Love & Virtue

by Diana Reid

Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist  Winner of the ABIA Book of the Year Award Winner of the ABIA Award for Literary Fiction of the Year Winner ABA Booksellers Choice Award for Fiction Winner of the MUD Literary Prize Shortlisted for The Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction Shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year for Fiction Shortlisted Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction Shortlisted ABIA Matt Richell Award New Writer of the Year‘set to be one of the year’s most talked about books’ – Vogue Australia ‘a great read that will become an Australian classic’ – Sydney Morning Herald‘an absolute cracker, Love & Virtue lobs right into the current moment with a clarifying light. I hope EVERYONE reads this book.’ – Helen Garner, bestselling and award winning author of The First Stone and The Spare Room‘one of the best novels I have read this year ... it’s clever, pacy and wonderfully thoughtful. Read it!’ – Zara McDonald, Shameless PodcastSex. Power. Consent.Whenever I say I was at university with Eve, people ask me what she was like, sceptical perhaps that she could have always been as whole and self-assured as she now appears. To which I say something ‘People are infinitely complex.’ But I say it in such a way—so pregnant with misanthropy—that it’s obvious I hate her. Michaela and Eve are two bright, bold women who befriend each other their first year at a residential college at university, where they live in adjacent rooms. They could not be more different; one assured and popular – the other uncertain and eager-to-please. But something happens one night in O-week – a drunken encounter, a foggy memory that will force them to confront the realities of consent and wrestle with the dynamics of power. Initially bonded by their wit and sharp eye for the colleges’ mix of material wealth and moral poverty, Michaela and Eve soon discover how fragile friendship is, and how capable of betrayal they both are.Written with a strikingly contemporary voice that is both wickedly clever and incisive, issues of consent, class and institutional privilege, and feminism become provocations for enduring philosophical questions we face today.  Praise for Love & Virtue ‘Diana Reid will be called the new Sally Rooney – you’re certain of it by the end of page one. By the end of this real, raw and startling novel, you know Reid is the talent to whom every smart young novelist who follows her will be compared – or hope to be.’ – Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss ‘Love & Virtue captures the near-erotic thrill of being a young woman, alone and adrift, who finds, in another young woman, an intellectual equal ... Like Elena and Lila in Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, a touchstone for Reid, their spark feels charged, given to exploding.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Feminism, Australia, Coming Of Age

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2021

About the author

Diana Reid is a Sydney-based writer. Her debut novel, Love & Virtue, was an Australian bestseller and winner of the ABIA Book of the Year Award, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year Award, the ABA Booksellers' Choice Fiction Book of the Year Award, and the MUD Literary Prize. Love & Virtue was also shortlisted for the Indie Debut Fiction Award, the ABIA Matt Richell New Writer Award, and Highly Commended at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Diana was also named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist in 2022. Seeing Other People is her second novel.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR

Reviews

[Rose Cox]

I am not going to give this a starred review. My feelings are complicated about this novel and I think its perhaps better not to be reduced to a star rating.

Firstly, the fact that Diana Reid has been compared to Sally Rooney is superficial at best. The only common thread between them is that they write contemporary novels about relationships. I find Reid’s writing style to be more cogent and compelling (although, I truly dislike Rooney’s).

This novel follows a pair of young women grappling with assault, sexism and philosophy at University. The university this is based on is down the road from my flat. The degree the author has recently completed, is the same degree I will complete in three weeks. On paper, I should feel deeply connected to this novel. The experiences of the main character mirror my own in many (some unfortunate) ways.

However, the plot of the novel felt laboured. Perhaps if it was briefer and left less information on the page, it would have been more impactful. I felt that the novel was trying to let you know how much it was trying to say. It felt like a novel with something to prove, rather than an organic story.

Perhaps I am being too harsh, I anticipate I may change this review in the future. For now, these are the feelings I have, having just finished the book 10 minutes ago.

[Jess Trevaskis · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars 5 stars 5 stars!! One of those rare books that leaves you bursting with energy and itching to discuss. I will be talking about, and recommending, this book for weeks.

For one, I have never read dialogue so believable and relatable. So much so that within ten pages you know that this novel is something special. Secondly, Reid’s social commentary is incredibly insightful. So many moments were so accurately described that I had to close the book to fully absorb the perfection of the page I had just read. Not only was the analysis of human behaviour so accurate, but it was described in the most eloquent way. Through this skill, Reid has managed to explore issues of sexism in a necessarily approachable way. This is so refreshing after the recent femlit trend to create an unlikeable female narrator, or to include feminist teachings in a preachy and annoyingly overt way. Reid’s subtlety is far more impactful, forcing you to reflect and come to your own conclusions. I didn’t realise how NECESSARY and refreshing this style of writing would be until I experienced it for the first time in this book.

