What do you think?
Rate this book
Discipline
I have the sense that something is being drawn between us. Not drawn as in line but as in arrow pulled back. Yet I don’t know which of us holds the bow, and which of us faces the arrow.
Christine is on tour for her novel, a revenge fantasy based on a real-life relationship gone bad with an older professor ten years prior. Now on the road, she’s seeking answers—about how to live a good life and what it means to make art—through intimate conversations with strangers, past lovers, and friends.
But when the antagonist of her novel—her old painting professor—reaches out in a series of sly communiques after years of silence to tell her that he’s read her book, Christine must reckon with what it means to lose the reins of a narrative she wrote precisely to maintain control. When her professor invites her to join him at his house, on a remote island off the coast of Maine, their encounter threatens to change the very foundations of her life as she’s imagined it.
A pristine and provocative high-wire act toggling the fictions we construct for ourselves just to survive and the possibilities that lie beyond them, Discipline launches a spellbinding inquiry into the nature of art-making and rigor, intimacy and attention, punishment and release.
Christine is on tour for her novel, a revenge fantasy based on a real-life relationship gone bad with an older professor ten years prior. Now on the road, she’s seeking answers—about how to live a good life and what it means to make art—through intimate conversations with strangers, past lovers, and friends.
But when the antagonist of her novel—her old painting professor—reaches out in a series of sly communiques after years of silence to tell her that he’s read her book, Christine must reckon with what it means to lose the reins of a narrative she wrote precisely to maintain control. When her professor invites her to join him at his house, on a remote island off the coast of Maine, their encounter threatens to change the very foundations of her life as she’s imagined it.
A pristine and provocative high-wire act toggling the fictions we construct for ourselves just to survive and the possibilities that lie beyond them, Discipline launches a spellbinding inquiry into the nature of art-making and rigor, intimacy and attention, punishment and release.
203 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 20, 2026
207 people are currently reading
20431 people want to read
About the author
Larissa Pham
9 books131 followersLarissa Pham is a writer living in Brooklyn. She has written for Adult, Guernica, The Nation and Nerve. Pham studied painting and art history at Yale University.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 270 reviews
October 6, 2025
It is lovely to see Larissa Pham blessing us with a novel. Like her nonfiction, the prose in Discipline is both lush and precise. There is a satisfying interiority to this novel and a fascinating structure as Christine goes on a book tour for her debut novel and then takes a detour to the Maine home of a former professor and lover who derailed her promising career as a visual artist. In some ways, this reads like a taut thriller even though it really is an elegant cerebral exploration of creativity and commitment to one’s craft and how when we don’t value our craft almost anything can rob us of it. The ending was particularly interesting. An admirable debut.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
i love books about women making messy decisions where the closest thing to a plot is their reflections on them. it's one of my favorite things to read about.
this one felt like it contained two separate books within it: the first, a dialogue-laden narrative of an author on a book tour, similar to rachel cusk's outline trilogy in all its conversations on art and beauty and life. the second follows that author's time with the older and renowned artist whose behavior towards her inspired the book she toured.
i really enjoyed this first section even as i wondered how it would bring us to the second, and then i thought the second meandered a bit, holding itself back before finally revealing its purpose. but when it finally did, i enjoyed the last pages.
when people don't deserve forgiveness, do we hold ourselves back from granting it — if it means living our lives in the shadow of what they did?
it's a hard question and a brave one even to ask.
bottom line: timely and poignant.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
this one felt like it contained two separate books within it: the first, a dialogue-laden narrative of an author on a book tour, similar to rachel cusk's outline trilogy in all its conversations on art and beauty and life. the second follows that author's time with the older and renowned artist whose behavior towards her inspired the book she toured.
i really enjoyed this first section even as i wondered how it would bring us to the second, and then i thought the second meandered a bit, holding itself back before finally revealing its purpose. but when it finally did, i enjoyed the last pages.
when people don't deserve forgiveness, do we hold ourselves back from granting it — if it means living our lives in the shadow of what they did?
it's a hard question and a brave one even to ask.
bottom line: timely and poignant.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
February 4, 2026
I'm always here for a story set in the art world, and Pham's debut novel gives us a clever twist on a by now stereotypical plot line: The older male mentor who abuses his power to sleep with the female mentee. Pham investigates the young woman's agency without diminishing the man's guilt, and the tension culminates in a well-crafted, surprising finale. Let's look at what happens before the stand-off: Protagonist Christine has given up on her career as a painter after she had a sexual relationship with her professor Richard. In her debut novel, Christine exacts revenge on Richard by telling the story of their inappropriate encounter how she wants to tell it. But during the book tour, Richard challenges her narrative with a simple e-mail: "That's not how I remember it."
The book is split in two halves: In part one, Christine re-connects with all kinds of people from her past during the book tour, the second part shows her traveling to a remote island off the coast of Maine where she visits the now elderly Richard and they tackle the question where the truth lies, and what to do about it. Throughout the text, Christine ponders what art means to her, which art she consumes, critiques and creates (writing is also art!) and why all this is important. Pham herself studied painting and the history of art at Yale, and we get plenty of references to Helen Frankenthaler, Vija Celmins, Edward Hopper et al. These ruminations lead to the question why she has written the book about Richard the way she did, and why she has stopped painting - questions the narrator struggles with. At one point, Christine tells her former classmate Frances that she lacked the discipline to become a successful artist, which is why she abandoned the profession - the classmate doesn't believe her, and the reader doesn't either. Challenged why painting does matter, Frances answers that it keeps her from killing herself. What keeps Christine alive?
We meet our narrator on a journey, both physically and psychologically: She tries to grasp what makes her tick, how to access her creative powers, and the inner turmoil is juxtaposed by Pham's quiet and restraint tone, and the crystalline quality of her sentences. The minimalist cover in black and white shows a woman immersed in a medium that holds her afloat, but also holds the power to kill her: Water (designed by Rachel Ake). Christine is looking for her medium, a way she can express herself - but often, the objects of art production are real people, and they will be affected. What responsibility does Christine carry, towards herself and others?
I was already intrigued by Pham's essay collection Pop Song: Adventures in Art & Intimacy, and her debut novel doesn't disappoint.
