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Rohypnol
Fact: bad people do bad things. In the new age of money, drugs, and instant satisfaction, you make your own rules. You take what you want—not ask. There is no responsibility. There is no guilt. If someone burns you, you should do the same to them. It's an issue of equality. Andrew Hutchinson brilliantly portrays a disturbing reality in which cold and disillusioned youths assault the comfortable middle-class world around them. This provocative, jolting novel examines the mind of a self-made monster—and questions the direction of modern life.
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 15, 2020
As this is a piece of Australian literature, I feel as though my review should be kicked off with a truly Australian indictment of its content. Ready?
Yeah, nah. Nah.
I should’ve seen this coming. The author was mentored by another author who I have come to refer to as ‘The Slap Man’ (meaning he wrote ‘The Slap’). This vein of Australian authorship seems to follow the long garden path of toxic masculinity, disaffected youth, and women who aren’t really people, they’re just cardboard renderings of them. It is the latter point that particularly gets me. While an examination of the toxicity of our culture is great, ‘Fight Club’ or ‘American Psycho’ this is not. It’s a sad attempt at trying to show psychopathy with an indelicate get out of gaol free card, and it doesn’t pass well.
The way that all the women in this are written is also laughable. While I can’t say that the men are particularly deep either, the women are really, really bad. Surrounded by these horrid men, the closest they get to fighting it is some namby-pamby monologuing. If I ever found out that I was mates with someone in a rape cartel, there would be swift legal action and detainment.
The end chapter with the ‘Oooh maybe I did nothing at all’ is the most inelegant Easton-Ellis dollar store knock-off I’ve ever read. When people ask why Australia doesn’t seem to produce great writers anymore, look in this direction. You’ll have your answer. Maybe if we stopped writing about absolute knuckleheads and actually developed real characters, we’d have more of a place on the world stage.
Yeah, nah. Nah.
I should’ve seen this coming. The author was mentored by another author who I have come to refer to as ‘The Slap Man’ (meaning he wrote ‘The Slap’). This vein of Australian authorship seems to follow the long garden path of toxic masculinity, disaffected youth, and women who aren’t really people, they’re just cardboard renderings of them. It is the latter point that particularly gets me. While an examination of the toxicity of our culture is great, ‘Fight Club’ or ‘American Psycho’ this is not. It’s a sad attempt at trying to show psychopathy with an indelicate get out of gaol free card, and it doesn’t pass well.
The way that all the women in this are written is also laughable. While I can’t say that the men are particularly deep either, the women are really, really bad. Surrounded by these horrid men, the closest they get to fighting it is some namby-pamby monologuing. If I ever found out that I was mates with someone in a rape cartel, there would be swift legal action and detainment.
The end chapter with the ‘Oooh maybe I did nothing at all’ is the most inelegant Easton-Ellis dollar store knock-off I’ve ever read. When people ask why Australia doesn’t seem to produce great writers anymore, look in this direction. You’ll have your answer. Maybe if we stopped writing about absolute knuckleheads and actually developed real characters, we’d have more of a place on the world stage.
August 21, 2020
Let me say at the outset that this novel is not a light or easy read: the situations portrayed are unpleasant and unsettling, and the characters that inhabit the book are completely unlikeable. When you get to the end it's hard to say that you've actually enjoyed it. But readers who leave this novel repelled by the material will only have seen the surface layer of what this book has to offer. It would be an common enough response to the work, and it is one that I would have some sympathy with. Yet, in doing so, the reader would be missing an important ingredient of Rohypnol, one that lifts it above the general ruck.
Troy, Uncle, Thorley, and the novel's narrator, are a group of disaffected teenagers who have fallen in together for a variety of reasons, and have formed, for want of a better term, a "date-rape" gang. Their favourite mode of operation is for one of their number to spike the drink of a pre-determined target, in a dark pub or nightclub, with Rohypnol, and then to spirit the victim away from the scene and back to an apartment where the sexual assault takes place. The story of the four is told from the point of view of the unnamed narrator, who starts the novel in therapy, fantasising about the therapist and attempting to forestall any form of analysis by her. We are aware early on that something bad has happened; we're not sure what, though it's not hard to figure out. The point of the book is not so much what took place, but how the protagonists got to the state that it could happen.