I don’t agree with the comparisons to Sally Rooney. Maybe similar themes are explored but in no way is their characterisation the same, nor the dialogue. Reid has created far more relatable characters who are capable of eliciting equally strong empathy and frustration from readers.

I cannot fault this book. I need everyone to read this book. I am OBSESSED with this book. Bye.

[Cecile · Rating 3 out of 5]

TW for sexual assault.

Okay so I am v v conflicted. On one hand I loved reading this. It was so gripping, I loved reading a contemporary novel about people my age set in Australia, and the concept itself is super topical. But there are a few things, mostly to do with the political/feminist/moral nature of the novel that I’m not sure sit quite right with me? So I’ve listed them as talking points below lol plz discuss with me thanks xx

- none of women have particularly deep or genuine relationships with each other and/or none of them seem to like each other. For a book dealing with sexism/feminism this feels a bit depressing. On a personal level this made the characters and the novel much harder to relate to because this feels so distant from my own experience of female friendships/relationships.
- Class consciousness is there but also would have liked more. Every time Michaela brings up class Eve/anyone else kind of ignores her, so none of the conversations felt super nuanced or original. It’s more just snide/aside comments that don’t get challenged/dissected as much as I would have liked.
- Eve’s use of Michaela’s story feels weird and I worry it leans too closely into the narrative that women manipulate stories of sexual assault for personal gain. Also not sure whether this is the way to bring up a “greater good for the feminist cause” perspective when it so blatantly throws another woman under the bus. And I can’t tell if the book is actually critiquing this kind of narrative or unintentionally perpetuating it.
- And Eve ends up being the villain/unlikeable one/morally questionable one? Why not the men lol???
- Continuing, Paul comes off looking way to nice. Also the foundation for their relationships feels really minuscule, they meet up a couple of times to discuss an essay, they kiss, text a bit, then they’re in a relationship?
- Okay maybe I just didn’t like the Paul storyline that much. I found Michaela and Balth’s friendship a lot more interesting and almost feel that there could have been more room for nuanced discussions about class, privilege, power etc. in these characters’ interactions.
- I’m not sure about the death storyline. It definitely throws up some moral questions, but there’s a strange level of sympathy for Nick in the book? I really wasn’t sure what Michaela going to his five year anniversary (also considering she had already drifted apart from that v toxic friend group in general) served as part of the narrative or in the novel’s discussion of assault.
- Basically, I wanted some of the rich white men to face greater condemnation. I get that there being little to no institutional consequences for these men fits with the reality, but I would have liked the narrative to go off at how fucked up that is a bit more than it did.

Okay I think I’m done lol plz disagree/tell me your thoughts because I sort of feel like I’m being overly critical but at the same time I feel like this is a book that is worth being critical about given the subject matter?

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love & Virtue is a book about privilege, entitlement and power. It’s set at a university college, something I didn’t know existed in Australia until I started university (but that’s another story). It’s deeply interesting that a novel published in 2021 is dealing with and referencing subject matter Garner grappled with (albeit inadequately) in The First Stone. We are still very much here. Reid’s insights and restraint are wildly impressive. I could feel how she must have carved and styled this work and how easy it would have been to make it heavy handed, something she avoids beautifully. Her commentary on class and consent is timely and provocative and I loved it. The way she extrapolated out to questions of moral impoverishment was delicious. I continue to struggle with the much used literary student–professor relationship trope as a way to talk about power but again, here we are. This book is impressive and so very timely – you’re definitely going to want to read it.

[Evelyn Mulwray · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are so many things about this book that annoy me. The writing isn't terrible (until it is); the moments that are meant to be powerful and triumphant are...not, and the characters who should be punished get away with slaps on the wrist. The narrative arc and the choices that Reid made about her characters consistently annoyed me and left me with enough unanswered questions (questions that needed answers, not intentionally left ambiguous) that my rating kept dropping lower and lower.

To be fair, the book started badly for me, because I flipped to the back and read the author’s bio first. “Reid graduated from the University of Sydney last year with (credentials, credentials, prestigious credentials). In January 2020, her career in theatre was off to a promising start: the musical she co-wrote and produced, 1984! The Musical!, debuted and she was set to direct and write theatre performances in Sydney and over to the Edinburgh Fringe.”

Yawn.

A cursory online search hinted that Reid had written her bright, shiny, fresh first manuscript in five months (translation: she whacked it out quickly and then let everyone know that she wrote it super fast). Then there was an article written by Reid herself, about how she’s super competitive and curbs these urges by swimming. The article went on to draw comparisons between herself and Philip Roth, whereupon I left the article because I was rolling my eyes too hard.