The book is split in two halves: In part one, Christine re-connects with all kinds of people from her past during the book tour, the second part shows her traveling to a remote island off the coast of Maine where she visits the now elderly Richard and they tackle the question where the truth lies, and what to do about it. Throughout the text, Christine ponders what art means to her, which art she consumes, critiques and creates (writing is also art!) and why all this is important. Pham herself studied painting and the history of art at Yale, and we get plenty of references to Helen Frankenthaler, Vija Celmins, Edward Hopper et al. These ruminations lead to the question why she has written the book about Richard the way she did, and why she has stopped painting - questions the narrator struggles with. At one point, Christine tells her former classmate Frances that she lacked the discipline to become a successful artist, which is why she abandoned the profession - the classmate doesn't believe her, and the reader doesn't either. Challenged why painting does matter, Frances answers that it keeps her from killing herself. What keeps Christine alive?
We meet our narrator on a journey, both physically and psychologically: She tries to grasp what makes her tick, how to access her creative powers, and the inner turmoil is juxtaposed by Pham's quiet and restraint tone, and the crystalline quality of her sentences. The minimalist cover in black and white shows a woman immersed in a medium that holds her afloat, but also holds the power to kill her: Water (designed by Rachel Ake). Christine is looking for her medium, a way she can express herself - but often, the objects of art production are real people, and they will be affected. What responsibility does Christine carry, towards herself and others?
I was already intrigued by Pham's essay collection Pop Song: Adventures in Art & Intimacy, and her debut novel doesn't disappoint.
March 7, 2026
“ That’s not how I remember it.”
Memory and introspection course throughout DISCIPLINE,fueling doubt, uncertainty and suppressed rage. The novel simmers and tantalizes as it navigates emotional crossroads.Told in a first person voice, the narrator slowly assembles incidents and motivations that culminate in an uneasy journey of self definition and self agency.
The novel is divided into two parts. The first highlights narrator Christine’s backstory and inner rumination as she travels across America promoting her debut novel. Her trip is both vocational and cathartic, intending to boost her book sales as well as continuing her emotional recovery from a devastating affair ten years ago. Christine had been a rising star in her college art department until her liaison with an older professor imploded, causing embarrassment and diminished confidence in her artistic capabilities.She abandoned painting and channeled her creative impulses into writing. After a long period of gestation, the result was a scantily disguised fantasy with overtones of violence that remembered and reimagined her relationship with her art school professor. As she crosses the country, Christine visits art shows in the company of strangers and acquaintances who have impacted her life. An introspective interior combines with an outward conversational patter that hints at the trauma Christine has experienced. Her conversations and peregrinations are a form of self medication that test the limits of her redeveloping confidence. She is slowly shedding the detritus of her asymmetrical love entanglement where age and power were not properly aligned.She is gradually reacquainting herself with the life possibilities that unequally leveraged power dynamics had destroyed.
The author’s writing draws the reader into Christine’s mind as she reformulates her sense of worth. The prose is simple, stark and matter of fact. Its declarative rhythm exposes the shadings of feelings and emotion as Christine attempts to overcome her shame and rebuild her personal sense of worth. We are hopeful that her novel and tour are emotional watersheds bringing closure to her past trauma. But then, that one simple sentence appears in her email:
“ That’s not how I remember it.”
This email alters Christine’s wandering and begins the second section of the novel.Her newly reassembling world is shattered by this one challenging sentence from Richard, her former lover and professor.Now aging and reclusive, Richard invites Christine to his secluded home on an island off the Maine coast to have a final reckoning. Christine had hoped her novel, which included the symbolic death of her oppressor, had laid her past to rest. Richard’s contentious sentence unmoors Christine and she begins to lose control of her painstakingly constructed survival narrative.
The former lovers’ reunion on the island is fraught with recognition, avoidance and whispers of remembered attraction as each attempts to redefine their own power dynamic that teeters between revenge and compassion. The author has constructed a subtle and intricately composed psychological drama that will be recognizable to many in creative endeavors. Although the novel’s milieu is art and writing, the struggles and anxieties portrayed are more universal.The author examines the challenges inherent in balancing creative impulses with self worth and confidence and offers no resolution to this conundrum. Instead, we are delighted with a quiet, brooding novel filled with tension that lingers beyond the conclusion.
Memory and introspection course throughout DISCIPLINE,fueling doubt, uncertainty and suppressed rage. The novel simmers and tantalizes as it navigates emotional crossroads.Told in a first person voice, the narrator slowly assembles incidents and motivations that culminate in an uneasy journey of self definition and self agency.
The novel is divided into two parts. The first highlights narrator Christine’s backstory and inner rumination as she travels across America promoting her debut novel. Her trip is both vocational and cathartic, intending to boost her book sales as well as continuing her emotional recovery from a devastating affair ten years ago. Christine had been a rising star in her college art department until her liaison with an older professor imploded, causing embarrassment and diminished confidence in her artistic capabilities.She abandoned painting and channeled her creative impulses into writing. After a long period of gestation, the result was a scantily disguised fantasy with overtones of violence that remembered and reimagined her relationship with her art school professor. As she crosses the country, Christine visits art shows in the company of strangers and acquaintances who have impacted her life. An introspective interior combines with an outward conversational patter that hints at the trauma Christine has experienced. Her conversations and peregrinations are a form of self medication that test the limits of her redeveloping confidence. She is slowly shedding the detritus of her asymmetrical love entanglement where age and power were not properly aligned.She is gradually reacquainting herself with the life possibilities that unequally leveraged power dynamics had destroyed.
The author’s writing draws the reader into Christine’s mind as she reformulates her sense of worth. The prose is simple, stark and matter of fact. Its declarative rhythm exposes the shadings of feelings and emotion as Christine attempts to overcome her shame and rebuild her personal sense of worth. We are hopeful that her novel and tour are emotional watersheds bringing closure to her past trauma. But then, that one simple sentence appears in her email:
“ That’s not how I remember it.”
This email alters Christine’s wandering and begins the second section of the novel.Her newly reassembling world is shattered by this one challenging sentence from Richard, her former lover and professor.Now aging and reclusive, Richard invites Christine to his secluded home on an island off the Maine coast to have a final reckoning. Christine had hoped her novel, which included the symbolic death of her oppressor, had laid her past to rest. Richard’s contentious sentence unmoors Christine and she begins to lose control of her painstakingly constructed survival narrative.
The former lovers’ reunion on the island is fraught with recognition, avoidance and whispers of remembered attraction as each attempts to redefine their own power dynamic that teeters between revenge and compassion. The author has constructed a subtle and intricately composed psychological drama that will be recognizable to many in creative endeavors. Although the novel’s milieu is art and writing, the struggles and anxieties portrayed are more universal.The author examines the challenges inherent in balancing creative impulses with self worth and confidence and offers no resolution to this conundrum. Instead, we are delighted with a quiet, brooding novel filled with tension that lingers beyond the conclusion.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
What a smart, engaging book. Wonderful plot design.