What we are shown here is the story of teenagers severely out of touch with the society in which they live, and divorced from their own humanity. They appear like predators, circling their prey and waiting for the right time to pounce. Are they really animals, or just disaffected youth who have taken the wrong path? They certainly display a number of sociopathic tendencies: lack of empathy, and control of their own actions being not the least of them. As I said earlier, the characters in the novel are completely unsympathetic, but Hutchinson has hit on a method of making the reader keep turning the pages; searching, I suppose, for some form of redemption or cathartic outcome. In many ways the novel reads like pulp noir fiction: short simple sentences, clipped dialog, short chapters that jump focus and time. There is little or no reflection on the action of the book by the narrator. The only sense of the narrator's purpose comes from several manifesto-like utterances spread throughout the book:
The New Punk is about intelligence...The New Punk is about raiding the twentieth century to make something new...The New Punk is about taking control. Seeing what you want and taking it, no matter the cost...The New Punk is not about remorse...The New Punk is not about moving towards your future. It is about your life right now, impatiently standing still.
I don't think these work. They add little to the reader's understanding of the novel's philosophy and break the flow of the story. Better is Thorley's explanation of "the rules", the first of which reads: "Never use your real name." Incorporated directly into the story they have more power. It's hard not to be reminded of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, at this point, which also laid down a set of rules for its participants: "The first rule of Fight Club is never talk about Fight Club."
Various commentators on this book have been critical of it for what they see as an attempt to shock, concentrating on the actions of the characters and the author's alleged "overuse" of swearing in the dialog. Yes, there are a lot of obscenities used in the book, but I've heard worse at the football and in the pub, so I didn't find the swearing here to be overdone nor repulsive. A certain sense of authenticity is required in a work of this sort and I'd rather this approach than one that was obviously toned down to little effect, or that attempted to replicate a form of slangy jargon. I do, in fact, feel that Hutchinson showed a degree of restraint at times and might well have shovelled the swearing on even harder. Does that forgive his use of swearing? No, because there is, in my mind, nothing to forgive. It fits the story and that's all that counts. It does, however, show that he was aware of the effect he was attempting to achieve and didn't just allow the thing to run out of control.
The most shocking thing about this book is the fact that people like these actually exist. If the main purpose of any novel is to propel us into a world outside our own experience then this one succeeds. It will certainly not be to everyone's taste, but I suspect you won't forget it in a hurry.
Troy, Uncle, Thorley, and the novel's narrator, are a group of disaffected teenagers who have fallen in together for a variety of reasons, and have formed, for want of a better term, a "date-rape" gang. Their favourite mode of operation is for one of their number to spike the drink of a pre-determined target, in a dark pub or nightclub, with Rohypnol, and then to spirit the victim away from the scene and back to an apartment where the sexual assault takes place. The story of the four is told from the point of view of the unnamed narrator, who starts the novel in therapy, fantasising about the therapist and attempting to forestall any form of analysis by her. We are aware early on that something bad has happened; we're not sure what, though it's not hard to figure out. The point of the book is not so much what took place, but how the protagonists got to the state that it could happen.
What we are shown here is the story of teenagers severely out of touch with the society in which they live, and divorced from their own humanity. They appear like predators, circling their prey and waiting for the right time to pounce. Are they really animals, or just disaffected youth who have taken the wrong path? They certainly display a number of sociopathic tendencies: lack of empathy, and control of their own actions being not the least of them. As I said earlier, the characters in the novel are completely unsympathetic, but Hutchinson has hit on a method of making the reader keep turning the pages; searching, I suppose, for some form of redemption or cathartic outcome. In many ways the novel reads like pulp noir fiction: short simple sentences, clipped dialog, short chapters that jump focus and time. There is little or no reflection on the action of the book by the narrator. The only sense of the narrator's purpose comes from several manifesto-like utterances spread throughout the book:
The New Punk is about intelligence...The New Punk is about raiding the twentieth century to make something new...The New Punk is about taking control. Seeing what you want and taking it, no matter the cost...The New Punk is not about remorse...The New Punk is not about moving towards your future. It is about your life right now, impatiently standing still.
I don't think these work. They add little to the reader's understanding of the novel's philosophy and break the flow of the story. Better is Thorley's explanation of "the rules", the first of which reads: "Never use your real name." Incorporated directly into the story they have more power. It's hard not to be reminded of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, at this point, which also laid down a set of rules for its participants: "The first rule of Fight Club is never talk about Fight Club."