Then, the book itself:

There’s no denying that Reid has talent. Her writing is incisive, flowing, descriptive without being dull, and sharp in a way that catches you by surprise. But – BUT – there is an unearned fatigue, or cynicism in the way that she writes about – and summarily dismisses – the attempts of newly independent young people to assert themselves as cool, erudite, worldly – all without seeming to try. Exactly what Reid seems to embody herself: see the above author’s bio.

If Reid hadn’t been so eager to dash off this novel in five months and therefore claim herself as novelist, she might realise that she was treading well-worn boards in terms of subject matter and literary tropes: naïve young thing introduced to sophisticated world by way of bored-but-fascinating sociopath who takes young thing under her wing. I mean. Setting this book on a college campus is almost too cliché, so to pile on the eye-rolling, tongue-in-cheek references to how self-aware she is (‘she’ being either narrator or Reid, take your pick) about milking these overworked narratives does very little to establish credibility. There’s the possibility that the majority of her younger readers haven’t yet had the privilege of reading “Brideshead Revisited” or “The Secret History,” but if they had, Reid’s novel might seem much less revolutionary or scathing.

It’s also unfair to attempt to insert Reid as author into this narrative after a cursory Google, but this quote almost stood out as if underlined, and I couldn’t help assigning the subtext to Reid herself:

“I hated bragging. This was not because I was embarrassed by my achievements – on the contrary, I would have worn them on a t-shirt if I didn’t think it would be socially alienating – it was just that my instinct for self-preservation usually prevailed. Eve, however, thought humility was socialised by the patriarchy, and that women should cultivated a masculine frankness about their success. It was always frankness in herself, but arrogance in men. I think she just liked people thinking she was smart.”

Love & Virtue is mostly a fun, light read, but would fare better (in my opinion, which probably counts for nothing) without the author’s hubris, which hangs over every element of the narrative: as the protagonist praises or decries the pompous behavior of nearly everyone around her; as she aligns herself with people she’d like to emulate. By the time you reach the first turning point in the book (a call back to a sexual encounter, which is debated throughout the rest of the story – was it assault? Was the protagonist too drunk to consent?), the narrative arc has flattened to the shape of a deflated garden hose, and for the remainder of the novel, this lack of tension throws into sharp relief the author’s lack of skill in executing a taut, well-crafted novel with a cohesive story line.

Is the story a scathing critique on the ways that society has failed women? Is it a heavy-handed discourse on how young people with grandiose ideas of self and identity ultimately succumb to the tired old tropes that they initially scorn? Is it a mystery, featuring moments of how-did-she-know and was-his-death-an-accident? None of the above, I say. I think Reid, despite all of her posturing to the contrary (gosh, maybe I’ll write a novel during the pandemic, something something Philip Roth) indicates her lack of familiarity with form by slapping together a collage of different forms, all of which ultimately fall flat.

*

Structure/plot wise: The whole Nick narrative is stitched into the narrative like an afterthought. Is Michaela bothered? Does she care? How does she feel? If it’s ambivalence, the author needs to express that! I don’t know how she feels, and it really bothers me. Does she care?? ALSO – the whole Nick narrative is just really badly done, structure wise – when did this night happen? I know that it’s the opening scene, in terms of how the book is printed, but if this IS SUCH A BIG DEAL, why can’t I pinpoint in the book when it actually happens? It legitimately feels like Reid forgot to include that scene in her book structure, and then it just got forgotten, and then the book is woven together in such a weird way that maybe people didn’t notice that it’s not there. And here’s the thing – even if it is there, I can’t find it, so either way that seems problematic to me.

More: towards the halfway mark, Reid’s writing starts to unravel and become a bit annoying, like with this line: “Silence crashed in from all sides, filling our lungs like water.” What?

Some more things that bothered me, and also struck me as amateur writing mistakes:
1) You can tell when Reid likes a particular word (words that aren’t in ordinary discourse) because she uses them a lot in a short span of time, something a good editor should have caught.
2) I read this book fairly quickly (four or five days) and yet when Violet made an appearance towards the end of the book, I had completely forgotten who she was, yet the main character greeted her like she was very important.
3) Eve’s publication completely unravels the structure of the university in a way that I doubt would happen. She’s a first year. The writing wasn’t mind-blowing. I’m sure stuff like this (today, and here, at least) gets published all the time, either on blog forums, or in smaller articles. Eve is nobody, status wise, so why did it make such a big impact?