Pre-Read Notes: The title and cover grabbed me here, honestly. I'm glad I didn't read the description or I might not have read it.
"And I can see , now, that he’s scared. That I’ve really taken something away from him. I’m filled—and I hate that I feel this way, but I feel it— with a sick, ugly pleasure. That I’ve ruined this. Are you proud of yourself? he asks." p138
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) I enjoyed this read, particularly the unique form. I normally write my reviews right away but it's been a few days, and my memory of this book is sort of vague. I do know I liked the second half of the book more than the first. For me, it pays off in character development reaching it's conclusion and a really compelling treatment of the theme of assisted suicide. Since that's an issue that affects the disabled community in an outsized way, I always like when I find this concept in fiction that treats it with gravity and nuance and even freshness.
This is a good selection for readers of litfic, revenge fantasies, and experimental form. I think you would like this if you enjoyed SKIM or maybe THE WHITE HOT.
My 3 Favorite Things:
✔️ She's both describing and critiquing contemporary fiction's chronic myopia. I agree; meta needs rescued from the first person writer POV.
✔️ She's sort of trying to decolonize fiction dang, bold as hell. It's working too, on a subtextual level at least.
✔️ She doesn't use quotation marks, but the execution is smooth and the effect meaningful, so I like it.
Content Notes: sexual coersion, sexual harassment, revenge, terminal illness, assisted su*c*de, su*c*de attempt, drowning, caregiving, grief,
Thank you to Larissa Pham, Random House, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of DISCIPLINE. All views are mine.
Pre-Read Notes: The title and cover grabbed me here, honestly. I'm glad I didn't read the description or I might not have read it.
"And I can see , now, that he’s scared. That I’ve really taken something away from him. I’m filled—and I hate that I feel this way, but I feel it— with a sick, ugly pleasure. That I’ve ruined this. Are you proud of yourself? he asks." p138
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) I enjoyed this read, particularly the unique form. I normally write my reviews right away but it's been a few days, and my memory of this book is sort of vague. I do know I liked the second half of the book more than the first. For me, it pays off in character development reaching it's conclusion and a really compelling treatment of the theme of assisted suicide. Since that's an issue that affects the disabled community in an outsized way, I always like when I find this concept in fiction that treats it with gravity and nuance and even freshness.
This is a good selection for readers of litfic, revenge fantasies, and experimental form. I think you would like this if you enjoyed SKIM or maybe THE WHITE HOT.
My 3 Favorite Things:
✔️ She's both describing and critiquing contemporary fiction's chronic myopia. I agree; meta needs rescued from the first person writer POV.
✔️ She's sort of trying to decolonize fiction dang, bold as hell. It's working too, on a subtextual level at least.
✔️ She doesn't use quotation marks, but the execution is smooth and the effect meaningful, so I like it.
Content Notes: sexual coersion, sexual harassment, revenge, terminal illness, assisted su*c*de, su*c*de attempt, drowning, caregiving, grief,
Thank you to Larissa Pham, Random House, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of DISCIPLINE. All views are mine.
January 27, 2026
Writing the Wrong
Larissa Pham's first novel, "Discipline," explores the intricate connections between trauma, artistic creation, and the search for purpose after a painful event. This striking work has been widely praised for its taut prose and philosophical depth.
The story follows Christine, a first-time author on a book tour for her novel—a thinly veiled revenge fantasy about her former painting professor, Richard, with whom she had a devastating, brief affair a decade earlier. This relationship derailed her promising career as a visual artist. The novel's structure mirrors Christine's journey, split into two distinct parts: the first tracks her book tour and reconnecting with past friends and lovers. In contrast, the second abruptly shifts to a remote Maine island for a tense confrontation with Richard after he reaches out with an ominous email– “That’s not how I remember it.”
The unexpected return of Richard completely disorients Cristine. She had painstakingly rebuilt her life, shifting her creative focus from painting to writing, and believed she had finally expelled his memory by fictionalizing his death in her novel. This hard-won peace came after years of silence; she had never told anyone about the trauma before her book's publication, a deliberate secret that had even sabotaged a later relationship. Given all this, her decision to accept his invitation to stay with him raises a central question: what outcome could she desire? Is she seeking closure, a confession, or simply a confrontation with the source of her pain?
The meeting culminates in an exchange that perfectly captures the lingering emotional warfare: “I have the sense that something is being drawn between us. Not drawn as in line but as an arrow pulled back. Yet I don’t know which of us holds the bow, and which of us faces the arrow.”
The book centers on the theme of artistic life. Christine feels she has been robbed of her creative capacity, no longer the artist she once was. To initiate her healing, she has shifted her focus from visual art to writing. This new medium enables her to fictionalize her experiences, thereby allowing her to regain mastery over her own story.
Pham's fiercely intelligent debut refuses to offer easy answers, instead focusing on a nuanced character study of a woman grappling with her past and seeking purpose. The author achieves this by examining the wreckage of trauma through the lens of creative output, all while maintaining a compelling sense of suspense.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Discipline #NetGalley
Larissa Pham's first novel, "Discipline," explores the intricate connections between trauma, artistic creation, and the search for purpose after a painful event. This striking work has been widely praised for its taut prose and philosophical depth.
The story follows Christine, a first-time author on a book tour for her novel—a thinly veiled revenge fantasy about her former painting professor, Richard, with whom she had a devastating, brief affair a decade earlier. This relationship derailed her promising career as a visual artist. The novel's structure mirrors Christine's journey, split into two distinct parts: the first tracks her book tour and reconnecting with past friends and lovers. In contrast, the second abruptly shifts to a remote Maine island for a tense confrontation with Richard after he reaches out with an ominous email– “That’s not how I remember it.”
The unexpected return of Richard completely disorients Cristine. She had painstakingly rebuilt her life, shifting her creative focus from painting to writing, and believed she had finally expelled his memory by fictionalizing his death in her novel. This hard-won peace came after years of silence; she had never told anyone about the trauma before her book's publication, a deliberate secret that had even sabotaged a later relationship. Given all this, her decision to accept his invitation to stay with him raises a central question: what outcome could she desire? Is she seeking closure, a confession, or simply a confrontation with the source of her pain?
The meeting culminates in an exchange that perfectly captures the lingering emotional warfare: “I have the sense that something is being drawn between us. Not drawn as in line but as an arrow pulled back. Yet I don’t know which of us holds the bow, and which of us faces the arrow.”
