shocking through the book and at times difficult to deal with, as she vividly describes her calculated thoughts and the sexual acts that happen between them. What was most disturbing for me was the complete role reversal and the fact that it's the student doing the seducing and the teacher who appears to be naive and immature. Her skill and ease at manipulating him physically and emotionally are hard to deal with at times, especially when juxtaposed with her childish behaviors, inability to take care of herself or even make her own meals. It is a frustrating read at every turn but I have to confess that I couldn't put it down in spit of that frustration and reread it a few time after I was done. The ending is hard to swallow because of our own conscience and the desire for resolution that's inline with our personal sense of right and wrong. It's a great discussion book but one that I would be hesitant to recommend to the prudish or anyone who has difficulty with graphic sexual description.
May 17, 2014
1.5 stars.
This rather low rating is not because to the disgusting topic this book decided to talk about, because trust me, I'm all up for that. (In re: see my book review of Tampa) The topic of pedophilia was what drove me to read the book in the first place. Though it wasn't an uncharted territory for me I wanted to try reading more diverse books, and I, of course, let myself establish high expectations. But damn if I didn't fall to the ground hard and face first.
Let me try to explain why. If anything, Innocents is largely descriptive. On the other hand, Tampa, a book that is in the same line with Innocents, is brutally honest and dramatic. Cathy Coote tried to describe the insides and horrors of being a pedophile. I think she focused more on the materialized emotions instead of what truly her characters are feeling. Unlike Nutting, she didn't manage to convince and grasp the readers.
The first few parts are very boring. Also, the transition of point of views wasn't established very well. It made reading this a chore, especially when the dialogue tries to be all pheromone driven and angsty. Ick. There were many eyerolls; that's the only thing that I could say.
This rather low rating is not because to the disgusting topic this book decided to talk about, because trust me, I'm all up for that. (In re: see my book review of Tampa) The topic of pedophilia was what drove me to read the book in the first place. Though it wasn't an uncharted territory for me I wanted to try reading more diverse books, and I, of course, let myself establish high expectations. But damn if I didn't fall to the ground hard and face first.
Let me try to explain why. If anything, Innocents is largely descriptive. On the other hand, Tampa, a book that is in the same line with Innocents, is brutally honest and dramatic. Cathy Coote tried to describe the insides and horrors of being a pedophile. I think she focused more on the materialized emotions instead of what truly her characters are feeling. Unlike Nutting, she didn't manage to convince and grasp the readers.
The first few parts are very boring. Also, the transition of point of views wasn't established very well. It made reading this a chore, especially when the dialogue tries to be all pheromone driven and angsty. Ick. There were many eyerolls; that's the only thing that I could say.
February 11, 2016
Holy shit! I'm shivering with mixed feelings! I just finished reading this book literally three minutes ago and I just couldn't contain my feelings! This was written in a way most people wouldn't understand. One has to be in this anonimous girl's shoes. At 16, orphaned, insecure and battling with her demons and obsessions, she sought solace in her sketches, but they were in turn detrimental. Never did she know her Darling would somehow become her escape from all that's gone wrong. But this formed a new obsession. She thought herself evil and dirty. Her darling's character won me in so many ways. His innocence, oh the irony, his bashful personality and his good heart... This book ends hauntingly open. Gggggaaaaaahhhhh!!!!!! I loved it so much! ♡
October 6, 2015
Actual Rating: 1.5
This book was weird. The main character is 16-years-old, and she seduces her 34-year-old teacher. They have a mutual attraction. This was the most confusing, and disturbing book that I've ever read. The characters annoyed me and the plot was non-existent. This is not what I was expecting from this book. I felt this lacked what other student-teacher relationship stories have, which is the story. Overall, I'm disappointed about this read.
This book was weird. The main character is 16-years-old, and she seduces her 34-year-old teacher. They have a mutual attraction. This was the most confusing, and disturbing book that I've ever read. The characters annoyed me and the plot was non-existent. This is not what I was expecting from this book. I felt this lacked what other student-teacher relationship stories have, which is the story. Overall, I'm disappointed about this read.