Also – I keep forgetting this bit, even though it was one of the opening hooks – did Reid somehow forget that her main character was meant to be in love with Eve? Here you go: “That I still feel so much – that her suffering thrills me, and her success cruels me; that I cannot just get over it, but insist instead on resenting her – it all suggests to me that, in spite of everything, I’m still a little bit in love with her.” And then it’s never really mentioned again! Where was her editor on this? Two-thirds of my way through the book, I realised that the book feels so slapdash because Reid is try to scratch every square on her “literary success” bingo card: a premature death, lofty student ideals, loveable bad girl who achieves academic greatness regardless of study time and spends all her time slumming it for anthropological research (Eve), lesbian dalliance (will they? Won’t they?), etc, etc.

I’ll see myself out.

[Neale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although Michaela has cut Eve out of her life, she still retains a lingering presence. Everywhere Michaela turns Eve seems to be there. Social media, television, Instagram. Her answer learnt by rote when people ask her what she was like at university,

“People are infinitely complex”.

Michaela says she hates Eve but admits to herself that she is still a bit in love with her.

Eve and Michaela met in their first year of university living together in adjacent rooms at the all-female residential college of Fairfax. She remembers the first time she talked to Eve. It was as if she was not there, Eve delivering a monologue as if Michaela had not spoken.

But that is Eve, and before long they are firm friends, with Eve saying,

“You’re the first cool person I’ve met here”.
“I’m obsessed with you”.

But is their friendship as real as it seems to outsiders? Is it a facade, intentional or not? A huge chunk of this novel is about what is real and what is perceived. What truly happened as opposed to what others think. Not just other people but ourselves. The quote from Cicero before the prologue,

“Many wish not so much to be, as to seem to be, endowed with real virtue”.

It is about toxic male behaviour, and imbalance of standards. Crossing lines and preying on innocents. It is about irony. Paul the professor of ethics, engaging in a relationship with his eighteen-year-old student. He ignores the very morals he is teaching. The question of who decides what is morally correct never broached. It is about relationships and friendships, and once again how people involved both view that relationship.

The dark side of the novel revolves around an incident that happens in the prologue. The rape of a young girl at a party on the university campus. The reader will find out quickly that the “young girl” is the narrator. It makes you think how many of these “incidents” occur and are never exposed, the guilty reveling in what for them is a win, their actions driven by a toxic culture of drinking and hazing rituals, that still exist today.

And yet the prologue is clouded in ambiguity. Michaela was drunk, she cannot even remember the name of the man. Was there consent? This integral part of the novel conforms with the whole theme of reality and perception. Rape, such an insidious crime. A crime that is so hard to prove because of that single word “consent”. Whether it was rape or not, this prologue ultimately defines the relationship between Michaela and Eve, as the reader will find out.

The characters are beautifully written, especially Michaela. She is so real, her flaws and weaknesses a stark contrast to her obvious strength. The reader feels her experiences, her love, her pain, and her happiness.

A stellar debut.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

On one level, I appreciated what Love and Virtue attempted: feminist commentary about sexual assault and gendered power dynamics, as well as complex friendships. However, the execution of these concepts felt lacking. First, Diana Reid’s characters reminded me of Sally Rooney’s in terms of having a put-on disaffected tone. I felt like Reid really drove home how her characters try hard not to show that they care about things. Reid’s prose reflected this detachment in a way that maintained distance form me and the characters. Thus, I struggled to connect with the characters even when they went through difficult times. I also felt a little offput by the kinda random mentions of privilege – like these white characters, at least some of whom are thin, will name being white and being thin and then?? Nothing really comes of it?? I’d rather these elements of the characters be shown than told, which, is a component I did like about Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends in terms of class.

Overall I enjoyed some earlier books with similar topics, such as Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers and Dreamland by Sarah Dessen more than this novel, though both of those focus on teen girls attending high school and not college like this novel does.

[fantine · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Are you a good person, or do you just look like one?’

This debut stunned me in every way.

Set at an elite college situated in a Sydney university, scholarship student Michaela arrives from Canberra and is plunged headfirst into the culture of private institutions - these colleges, a tertiary continuation of the private high schools with roots in the church, are similarly segregated by gender and tax bracket. The novel begins as O week festivities commence; a hazy period where teenagers are plied with alcohol at university sanctioned events that are, from the outside, an obvious breeding ground for abuse of power.

It is during these festivities where an encounter not hard to imagine becomes a catalyst for a chain of events the memories of which unravel in an effectively non-linear way. In less capable hands the plot may have been predictable or relied on twists but the structure is honestly masterful, every page somehow altering the last as we, with Michaela, desperately seek clarity; on her relationship with a much older professor, the sudden and complicated death of a friend, and just what transpired that blurry night in O week. The writing was a physical experience, my heart often skipping a beat as each paragraph built tension so palpable I had to physically put the book down and walk around multiple times.