The book centers on the theme of artistic life. Christine feels she has been robbed of her creative capacity, no longer the artist she once was. To initiate her healing, she has shifted her focus from visual art to writing. This new medium enables her to fictionalize her experiences, thereby allowing her to regain mastery over her own story.
Pham's fiercely intelligent debut refuses to offer easy answers, instead focusing on a nuanced character study of a woman grappling with her past and seeking purpose. The author achieves this by examining the wreckage of trauma through the lens of creative output, all while maintaining a compelling sense of suspense.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Discipline #NetGalley
November 15, 2025
[4.5 stars] If you enjoyed Intimacies or My Nemesis, I think you'll really enjoy Pham's debut. There's something very special about literary fiction that leverages tension from the onset -- it reads like a thriller, and I was very curious to see how the central conflict would resolve itself.
Discipline is about a former artist whose ill-fated affair with a professor in her MFA program results in her withdrawal from the program and inability to paint again. She turns to writing to try and make sense of her experiences, and her not-so-fictionalized debut novel mirrors her own experiences. We follow her on a book tour where she reconnects with former classmates, lovers, and artists.
There's a lot of substance and nuance in Pham's analysis of power, agency, gender, and artistry. Her book is aptly described as an 'exorcism of the past', and in her introspection, we are presented with meaningful questions about the act of creation itself. Her decision to turn away from painting is mulled over throughout the novel, and unearths philosophical questions about how we express ourselves through art. Her decision to publish the novel was intended to be an act of catharsis, but she is faced with the mirror image: in fictionalizing her exploitation, has she reduced her trauma to nothing more than a performance?
Despite the slim page count, there's a lot of meat in this story that I'll be reflecting on. I did find the second part to veer slightly into cliche territory (with a somewhat predictable ending). Still, there's enough self-awareness from both Pham and the narrator about this that I didn't find it egregious by any means. I'll credit this book for getting me out of a reading slump - a knockout of a debut from a writer to watch.
Thank you to PRH Canada for the e-ARC!
Discipline is about a former artist whose ill-fated affair with a professor in her MFA program results in her withdrawal from the program and inability to paint again. She turns to writing to try and make sense of her experiences, and her not-so-fictionalized debut novel mirrors her own experiences. We follow her on a book tour where she reconnects with former classmates, lovers, and artists.
There's a lot of substance and nuance in Pham's analysis of power, agency, gender, and artistry. Her book is aptly described as an 'exorcism of the past', and in her introspection, we are presented with meaningful questions about the act of creation itself. Her decision to turn away from painting is mulled over throughout the novel, and unearths philosophical questions about how we express ourselves through art. Her decision to publish the novel was intended to be an act of catharsis, but she is faced with the mirror image: in fictionalizing her exploitation, has she reduced her trauma to nothing more than a performance?
Despite the slim page count, there's a lot of meat in this story that I'll be reflecting on. I did find the second part to veer slightly into cliche territory (with a somewhat predictable ending). Still, there's enough self-awareness from both Pham and the narrator about this that I didn't find it egregious by any means. I'll credit this book for getting me out of a reading slump - a knockout of a debut from a writer to watch.
Thank you to PRH Canada for the e-ARC!
November 6, 2025
Where to even start with this one... I was immediately drawn to Discipline's central conflict, prompting me to do something that I don't do often: read an ARC knowing next-to-nothing about the novel or novelist. I’ve now read the novel -- and I have to admit, it feels much longer than its modest page count. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that this is a book about the way time changes the people we once knew intimately (and warps our recollections of them)... It's also about the destabilizing experience being young and full of promise, only to have these aspirations derailed, #MeToo-style. After a traumatic and shameful encounter with her much-older academic advisor, narrator Christine abandons her career as a painter and struggles to rebuild her life. When Discipline opens, Christine is now a writer and is promoting her first book: a "revenge fantasy" loosely based on this affair -- only Christine's protagonist humiliates and kills the older male professor instead.
Needless to say, I was primed to enjoy this novel based on its plot and themes. But the style/voice was a massive obstacle to my enjoyment. There's something about the overwrought and emotionally-sterile prose that kept me detached from the main character and the minor (then major) dramas she witnesses/experiences. The narrative sets up character interactions that should be taut and interesting, one right after another: an oversharing stranger, an ex-boyfriend, a college friend / artistic rival. But these conversations felt utterly lifeless to me -- missing crucial vulnerability or realism as everyone in the scene prattles on and on with the singular, artificial voice of an MFA student. And then they just trail off...
For the first half of the book, I thought to myself that, surely, this was intentional -- the stilted writing, and Christine's subtly judgmental vibe, and the way that these character interactions kept building up to nothing, no kairotic moment. I kept waiting for there to be a point to it all. I assumed the crucial switch-flip would come during a confrontation between the narrator and the old painter. But these chapters also fizzle. As soon as the narrator and the painter get into unpacking their conflict -- what happened, and what he intended, and how she feels about it -- something ELSE happens that diffuses or cuts away from the situation completely -- culminating in the ultimate cut-away, which I suppose is the novel's "climax." Beyond two paragraphs at the 97% mark, this reckoning fell totally flat to me. There's extremely limited character growth and insight, in my opinion.
Is it so wrong to want to see blood on the pavement after idling in several miles of traffic? That is why I, personally, read literary fiction: for that scene at the end, with the family around the Thanksgiving Day table, where the characters finally go completely aggro on each other. I don't want a short volley of gunshots, I want a nuclear fucking bomb. And, by the end of this, I just did not get it. The main character makes a series of baffling decisions. She claims to want answers but, at every juncture, evades getting them. She insists that she doesn't want revenge, despite writing a revenge fantasy. She fixates on the notion that she has become a completely different person from the woman who was spurned by this old man and quit painting, but... there's no evidence of this in the text. Why give up painting? Why write the revenge fantasy? Why agree to meet this man? There are no answers to these questions.
There are so many moments in this novel where, in response to another character's monologue, the narrator intones: "I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything." That about sums it up.
Needless to say, I was primed to enjoy this novel based on its plot and themes. But the style/voice was a massive obstacle to my enjoyment. There's something about the overwrought and emotionally-sterile prose that kept me detached from the main character and the minor (then major) dramas she witnesses/experiences. The narrative sets up character interactions that should be taut and interesting, one right after another: an oversharing stranger, an ex-boyfriend, a college friend / artistic rival. But these conversations felt utterly lifeless to me -- missing crucial vulnerability or realism as everyone in the scene prattles on and on with the singular, artificial voice of an MFA student. And then they just trail off...