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March 30, 2025….my face the entire time :😟
September 6, 2022
pretty weird and fucked up, and not good in the way i usually like weird and fucked up books to be. certainly a book i’ll be thinking about every so often
February 4, 2024
I just scrolled through the top reviews & feel like I’ve just been gaslit omg
Please don’t listen to the reviews if you’re planning to read this, they were all written a decade ago when feminism & understanding victims wasn’t where it is today I guess.. The people who got seduced by Humbert’s convincing plea in Lolita are the same who fell for the protagonist’s persuasive writing in this book. The venn diagram of those who think Dolores was complicit in Humbert’s crime, because he said so, & those who believe this protagonist was in hers, because she said so, is a circle.
In Lolita H falsely claims Dolores was the one who seduced him, but the widely interpreted truth is that H is an unreliable narrator & that she was actually the victim, right? This book takes Lolita literally, playing with the concept of, what if H was being truthful? What if the little girl really was the seducer?
My read of this book is that this is a false narrative of someone trying to take charge of her victimhood, trying to convince herself, & you, that she had a sense of control in her situation. She moulds it to a palatable angle to her, because to be regarded as a pitiable survivor who had no say in the matter, who sits back quietly as crime is done unto her, feels dehumanising. I don’t think she’s a psychopath, I think she paints herself as a psychopath. By claiming she had power, she takes back her power. As H uses flowery prose to twist his narrative, this protagonist uses tumblr 2014 melodramatic coquetry to twist hers, because she’s in denial, the first stage after experiencing a trauma. Here I direct you to My Dark Vanessa as recommended reading to convince you of my interpretation.
Even if we were to take the narrator literally, I think the myth of the perfect victim blinded reviewers’ judgements. Because she was flawed, she deserved it? Because she wanted it, he had free reign? It’s my belief that it’s the adult’s responsibility to reject inappropriate advances, no matter how relentlessly they pursue them.
I only started highlighting in the latter half, here’s some quotes that let slip signs of a grooming victim, evidence of an unreliable narrator:
“Sometimes, I flirted with the truth”
“Sometimes, I cried. I didn't know why.
My tears used to burst from me at the oddest times.“ unstable emotions
“I always wake up at least two or three times in a night. Much more of late. I'm nearly completely insomniac.”
“You always rang from work as soon as I got home.
They unfailingly came ten or fifteen minutes after I walked in the door,” controlling behaviour
“I couldn't do my schoolwork.” loss of focus, slipping academic performance
“It was like being nervous all the time.”
“My breathing became shallow and incomplete. I sometimes thought I was hyperventilating.” anxiety
“I stopped talking almost entirely.” self isolation
“You must have noticed me kicking as hard as I could. But you didn't stop.”
“But where my acts on them had been like logic, abstract, this act on me was concrete.” Interpreting a teenager’s offputting albeit harmless musings as equally psychopathic as pedophilia is crazy. Get some perspective!
“I fantasise about absolution.” suicidal thoughts & ideation
Please don’t listen to the reviews if you’re planning to read this, they were all written a decade ago when feminism & understanding victims wasn’t where it is today I guess.. The people who got seduced by Humbert’s convincing plea in Lolita are the same who fell for the protagonist’s persuasive writing in this book. The venn diagram of those who think Dolores was complicit in Humbert’s crime, because he said so, & those who believe this protagonist was in hers, because she said so, is a circle.
In Lolita H falsely claims Dolores was the one who seduced him, but the widely interpreted truth is that H is an unreliable narrator & that she was actually the victim, right? This book takes Lolita literally, playing with the concept of, what if H was being truthful? What if the little girl really was the seducer?
My read of this book is that this is a false narrative of someone trying to take charge of her victimhood, trying to convince herself, & you, that she had a sense of control in her situation. She moulds it to a palatable angle to her, because to be regarded as a pitiable survivor who had no say in the matter, who sits back quietly as crime is done unto her, feels dehumanising. I don’t think she’s a psychopath, I think she paints herself as a psychopath. By claiming she had power, she takes back her power. As H uses flowery prose to twist his narrative, this protagonist uses tumblr 2014 melodramatic coquetry to twist hers, because she’s in denial, the first stage after experiencing a trauma. Here I direct you to My Dark Vanessa as recommended reading to convince you of my interpretation.
Even if we were to take the narrator literally, I think the myth of the perfect victim blinded reviewers’ judgements. Because she was flawed, she deserved it? Because she wanted it, he had free reign? It’s my belief that it’s the adult’s responsibility to reject inappropriate advances, no matter how relentlessly they pursue them.