At the core of this novel is Michaela’s relationship with fellow student Eve.
Eve might be one of my favourite literary characters in recent memory, not because I love or even like her, but because I know her.

Native to Sydney Eve wears her politics as an identity and a challenge, intrigued and intimidated Michaela is drawn to this charismatic and unapologetically outspoken figure and the two begin a relationship that quickly turns toxic; equal parts rivalry, jealousy and attraction.
Eve’s insidiousness lies in her intellect, her ability to eloquently invoke theoretical critiques of class, race, gender and institution whilst artfully excluding her own position of privilege.

‘Eve was the first person I’d met who invoked political theories to justify her personal choices. She was also, more so than anyone I’d ever met, perfectly sure of those choices. I found it hard to imagine her as a product of a larger system, her actions originating from anywhere but herself’

Thin, white, and wealthy Eve’s scholarship is almost an accessory, her car a piece of shit (that she owns), her job as a tutor reliant on connections (and not taxed), and holidays to Europe to eastern europe (everyone knows east is grittier than west). Eve’s position is one of power but it is also an inevitably aspirational one, as Michaela despite her efforts does care what others think, how her actions will affect them and her yearning for acceptance makes her malleable to Eve whose moral outrage is a privilege not afforded to those she claims to champion. Her choice to live rent free in a dorm on her scholarship is as easy as leaving in a dramatic performance of revolt; for Michaela the scholarship means a place to live ‘but at what cost?’ Eve asks her in a perfect display of class privilege.

Whilst exploring the larger themes of class and patriarchy it is in the details, the shades of grey that this novel shines. Performative activism and appropriation of the personal to further the political are difficult and complex themes but this novel does not shy away from the messiness. The writing is raw and unflinchingly blunt but not without a self-deprecating wit, no sentence meaningless and if first appearing so would often become clear in a satisfying pay off.

[John Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting, if uneven read for me. Having read Ms Reid's second novel before this one, which I liked very much, it took me a long time to get into the rythm of this book.

Michaela is our narrator, who is just starting her first year at Sydney Uni, studying philosophy. The book opens with a drunken episode with Michaela and an unknown (at the time) fellow student, it is a very rude introduction to Uni and to sex for her. Quite simply, she was sexually assaulted, which takes her a while to realise, and she is pushed by her next door neighbour in residence, Eve, to report it.

The book covers a lot of issues, very poor male behaviour, sexual contact between a professor and student, fraught friendships, in particular between women, status and a lot more. I found it interesting when the sexual assault became a focus for an article written by Eve. Michaela and her now known assailant remain anonymous, but the article causes a very big stir. Some years ago, as a White Ribbon Ambassador, where I represented an organisation working to change men and the way they treat women, in particular with sexual assault. I spoke at an event at a Sydney University college, it may have been St Thomas, or another like it, about the issues raised in this book, so it did hit quite close to home for me.

I did not love it as much as I wanted to, but 3.5 stars for me.

[shani p ❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

conflicted on this one... firstly i enjoyed reading something about a place that i know so well and could picture so vividly, and it was interesting given my involvement in woco and the dismantle the colleges campaign. however like usual i found the straight white protagonist & her story very boring until the last quarter of the book - i feel like this would be more interesting if it was from eve's pov? ~ 6/10

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

felt like an utter wreck after finishing this; at first it was enchanting to read a book where no descriptions were needed because you've been there, to the quad lecture theatre, to the king st gig, the college formal, the newtown house party, the characters felt like people I know from uni. but it dragged on with a few plot points (i.e. Paul, someone dying) that almost felt thrown in to maintain interest in the narrative but became a bit tiresome and replicated old tropes. something i appreciated is that there aren't many pieces of media that look at assault in this complicated way & how nebulous defining it can be as a survivor; how naming it and having it be named for you by others is painful and doubt-ridden. also maybe I'm projecting to make this novel queer but it felt like the narrator was a bit in love with eve, and it is confronting to have a paper you edited invoked as part of someone's trauma. i kind of wanted more from this, but worth the read! 3.5/5