For the first half of the book, I thought to myself that, surely, this was intentional -- the stilted writing, and Christine's subtly judgmental vibe, and the way that these character interactions kept building up to nothing, no kairotic moment. I kept waiting for there to be a point to it all. I assumed the crucial switch-flip would come during a confrontation between the narrator and the old painter. But these chapters also fizzle. As soon as the narrator and the painter get into unpacking their conflict -- what happened, and what he intended, and how she feels about it -- something ELSE happens that diffuses or cuts away from the situation completely -- culminating in the ultimate cut-away, which I suppose is the novel's "climax." Beyond two paragraphs at the 97% mark, this reckoning fell totally flat to me. There's extremely limited character growth and insight, in my opinion.
Is it so wrong to want to see blood on the pavement after idling in several miles of traffic? That is why I, personally, read literary fiction: for that scene at the end, with the family around the Thanksgiving Day table, where the characters finally go completely aggro on each other. I don't want a short volley of gunshots, I want a nuclear fucking bomb. And, by the end of this, I just did not get it. The main character makes a series of baffling decisions. She claims to want answers but, at every juncture, evades getting them. She insists that she doesn't want revenge, despite writing a revenge fantasy. She fixates on the notion that she has become a completely different person from the woman who was spurned by this old man and quit painting, but... there's no evidence of this in the text. Why give up painting? Why write the revenge fantasy? Why agree to meet this man? There are no answers to these questions.
There are so many moments in this novel where, in response to another character's monologue, the narrator intones: "I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything." That about sums it up.
October 19, 2025
ARC for review. To be published January 20, 2026.
3 stars
Christine is a former painter, now a first time author and she’s starting her book tour. Is it fair that she gets to have both artistic and literary talent? No. No, it is not.
Her book is a loosely fictionalized version of a weekend affair she had with a professor in her MFA program; this relationship affected her deeply and caused her to give up art completely and it totally changed nearly everything about her life and sense of self. While she is on the book tour the professor reaches out to tell Christine he has read the book.
I have to be honest, I didn’t relate to Christine very much. There’s no doubt the professor was wrong to take advantage of the situation, and there’s no telling how someone in Christine’s position is going to react to that, I guess, but Christine’s life and growth essentially stopped at that point. Over one weekend, it wasn’t even like the had a full on relationship. I felt like there must have been a lot of blank or hurting spaces that Christine brought to that weekend to have it affect her in the way that it did, for as long as it did. But I’m no psychologist, or anything useful, really. Interesting book (though there was a point I would have cheerfully killed Christine, I don’t care what she went through.)
3 stars
Christine is a former painter, now a first time author and she’s starting her book tour. Is it fair that she gets to have both artistic and literary talent? No. No, it is not.
Her book is a loosely fictionalized version of a weekend affair she had with a professor in her MFA program; this relationship affected her deeply and caused her to give up art completely and it totally changed nearly everything about her life and sense of self. While she is on the book tour the professor reaches out to tell Christine he has read the book.
I have to be honest, I didn’t relate to Christine very much. There’s no doubt the professor was wrong to take advantage of the situation, and there’s no telling how someone in Christine’s position is going to react to that, I guess, but Christine’s life and growth essentially stopped at that point. Over one weekend, it wasn’t even like the had a full on relationship. I felt like there must have been a lot of blank or hurting spaces that Christine brought to that weekend to have it affect her in the way that it did, for as long as it did. But I’m no psychologist, or anything useful, really. Interesting book (though there was a point I would have cheerfully killed Christine, I don’t care what she went through.)
March 19, 2026
I ultimately enjoyed Discipline though it took me a little while to get there. The story follows Christine, a former art student who is on a book tour for her novel, a revenge fantasy of sorts, drawn from her experience with an older professor.
The professor emails Christine indicating he’s read her book and invites her to visit him in a remote part of Maine, where he now resides. This visit, along with encounters on her tour, forces Christine to reflect on her life, including her past.
Discipline is not a long book, and it is slower paced, but doesn’t leave anything necessary out. The story examines what constitutes art, friendships, how we tell our stories, reflect on our experiences, and more — 3.5 stars
The professor emails Christine indicating he’s read her book and invites her to visit him in a remote part of Maine, where he now resides. This visit, along with encounters on her tour, forces Christine to reflect on her life, including her past.
Discipline is not a long book, and it is slower paced, but doesn’t leave anything necessary out. The story examines what constitutes art, friendships, how we tell our stories, reflect on our experiences, and more — 3.5 stars
March 2, 2026
Discipline is quiet, controlled, and a little tense in the way it holds itself together.
Christine is on book tour for a pseudo-revenge novel based on her past relationship with an older painting professor. Pham grants almost no one a name at the start — people exist as roles, relationships, and scars. But slowly, names begin to trickle into the narrative, and that shift feels very intentional — definitely noticeable. The professor, in particular, exists for most of the novel more as a hazily constructed antagonist than as a person of flesh and blood.
I do want to note that there’s no dialogue punctuation here, which normally sends me running for the audiobook. But because this was a galley and there isn’t a huge amount of dialogue, I managed. A few longer exchanges required backtracking, but the steadiness of the narrative voice — calm, measured, and almost resigned — kept things fairly anchored.
Around the 60% mark, when Christine drops the remainder of her tour and flies across the country at his invitation and expense (a summons), I started to catch the faint odor of plot that’s been sitting out a little too long. I worried we were headed somewhere predictable. And then, late in the book, Christine finally names him. That small act moves into something foundational. The painter stops being the symbol she’s shaped through her art and becomes a person she has to reckon with outside the story she wrote.
Ultimately, this is a novel about control — about using art to impose order on pain, about writing as a kind of discipline, even a kind of try at revenge. But once Christine’s book is out in the world, control evaporates, maybe unexpectedly. The professor reads it. He answers back. The narrative she crafted to contain him doesn’t quite hold.
Discipline is not perfect — a few moments or constructions drift toward cliché — but the emotional through-line and Pham’s writing both contain a lot that is compelling. Christine is trying to stitch herself together after her innocence was lost, after her art was abandoned, after a devastating breakup. And her seams are visible — but that’s really the point.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
Christine is on book tour for a pseudo-revenge novel based on her past relationship with an older painting professor. Pham grants almost no one a name at the start — people exist as roles, relationships, and scars. But slowly, names begin to trickle into the narrative, and that shift feels very intentional — definitely noticeable. The professor, in particular, exists for most of the novel more as a hazily constructed antagonist than as a person of flesh and blood.