I only started highlighting in the latter half, here’s some quotes that let slip signs of a grooming victim, evidence of an unreliable narrator:
“Sometimes, I flirted with the truth”
“Sometimes, I cried. I didn't know why.
My tears used to burst from me at the oddest times.“ unstable emotions
“I always wake up at least two or three times in a night. Much more of late. I'm nearly completely insomniac.”
“You always rang from work as soon as I got home.
They unfailingly came ten or fifteen minutes after I walked in the door,” controlling behaviour
“I couldn't do my schoolwork.” loss of focus, slipping academic performance
“It was like being nervous all the time.”
“My breathing became shallow and incomplete. I sometimes thought I was hyperventilating.” anxiety
“I stopped talking almost entirely.” self isolation
“You must have noticed me kicking as hard as I could. But you didn't stop.”
“But where my acts on them had been like logic, abstract, this act on me was concrete.” Interpreting a teenager’s offputting albeit harmless musings as equally psychopathic as pedophilia is crazy. Get some perspective!
“I fantasise about absolution.” suicidal thoughts & ideation
June 4, 2010
With the promise of redefining the stereotypes of Lolita-esque relationships, I had very high expectations for this novel. Of course, I kept in mind there is nothing completely original about turning the tables on this sort of thing; I’ve seen it many times before, and I’ll certainly encounter it again. Every professional review I read seemed to guarantee the portrayal of a twisted relationship, woven into unhealthy, erotic obsession. Ironically, for me, Innocents was a hollow and horribly pretentious wreck.
The dialogue in this novel is awful, often reading like a pornographic film. The narrator speaks to other characters with exaggerated innocence, which would’ve been acceptable had it been the intention, but I severely doubt it was anything more than a failed attempt at nonchalance. A large portion of the dialogue reeks of thoughtless word choice and, on other occasions, shoddy page-fillers.
I viewed the relationship itself as a ticking time bomb. The reader is genuinely led to believe the narrator and her lover are doomed and that it is only a matter of time before everything crashes and burns. Instead, their one-time fallout lasts for two or so pages before the relationship is rebuilt. A page later, we are promised another disaster, one which was fully expected (and, for me, anticipated), except the book ends there.
To be frank, I absolutely loathed the narrator. And, no, she was not an anti-hero, whose antics contributed to some kind of beautifully dark growth, forever indebting my admiration; she was a boring, hypocritical mess, all in terms of the author’s sloppy, dead end writing. There is nothing psychologically interesting about her and, worst of all, nothing psychologically interesting about her relationship. You’re reading about two characters who have built a relationship solely on lust, which has mountains of potential, story-wise, when that particular passion runs out. Except, as the narrator’s interest begins to dissolve, she subsequently explores badly executed sado-masochism, which is illogical due to its immense lack of literary reasoning. Then, to further jump the shark, what throws the narrator into disgust for what she shares with her lover, is an even more blasé encounter with anal sex. Her claim of its depravity and abnormality felt even more overdramatic and pathetic than the scenes of her nausea that followed. Previously, we had gone through 100+ pages of her so-called perversion, yet for that particular scene to be her breaking point felt so ridiculous and, for lack of better word, lame.
Of course, trying to delve into the depth of this book will result in no answers, because there simply is no depth. This novel is the author’s (failed) attempt at a psychological exploration of sexual obsession and corruption. All it is, however, is a poorly strung together fantasy, riddled with clichés and futile shots at originality. What a mess!
The dialogue in this novel is awful, often reading like a pornographic film. The narrator speaks to other characters with exaggerated innocence, which would’ve been acceptable had it been the intention, but I severely doubt it was anything more than a failed attempt at nonchalance. A large portion of the dialogue reeks of thoughtless word choice and, on other occasions, shoddy page-fillers.
I viewed the relationship itself as a ticking time bomb. The reader is genuinely led to believe the narrator and her lover are doomed and that it is only a matter of time before everything crashes and burns. Instead, their one-time fallout lasts for two or so pages before the relationship is rebuilt. A page later, we are promised another disaster, one which was fully expected (and, for me, anticipated), except the book ends there.