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
There will not be a Aussie millennial uni graduate who can’t relate to the content of this novel.
On a superficial level, it will make you feel (in the meme sense) “personally attacked” for the crystal clear mirroring of millennial behaviour.
On a deeper level, it will remind you of the insidious nature of uni culture and private schooling, the class, race and sex issues that plague our tertiary institutions, and the seriously problematic drinking and partying culture encountered by eighteen-year-olds.
The characters are unlikeable—they have to be, in order for the criticism to be effective—but real. The interweaving of philosophical discussion is beautifully reflective of classic Arts degree wankery.
I’m grateful this novel has been written, but I didn’t always enjoy reading it. I think that’s the way it should be.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is just appalling. There is absolutely no valuable, unique or interesting social commentary to be found, despite being set in one of the most highly politically contentious environments that you could possibly find. there is nothing interesting said about morality (which the byline implies) nor about age-gap relationships, nor about rape culture. Though I’m absolutely sure this is not the author’s intention, the book condemns those who speak out against rape culture much more vociferously than those who actually commit rape. The main character never has a reckoning in which she breaks from her toxic friend circle who enabled her assault and protected her rapist. Instead, in one of the final scenes, she calls the woman who blows the whistle on the culture of the Sydney University colleges a ‘stupid bitch.’ Diana Reid is too poor a writer to pull off the complex character drama Im sure she was going for, and ends up lazily painting the main character’s best friend/whistle blower of the villain, with childishly sexist language to boot. Just pathetic really. If you want to write about the horrific things that go on amongst the rich brats that attend the colleges, please make sure your narrative roundly condemns that state of affairs. I didn’t realise that would be asking too much.

[jaz ₍ᐢ. ̫.ᐢ₎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying the topic of consent in literature is something that should be shown, it is incredibly important and I give immense cudos to Diana Reid for portraying it in such a realistic and accurate way. Research shows that over 50% of Australian women will have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. This is a serious issue and should be taken as such.

Here are my rambling jumbled up thoughts about my reading experience….

Love & Virtue follows a university student called Michaela as she starts a new chapter of her life at uni in Sydney. Living on campus, moving from Canberra she is just trying to settle in and fade into the background. She befriends a vibrant and bright neighbour Eve, who lives across the hall from her and is unapologetically herself. During O-Week a drunken one night stand forces them to confront the realities of consent.

There are a lot of deep topics depicted in this 300 page novel, I feel like there was not enough pages to cover all of the micro aggressions and issues brought up? There was no option but to leave certain topics and situations not fleshed out at all.

Some of the topics and my thoughts….


Consent.

A drunken one night stand, a level of confusion and foggy memories. This is something that alot of women have dealt with in their lifetime. The depiction of SA in this novel is done with a level of awareness and respect. When the character is confronted with the perpetrator of her sexual assault it is in jest, the people around her are laughing because she had a “one night stand” with this person. Immediately after when she tells her two closest friends about the night the reaction is completely opposite. Her friends refusing to minimise the issue and making it clear to her that she couldn’t have consented and that’s NOT okay…. This depiction of friends creating a safe space and opening up dialogue is so incredibly important. It’s about how you react to these situations, often it is minimised by the public and in some cases the victims themselves.

Teacher x Student “Relationship”

“Surely that's what relationships are: power dynamics.”

So what was that?? A professor and student relationship is thrown into the mix. Was never shown to be a bad/wrong dynamic. When it is blatantly obvious there is a direct power dynamic & abuse of power. But it is not once fleshed out or shown that it is wrong… it’s seemingly played out like a normal toxic relationship in a literary fiction novel. Strange. Unlikeable character as well by the way, the professor is just horrendous. Provides some interesting philosophical musings but that’s about it.

Women Empowerment , Feminism & Competitive Dynamics

“Its feminism operated on the level of ‘Women in Medicine’ and ‘Women in Finance’ discussion panels, always conducted in a tone of revolutionary awe, as if any combination of women and profession were still subversive”

What started promising became disillusioned. The female friendships really fell to pieces in this story, I felt like what could have been empowering became competitive. One of my favourite characters went mad with power & plagiarism (if you’ve read the book you know who I’m talking about here!!!) & the main character started to think and act with more bitterness and judgement. Instead of leaning towards female friendships the story took a sharp corner and turn into a weird dynamic between two estranged friends. This is fine if the book wasn’t 300 pages, it simply was left in the open with no real message or explanation.


Overall, Important story, important topics, just not enough pages to really flesh it all out, too much thrown in that weren’t delved into further in my opinion!

[Margaret Galbraith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book at all. University life at its most boring was how I would describe it and I just could not get into it nor see the point of this book. I’d read a similar type before called The Lessons but it had more oomph for want of a better word. For me this was just not my style of a good story. Maybe others will disagree and that’s their choice 😊 I plodded on thinking it would improve but nope I’m sorry to say again it was another flop!