I do want to note that there’s no dialogue punctuation here, which normally sends me running for the audiobook. But because this was a galley and there isn’t a huge amount of dialogue, I managed. A few longer exchanges required backtracking, but the steadiness of the narrative voice — calm, measured, and almost resigned — kept things fairly anchored.
Around the 60% mark, when Christine drops the remainder of her tour and flies across the country at his invitation and expense (a summons), I started to catch the faint odor of plot that’s been sitting out a little too long. I worried we were headed somewhere predictable. And then, late in the book, Christine finally names him. That small act moves into something foundational. The painter stops being the symbol she’s shaped through her art and becomes a person she has to reckon with outside the story she wrote.
Ultimately, this is a novel about control — about using art to impose order on pain, about writing as a kind of discipline, even a kind of try at revenge. But once Christine’s book is out in the world, control evaporates, maybe unexpectedly. The professor reads it. He answers back. The narrative she crafted to contain him doesn’t quite hold.
Discipline is not perfect — a few moments or constructions drift toward cliché — but the emotional through-line and Pham’s writing both contain a lot that is compelling. Christine is trying to stitch herself together after her innocence was lost, after her art was abandoned, after a devastating breakup. And her seams are visible — but that’s really the point.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
January 31, 2026
Power, art, and the fine line between the two.
4.5 stars rounded up.
Books about women reckoning with past #MeToo moments are no longer rare, but in Discipline, Larissa Pham proves that familiarity doesn't preclude originality. Her debut novel transforms a well-worn premise - a young student's encounter with an older professor and the reverberations a decade later - into something exquisitely introspective, precise, and quietly unnerving.
Christine, now an author on book tour, has written a revenge novel thinly veiled as fiction, based on her former relationship with her mentor when she was an art student. As she travels, she begins to unravel her own myth-making - until her professor reaches out to say he's read the book. Their ensuing correspondence becomes a mirror maze of control, shame, and desire, forcing Christine to confront how art both distills and distorts truth.
Pham's prose is elegant, coolly intelligent yet emotionally exacting, shifting effortlessly between theory and confession. Drawing from her own background in painting and art history (she studied both at Yale), Pham threads Christine's reflections on art, gaze, and discipline through the narrative with ease, and I regularly found myself Googling the artists and paintings she referenced.
If some of the set pieces feel a bit too orchestrated - Christine's conveniently timed reflections about certain pieces artworks that fit the story, for instance - the overall effect is still mesmerizing. Christine's actions often surprised, sometimes baffled, and occasionally infuriated me, but the insights into art and the making of it, Pham's stunning prose, and the wonderful ending elevated the novel far above the cliché it might have been, turning it into an unsettling study of power, art-making, and the stories women tell to survive.
A complex, moving, and sometimes infuriating account of a woman's reckoning with her past, Discipline is, unlike Christine’s novel-within-the-novel, less about revenge than reclamation: of narrative, of art, and of the self.
Many thanks to Random House for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
"Discipline" was published on January 20, 2026, and is available now.
4.5 stars rounded up.
Books about women reckoning with past #MeToo moments are no longer rare, but in Discipline, Larissa Pham proves that familiarity doesn't preclude originality. Her debut novel transforms a well-worn premise - a young student's encounter with an older professor and the reverberations a decade later - into something exquisitely introspective, precise, and quietly unnerving.
Christine, now an author on book tour, has written a revenge novel thinly veiled as fiction, based on her former relationship with her mentor when she was an art student. As she travels, she begins to unravel her own myth-making - until her professor reaches out to say he's read the book. Their ensuing correspondence becomes a mirror maze of control, shame, and desire, forcing Christine to confront how art both distills and distorts truth.
Pham's prose is elegant, coolly intelligent yet emotionally exacting, shifting effortlessly between theory and confession. Drawing from her own background in painting and art history (she studied both at Yale), Pham threads Christine's reflections on art, gaze, and discipline through the narrative with ease, and I regularly found myself Googling the artists and paintings she referenced.
If some of the set pieces feel a bit too orchestrated - Christine's conveniently timed reflections about certain pieces artworks that fit the story, for instance - the overall effect is still mesmerizing. Christine's actions often surprised, sometimes baffled, and occasionally infuriated me, but the insights into art and the making of it, Pham's stunning prose, and the wonderful ending elevated the novel far above the cliché it might have been, turning it into an unsettling study of power, art-making, and the stories women tell to survive.
A complex, moving, and sometimes infuriating account of a woman's reckoning with her past, Discipline is, unlike Christine’s novel-within-the-novel, less about revenge than reclamation: of narrative, of art, and of the self.
Many thanks to Random House for providing me with an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
"Discipline" was published on January 20, 2026, and is available now.
March 6, 2026
That's not how I remembered it.
this is a gorgeous + emotionally exacting read. it is cerebral, atmospheric, and leverages tension from the start. woman grappling with her past + finding purpose is one of my favorite themes. in this novel, it is christine examining the decision to drop out of her MFA program and quit painting . as she comes to accept her part in a decision that derailed her artistry and ambition, her insights on power, agency, gender, and creativity are neatly intertwined with known artists.
christine's artist shoutouts:
an-my-lê ( a good picture is one that is surprising)
clyfford still
edward + josephine hopper
robert henri
helen frankenthaler (mountains and sea!)
alex katz
agnes martin
jackson pollock
robert motherwell
vija celmins (oceans, night skies and deserts!)
senga nengudi (her sculptures made of pantyhose!)
christina quarles (LOVE!)
this is a gorgeous + emotionally exacting read. it is cerebral, atmospheric, and leverages tension from the start. woman grappling with her past + finding purpose is one of my favorite themes. in this novel, it is christine examining the decision to drop out of her MFA program and quit painting . as she comes to accept her part in a decision that derailed her artistry and ambition, her insights on power, agency, gender, and creativity are neatly intertwined with known artists.
christine's artist shoutouts:
an-my-lê ( a good picture is one that is surprising)
clyfford still
edward + josephine hopper
robert henri
helen frankenthaler (mountains and sea!)
alex katz
agnes martin
jackson pollock
robert motherwell
vija celmins (oceans, night skies and deserts!)
senga nengudi (her sculptures made of pantyhose!)
christina quarles (LOVE!)
February 14, 2026
Short novel about art and agency. It reminded me of Aysegul Savas's thoughtful works, and in fact she blurbed this.