To be frank, I absolutely loathed the narrator. And, no, she was not an anti-hero, whose antics contributed to some kind of beautifully dark growth, forever indebting my admiration; she was a boring, hypocritical mess, all in terms of the author’s sloppy, dead end writing. There is nothing psychologically interesting about her and, worst of all, nothing psychologically interesting about her relationship. You’re reading about two characters who have built a relationship solely on lust, which has mountains of potential, story-wise, when that particular passion runs out. Except, as the narrator’s interest begins to dissolve, she subsequently explores badly executed sado-masochism, which is illogical due to its immense lack of literary reasoning. Then, to further jump the shark, what throws the narrator into disgust for what she shares with her lover, is an even more blasé encounter with anal sex. Her claim of its depravity and abnormality felt even more overdramatic and pathetic than the scenes of her nausea that followed. Previously, we had gone through 100+ pages of her so-called perversion, yet for that particular scene to be her breaking point felt so ridiculous and, for lack of better word, lame.
Of course, trying to delve into the depth of this book will result in no answers, because there simply is no depth. This novel is the author’s (failed) attempt at a psychological exploration of sexual obsession and corruption. All it is, however, is a poorly strung together fantasy, riddled with clichés and futile shots at originality. What a mess!
April 15, 2014
This is a mesmerising and unusual novel. Told entirely from the female character's perspective, it tells the tale of a disturbed young woman who seduces her teacher and enters an obsessive relationship with him.
Literally nothing else happens in this book apart from their relationship, which is part of the strength of the writing. There are no side plots. Other characters are scant and barely mentioned and rapidly forgotten. Despite this it flows very well and remains compelling amid the sense you get of the narrator's own fixation and mental suffocation.
Another strength is the dialogue. This is always realistic and provides a good break to and contrast from the rather artificial tone of her narrative. You feel a sense of the real world again, instead of seeing it through the lens of her deluded perspective.
What I found interesting was that the character is no way near as disturbed or as sociopathic as she likes to think she is. The relationship is reasonably healthy and not abusive (he's kind and supportive to her, one late scene excepted) and age gap apart, they're both above the age of consent in Australia where the story takes place.
All in all the character is more needy than destructive, and pretty vanilla. Anyone who has read Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire will understand what I mean.
But certainly it's a "darker" read than the average student-teacher relationship novel. There is one particularly disturbing scene near the end but it's in context with the plot, and there's still kind of a happy ending, or at least continuation.
This will probably appeal to fans of psychological and age-gap novels more than student-teacher, as the school element is minimal and ends early since they both leave the school.
Literally nothing else happens in this book apart from their relationship, which is part of the strength of the writing. There are no side plots. Other characters are scant and barely mentioned and rapidly forgotten. Despite this it flows very well and remains compelling amid the sense you get of the narrator's own fixation and mental suffocation.
Another strength is the dialogue. This is always realistic and provides a good break to and contrast from the rather artificial tone of her narrative. You feel a sense of the real world again, instead of seeing it through the lens of her deluded perspective.
What I found interesting was that the character is no way near as disturbed or as sociopathic as she likes to think she is. The relationship is reasonably healthy and not abusive (he's kind and supportive to her, one late scene excepted) and age gap apart, they're both above the age of consent in Australia where the story takes place.
All in all the character is more needy than destructive, and pretty vanilla. Anyone who has read Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire will understand what I mean.
But certainly it's a "darker" read than the average student-teacher relationship novel. There is one particularly disturbing scene near the end but it's in context with the plot, and there's still kind of a happy ending, or at least continuation.
This will probably appeal to fans of psychological and age-gap novels more than student-teacher, as the school element is minimal and ends early since they both leave the school.
September 28, 2009
This is one of the most engrossing books I've read in my entire life. The sexuality and vulgerness was definitely a tough obstacle for me to get over while reading it, but as I kept reading, I saw past it. The book just grew on me. I couldn't put it down.
It was odd though, that the author never mentioned the names of the two of them. She mentioned the names of many others, but not the girl and the teacher.
The ending, or the last two paragraphs I should say, left me in deep thought. I knew that something was going to happen with Mr Harrison and his speculations of the two of them. I would deeply appreciate it if Cathy wrote a sequel to this so we could know what happened with that. If she ever really did have to go to her 'retreat'.
It was odd though, that the author never mentioned the names of the two of them. She mentioned the names of many others, but not the girl and the teacher.
The ending, or the last two paragraphs I should say, left me in deep thought. I knew that something was going to happen with Mr Harrison and his speculations of the two of them. I would deeply appreciate it if Cathy wrote a sequel to this so we could know what happened with that. If she ever really did have to go to her 'retreat'.
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