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe this is a debut novel as it’s just written and crafted so well. I originally gave this 4 stars, then 4.5, and then with another day of thought, bumped it to the full 5. This book does a lot right and is one of the more realistic campus novels I've read.
Love & Virture is a story about friendship, feminism, sexism, betrayal, love, consent, social and economic class and sex. Also there is a focus on being a good person and what that really looks like and entails. To quote Diana Reid: "Are you a good person, or do you just look like one?"
It follows Michaela, a recent scholarship earner who attends Fairfax, a women's college at a Sydney university campus. There, she meets Eve, who's intelligent, intimidating and beautiful. They develop a friendship, along with a small group of others, Balthazar aka Blath, Claudia, Emily, Portia, Nick and Jack aka Sackers. Michaela and Eve's friendship may seem all rainbows, but it has the undertones of something destructive. It's evident in their conversations, their different opinions of relationships and their economic class.
I was hooked by the writing and there were some instances that gave me Sally Rooney vibes (one of my fave authors btw). There was a simplicity and subtle intelligence about the words and descriptions of settings and characters. The dialogue and story itself was so absorbing, engaging, realistic and important. I loved a lot about this.
I feel like some of the experiences and characters actions will resonate with some readers and they'll be able to find some relatability. I did, especially with the dialogue within the relationships. I found them to be so realistic. Overall, this book is something special.

[✨ jami ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

she regina george'd her!

[Miniikaty · Rating 1 out of 5]

1,5

Reseña completa http://letraslibrosymas.blogspot.com/...

Como decía antes la historia nos trae a coalición la amistad, los ambientes elitista y privilegiados y el tema de los abusos y el acoso sexual, todos ellos temas de actualidad y que si están bien planteados a mí siempre me han interesado, pero con este libro no ha sido el caso. Ya os digo que debe ser algo personal de gustos o momento adecuado, porque todas las opiniones que he visto del libro lo ponen muy bien.

La trama me ha parecido demasiado lineal, sin nada que me atrapara o me dieran ganas de coger el libro, no ha pasado apenas nada en las 320 páginas que lo componen y en muchos momentos me ha parecido tedioso. Tampoco ayudaba la pluma de la autora, aunque es bonita y reflexiva, no es para nada el estilo que me gusta pues me ha resultado pretenciosa y demasiado ambigua, con demasiadas descripciones y pensamientos o actuaciones en bucle, lo que además de no engancharme ha logrado que no conectara con la historia y los personajes me parecieran horribles y por supuesto no empatizara como ellos.

En “Amor y virtud” encontramos amistad, crecimiento personal, abusos sexuales y reflexiones en una ambientación de universidades elitistas.

[Kimvy Dong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice easy read. Was expecting something a bit more profound given the title but felt more like a high school drama in the university setting. Overall well written

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I will be thinking about for days later, one that I will talk about to anyone who will listen, flicking back through dog eared pages & reading my favourite passages out loud.

The characterisation, the dialogue, the setting, the commentary on power and privilege and sex and relationships. Wow.

I devoured this - it had the most delicious, delightful combination of intrigue, emotion and humour that made me think, reflect & feel something about the world. It made me look internally as well, and examine myself.

The kind of book I wish I could one day write. Highly, highly recommend.

[Alycia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing!!! I loved this book; it was just so real and captured an experience that I haven’t seen portrayed so well. It was just so palpable and raw and left me speechless. Sexual assault media can be so tacky sometimes so I was very hesitant about this one. My pre conceptions were quickly turned around and I came to love this story about other people defining your experiences, actions and complicated relationships; taking away a story that belongs to you for the gain of moral value. It was so refreshing to see a story that illustrates the harm of people - sometimes well-intentioned - defining your harmful experiences for you and forcibly prescribing their remedies (eg reporting a crime, telling your story etc). I loved the humorous way in which Reid writes about something so heavy and makes the caricatured Eve so easy to detest. Eve is so self assured that her actions are driven by the greater good, blind to the destruction she paves along the way. Michaela’s internal conflicts of categorising her relationships and experiences were realistic and a much needed perspective hidden amongst the neater and prettier painting of victimhood that is often seen. Eve and Michaela represents a complex, confusing and ultimately damaging female friendship that many of us have been in before. We’ve all known, loved and been hurt by an Eve; it makes me wonder how many times I have been an Eve too.

[leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

love & virtue is a campus novel following the friendship of 2 young women in their first year of university in sydney as they grapple with power dynamics, sex, philosophy, privilege, and the lines of consent.

this book feels like a mixture of my last innocent year and thirst for salt, both in terms of the writing styles and the themes explored. but similarly to how i felt about my last innocent year, while the premise and commentary is strong, i think the novel was a little ambitious in everything it tried to explore within its 300 pages, making some aspects feel less developed than others. while no author or novel could ever provide clear-cut answers to the themes explored in this book, after reading this i was left with the feeling that this book was trying to say something poignant, but sadly never really got there.