The narrator is a woman on a book tour. In her novel she fictionalized her autobiographical experience as an art student in a relationship with an older professor. In the second part of the book, the woman meets the old man after more than decade.
I am a bit tired of this theme to be honest. It also felt a bit distant at times and some will find it pretentious, but there were enough interesting observations for me to keep going.
3,5
The narrator is a woman on a book tour. In her novel she fictionalized her autobiographical experience as an art student in a relationship with an older professor. In the second part of the book, the woman meets the old man after more than decade.
I am a bit tired of this theme to be honest. It also felt a bit distant at times and some will find it pretentious, but there were enough interesting observations for me to keep going.
3,5
September 7, 2025
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy!
I am particularly excited for the release of Discipline. I wasn’t familiar with Larissa Pham before reading this, but I think Discipline has the potential to be a big book in the literary community.
Discipline centers a disillusioned artist who claims she quit painting due to the misconduct of her MFA professor and the twisted relationship they had. The plot begins by following her as she talks to people around the U.S. on a book tour for a novel she wrote about the professor ordeal. I would describe her narration as cold and distant, but reachable through the prose.
I think the only thing I wanted more from this one was a clearer meditation on the protagonist’s difficult logic. As in, a clearer break of what she refuses to see in herself and others. For example, I couldn’t tell whether she knew what she wanted by the end of the novel or whether she actually knew why she quit painting. She was both detached and childish, which played more awkwardly for me than compelling.
At only 140 pages, I was able to read this in one sitting, though I feel it would be enjoyable over a longer period since the novel covers a lot of time. There are a lot of ways to interpret both the plot and the protagonist, so I’d be super interested in discussing this one with others. The sort of disconnected narration reminded me of Katie Kitamura’s writing, particularly Intimacies. It is my understanding that Pham has been mostly writing nonfiction, so I am excited to read more novels from her.
I am particularly excited for the release of Discipline. I wasn’t familiar with Larissa Pham before reading this, but I think Discipline has the potential to be a big book in the literary community.
Discipline centers a disillusioned artist who claims she quit painting due to the misconduct of her MFA professor and the twisted relationship they had. The plot begins by following her as she talks to people around the U.S. on a book tour for a novel she wrote about the professor ordeal. I would describe her narration as cold and distant, but reachable through the prose.
I think the only thing I wanted more from this one was a clearer meditation on the protagonist’s difficult logic. As in, a clearer break of what she refuses to see in herself and others. For example, I couldn’t tell whether she knew what she wanted by the end of the novel or whether she actually knew why she quit painting. She was both detached and childish, which played more awkwardly for me than compelling.
At only 140 pages, I was able to read this in one sitting, though I feel it would be enjoyable over a longer period since the novel covers a lot of time. There are a lot of ways to interpret both the plot and the protagonist, so I’d be super interested in discussing this one with others. The sort of disconnected narration reminded me of Katie Kitamura’s writing, particularly Intimacies. It is my understanding that Pham has been mostly writing nonfiction, so I am excited to read more novels from her.
September 17, 2025
This book was a fascinating, thrilling, exciting, well written read. I love how we learn bits and pieces from Christine as she reflects on them. Her story and what she seeks now is so relatable. With references to art and through conversations with others she’s seeking answers and trying to work on herself. I was yelling at some of the decisions she made but that just made everything that much more relatable.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
November 15, 2025
This is a bizarre but beautiful book about a novelist whose muse in college was her professor. and she writes a novel about it. But odd things begin happening. As she looks back at her college years she realizes so many things she should have "seen" but refused to The most lovely line was, "The book stopped being an exorcism and became a project of craft and form." It's bewitching in its innocence and depravity but such an unusual novel that I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
November 27, 2025
My exhaustion with this book is mainly due to the fact that I’m just tired of reading about relationships between women and their higher education professors. I just am! Even if the writing is technically good, and there’s interesting side characters, the story beats are the same. There’s a reunion, there’s resentment, there’s a woman left broken, watching an older man grow older and leave her with a new trauma. Christine, in this book, barely felt like a character. I understood the outlines of her life, but her growth stopped at a point in her life that predates this book’s events, making her feel deeply uninteresting. Consider this my lesson learned, I will not read books with this plot anymore.
December 10, 2025
I have the sense that something is being drawn between us. Not drawn as in line but as in arrow pulled back. But I don’t know which one of us holds the bow, and which of us faces the arrow.
Christine is a former painter and first-time author whose debut novel is a lightly fictionalized revenge fantasy that recounts the affair she had with her college painting professor ten years ago. Despite her literary success, Christine feels unsettled and adrift in her life, searching for a sense of purpose. And that’s when the painting professor reaches out to her after a decade of no communication, letting her know he’s read her novel and inviting her to his cabin in Maine.
I don’t know exactly why – maybe the use of the phrase “revenge fantasy” and the setting in a remote Maine cabin – but I was expecting Discipline to veer in the direction of a thriller. It doesn’t, although that’s not to say it’s without tension. Instead, it’s a cerebral, thoughtful portrait of a woman whose life was derailed and her desperate efforts to get back on track, even though she has no idea how to do so. It’s melancholy, poignant, and nuanced in its exploration of agency and art, performance and power.
The last third of the book, it must be said, becomes a bit cliché plot-wise, but both Larissa Pham and her protagonist have enough self-awareness to understand and acknowledge this – and it doesn’t by any means detract from the book’s message. In some ways, it enhances it. Discipline is a quiet but resounding war-cry about creation and healing – and the lingering consequences when an artist doesn’t create and doesn’t know how to heal. Thank you to Random House for the early reading opportunity.
January 25, 2026
(rounded down from 4.25)
This was my introduction to the writing of Larissa Pham, and it's exactly up my alley. The prose is both precise, thoughtful, and appropriately lyrical, while the subject matter, despite the mundanity of the blurb, remains deeply focused on the interiority of this young woman's mind and what was taken from her as an artist when she was used by a much older artist professor and then discarded. If you don't enjoy a leisurely examination of periods of time, relationships, and events in the life of a person on their way to getting over a traumatic event when they were young, this may not be for you, because the plot is necessarily sparse here.
Deeply focused on the mind of an artist and how she interacts with the world, with a background of her writing a revenge fantasy book about the trauma, and then dealing with the person in question and trying to come to terms with the trauma. I really enjoyed this and will definitely check out her othe works!
This was my introduction to the writing of Larissa Pham, and it's exactly up my alley. The prose is both precise, thoughtful, and appropriately lyrical, while the subject matter, despite the mundanity of the blurb, remains deeply focused on the interiority of this young woman's mind and what was taken from her as an artist when she was used by a much older artist professor and then discarded. If you don't enjoy a leisurely examination of periods of time, relationships, and events in the life of a person on their way to getting over a traumatic event when they were young, this may not be for you, because the plot is necessarily sparse here.
Deeply focused on the mind of an artist and how she interacts with the world, with a background of her writing a revenge fantasy book about the trauma, and then dealing with the person in question and trying to come to terms with the trauma. I really enjoyed this and will definitely check out her othe works!
January 21, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC. Today (1/20/26) is publication day!
In Discipline, Christine is on book tour for a novel she wrote about her past relationship with a former professor. As the tour unfolds, she reconnects with people from her life—friends, ex-boyfriends, and eventually the professor himself. Each encounter pushes her to reflect on who she was then, who she is now, and how much control we really have over our own narratives.
This was my first book by Larissa Pham, and I really enjoyed the writing. It’s sharp, introspective, and emotionally thoughtful. The novel does a great job exploring memory, power, art, and self-examination, especially how we reinterpret the past as we grow. A strong, thought-provoking debut that stayed with me after I finished.
In Discipline, Christine is on book tour for a novel she wrote about her past relationship with a former professor. As the tour unfolds, she reconnects with people from her life—friends, ex-boyfriends, and eventually the professor himself. Each encounter pushes her to reflect on who she was then, who she is now, and how much control we really have over our own narratives.
This was my first book by Larissa Pham, and I really enjoyed the writing. It’s sharp, introspective, and emotionally thoughtful. The novel does a great job exploring memory, power, art, and self-examination, especially how we reinterpret the past as we grow. A strong, thought-provoking debut that stayed with me after I finished.
January 23, 2026
4.5. Thought I didn’t need/want any other writing on this subject manner. Turns out, I did with Pham’s prose.
March 18, 2026
Larissa Pham's Discipline shares a first time novelist's book tour with readers. Pham recognizes that "Discipline" has more than one meaning. It can be a thing- like painting or writing or an action- like exerting control over yourself or others. More than one plays out in the book. Christine started out wanting to be a painter, but lacked discipline in the face of obstacles. Her less intense approach to writing met with more success. The people in her life stalled her painting but fueled her writing. She discovered that when you believe someone has blocked you or wronged you, a successful strategy can be to fictionally assert your self-discipline by incorporating negative aspects of the person into a book. Killing the character, even "off the page" is acceptable. This is a serious book rather than the escapist fiction I've been reading lately. In those books, someone dies and someone else solves the crime. Christine's sex-included weekend in the country with Richard, "the old painter" and her mentor, destroyed her identity as an artist and turned her into someone wanted for sex. That is why she killed him in her book. Richard liked the book and contacted her with an invitation to his island home in Maine. The visit turns out to be more than either expected.
March 13, 2026
Truly fantastic. Loved the writing and particularly loved the way art and painting were described. One of my favorites this year so far!
September 21, 2025
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ebook. A young novelist cobbles together a small book tour to celebrate her first novel, but also to get away from her real life and examine the huge turn her life has taken. Namely, that she was a much admired painting student, whose painting career came to an abrupt halt after she had a brief affair with an older professor who happens to be her largest fan. But no more. She eventually drops out of graduate school, switches to writing and failed relationships, that all led to this book, basically about her college life, except in this book, she kills her professor. Now retired from teaching, the professor invites her to Maine so they can talk. Feeling that maybe she needs this before she can move forward in her life, the author agrees.
March 11, 2026
Really didn’t do it for me. I went into it not knowing very much except the general premise - it’s a me too situation between an art student and her professor. I didn’t like it for similar reasons that I didn’t like Heart the Lover - the writing didn’t grab me, I didn’t feel invested in the characters, I felt irritated with them in fact, and ultimately I didn’t feel like the resolution was satisfying.
February 4, 2026
I literally did not have to read this
February 24, 2026
This is an interesting debut novel by a skilled author. The protagonist, Christine, is a young writer on a book tour promoting her first novel, which is based on something that transpired between her and her art professor years earlier. As readers, early on we don't know if they had an affair or if she was a victim of some kind of sexual assault...as the novel progresses, there is some clarification of what may have transpired between them. In any case, it's apparent from the start that whatever occurred between them was traumatizing for Christine and resulted in her abandoning her studies as an artist and ultimately writing the novel as a way to subconsciously process her feelings about what happened and how it has changed her and the trajectory of her life. So the novel begins as something of a mystery but really it's literary fiction. The novel explores how Christine still struggles to process how her time with this art professor essentially robbed her of her creativity as a visual artist while also impacting her ability to maintain a healthy, honest relationship with other men in her life moving forward. I don't want to give too much away here, but she does encounter the professor again and this novel explores what happens when their paths cross. The prose here is rich and descriptive. I liked this writer's style but I was left wanting a bit more here in terms of some of the characterization and exploration of themes. This novel is somewhat dark but I did enjoy the author's use of detail and imagery here.
March 14, 2026
“Discipline” is a tense and tightly-honed piece of literary fiction, full of introspective musings on art, identity, and trauma. Pham’s prose is precise and vivid, with unusual phrasings that somehow make perfect sense, and the looping plot structure was very effective in setting up and unfurling the meat of the story. The tone is ominous yet compelling, as the narrator converses with strangers and friends and slowly processes the ties between her past and her present. I admired Pham’s ease in describing the nebulous ways of viewing and making art, and the story kept surprising me, right up until the shocking ending. This is a deceptively dense read despite the page count, and being in the narrator’s head made me feel as unsettled as she did, the pressure building and building until I finally came up for air, gasping as it all ended.
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
February 28, 2026
i LOVE this style of writing so much. it feels distant and also disturbingly vulnerable at the same time, and its back and forth between very simple language and almost poetry was really really gorgeous.
once again, i LOVE complicated main characters and there was SO much moral ambiguity all throughout this book. even the villain of the book will momentarily win me over before i revert back to hatred every other page. it is also so human to have the narrator questioning why she has an attachment to someone objectively horrible for her and her life. but that’s what makes it so realistic and all the more haunting.
once again, i LOVE complicated main characters and there was SO much moral ambiguity all throughout this book. even the villain of the book will momentarily win me over before i revert back to hatred every other page. it is also so human to have the narrator questioning why she has an attachment to someone objectively horrible for her and her life. but that’s what makes it so realistic and all the more haunting.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 270 reviews