[priya ☁️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is what My Brilliant Friend wanted to be, albeit for a younger audience.

[daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting book many thoughts fuck men

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

[Kirsty Leishman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is awful. On the one hand I think it wants to be the sequel to Helen Garner’s The First Stone, but instead of talking back to Garner’s support of middle aged men who harassed young women in their care, and her condemnation of the young women who complained about the culture of elite university colleges in the 90s, the narrator doubles down on a figure drawn in the mould of The First Stone complainants, accusing her of appropriating her story—that she doesn’t remember—in order to build her career. The blurb says it’s ’authentic’, which is just about the most weasel word for an apologist whine I’ve ever come across. It’s a mean, unnecessary slap in the face to the #MeToo movement. To add insult to injury, the author uses a young scholarship holder, child of a single mother, an outsider to the Sydney private school elite, the working class, to critique the very real issue of sexual assault and abuse of power as if it’s nothing more than a cynical, self serving concern of educated female elites. Talk about stealing someone’s story. There’s a lot to critique about white, middle class feminism, but working overtime to resurrect the reputations of privileged, powerful white men isn’t the way to go about it.

[Tom Davidson McLeod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Splendiferous, hilarious, and stylistically brilliant. I forgot to pick my children up from school because I was so engrossed in this page-turner: that’s how compelling it is.

The characters are uncomfortably real, the voice is unnervingly insightful, and the story is unsettlingly relatable. Hands down the best book I’ve read in a long time.

[Sigourney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this book and all the characters felt like very complex nuanced humans beings that I wanted to read more about in order to understand them - the book touched on so many issues and left me with a lot of questions in the best way possible (also always special when you read an Australian novel that has such familiarity)

[Annaliseygirl (BuddStreetBooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus. I’m speechless.

The book was generally entertaining to begin with, but from the mid-point onwards it was an absolute masterclass in fiction.

And this is Diana Reid’s first book. I’ll say it again, Jesus.

[Fifi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love & Virtue is a debut novel by Diana Reid. Narrated by Michaela, a high-achieving Canberra student, who is on a scholarship at Fairfax collage, a fictional prestigious university campus in Sydney. there she forms a friendship with the enigmatic and highly opinionated Eve, who lives in the room next door to hers.

Eve is rich, beautiful and a committed feminist, she has a personality that is not like any of Michaela’s peers. Eve introduces Michaela into a whole new world one filled with feminist authors and debates about political topics. Yet, throughout the book you see how Eve manipulatives Michaela, as she only hangs out with Eve separately from her normal friends or she uses Michaela’s anecdotes as her own. The nuances of their relationship, which is part attraction and part rivalry are explored throughout a number of incidents, with Michaela often forming her own opinion on Eve’s actions.

Two key events drive the conflict between Eve and Michaela. The First happens during O-Week Michaela has sex with another student but she was too drunk to remember who the student was, so therefore too drunk to consent. The student is a “good guy” who is not as entitled as his private “old boy” club friends. While Michaela can’t bring herself to see it as rape, Eve does it for her, insisting she report it to the school. Yet, Michael feels uncomfortable about reporting the event not only because she sees the boy as a “Good Guy” but because he is dating one of her friends.

The second event is the relationship between Michaela and her professor, who is twice her age. She believes that by being the one to pursue him, makes her different. At the start of their relationship Michaela doesn’t see Paul as a person. She is living out a fantasy that she is conditioned to want because he is powerful, and a professor and it proves that she’s smart. As, young women are socialised to view their intellects through the lens of male authority.

There are many themes to wrestle with throughout this book, some more insidious and less obvious than others. The big ones are around consent and sexual humiliation, toxic masculinity and the use of wealth and privilege to ‘rewrite’ the rules. Michaela is young woman who is hungry for academic knowledge, but her ambition is still cowed by the desire for social approval from her peers. Michaela and her friends navigate these pressures daily, they desperately want to fit in, and are prepared to sacrifice their dignity and integrity in that pursuit. This shown through the amount Michaela drinks, the parties she feels she must attend and the way she ignores the sexist slurs just to fit in.

Love and Virtue is a multilayered book that explores the topics of feminism, sexuality, and the self-conscious intellectual while also being a coming-of-age book. Love & Virtue is an impressive debut novel, and I’m eagerly waiting for what Diana Reid writes next. Also that last line was pure perfection.