Various commentators on this book have been critical of it for what they see as an attempt to shock, concentrating on the actions of the characters and the author's alleged "overuse" of swearing in the dialog. Yes, there are a lot of obscenities used in the book, but I've heard worse at the football and in the pub, so I didn't find the swearing here to be overdone nor repulsive. A certain sense of authenticity is required in a work of this sort and I'd rather this approach than one that was obviously toned down to little effect, or that attempted to replicate a form of slangy jargon. I do, in fact, feel that Hutchinson showed a degree of restraint at times and might well have shovelled the swearing on even harder. Does that forgive his use of swearing? No, because there is, in my mind, nothing to forgive. It fits the story and that's all that counts. It does, however, show that he was aware of the effect he was attempting to achieve and didn't just allow the thing to run out of control.
The most shocking thing about this book is the fact that people like these actually exist. If the main purpose of any novel is to propel us into a world outside our own experience then this one succeeds. It will certainly not be to everyone's taste, but I suspect you won't forget it in a hurry.
September 10, 2018
*** Review originally published by Underground Writers http://underground-writers.org/review... ***
Rohypnol by Andrew Hutchinson is the story of a group of disillusioned male youths and how they fall rapidly into the world of sex crime. Told through the perspective of one of these young men, Hutchinson describes how the boys come to meet and begin their practice of roaming Melbourne nightclubs in search of female victims. The title of the book, Rohypnol, refers to the date rape drug which the boys use to spike the drinks of their victims, which then leave them defenceless and easy prey for the gang to later rape. There are of course consequences for these events, which the novel ultimately builds up to, but is there any remorse or redemption for this gang of despicable young men?
Unlike many other stories with a similar premise, this is in no way a story of forgiveness or redemption; this is the story of bad people doing bad things and not caring about the consequences. The characters are deliberately unlikeable, and the reader is left with no obvious explanation as to why these boys decide to do what they do. The boys are all privileged, white, spoilt, middle-class, and private-school educated, and there are no obvious reasons presented to suggest that they would think this behaviour is normal. This makes it almost impossible to feel any sympathy or pity for the characters, which makes the novel all the more compelling. However, the subject matter of the novel may indeed put off many potential readers. At times the book is horrific, violent and sickening, with some scenes containing graphic sexual violence. Some may even feel that the content exists for shock value. Why would anyone want to read this? Well, in spite of it all, this book is skillful, enlightening and entirely fresh. With little information provided on the main character’s back stories, the reader is forced to fill in the gaps which is both challenging and stimulating.
Throughout the novel the reader is brought in and out of the narrator’s therapy sessions, which take place following the events of the main story. As well as breaking up the main narrative, these sessions serve as a chance for the character to shed further light on the events that occurred occurring events and to question the morals of all involved. His name is never revealed, further distancing the reader and reinforcing the idea that these criminals walk among us, entirely anonymous.
Ultimately Rohypnol is an investigation of disillusioned youths in modern day society and how wealth enables and protects them. Hutchinson also shines a light on the thin line between innocent bystander, accessory, and instigator of crime, asking at which point a person becomes responsible.
As fantastical as it seems at times, the most terrifying aspect of this story is that events like these are very much a reality. Sexual predators such as the ones introduced in this novel operate and blend-in seamlessly into everyday society. This fact makes the story even more chilling. Unless it isn’t already clear enough, this novel is not for the faint-hearted and is not for everyone. However, if you enjoy dark, gritty stories which both challenge and stimulate then you are in for a treat.
Rohypnol by Andrew Hutchinson is the story of a group of disillusioned male youths and how they fall rapidly into the world of sex crime. Told through the perspective of one of these young men, Hutchinson describes how the boys come to meet and begin their practice of roaming Melbourne nightclubs in search of female victims. The title of the book, Rohypnol, refers to the date rape drug which the boys use to spike the drinks of their victims, which then leave them defenceless and easy prey for the gang to later rape. There are of course consequences for these events, which the novel ultimately builds up to, but is there any remorse or redemption for this gang of despicable young men?
Unlike many other stories with a similar premise, this is in no way a story of forgiveness or redemption; this is the story of bad people doing bad things and not caring about the consequences. The characters are deliberately unlikeable, and the reader is left with no obvious explanation as to why these boys decide to do what they do. The boys are all privileged, white, spoilt, middle-class, and private-school educated, and there are no obvious reasons presented to suggest that they would think this behaviour is normal. This makes it almost impossible to feel any sympathy or pity for the characters, which makes the novel all the more compelling. However, the subject matter of the novel may indeed put off many potential readers. At times the book is horrific, violent and sickening, with some scenes containing graphic sexual violence. Some may even feel that the content exists for shock value. Why would anyone want to read this? Well, in spite of it all, this book is skillful, enlightening and entirely fresh. With little information provided on the main character’s back stories, the reader is forced to fill in the gaps which is both challenging and stimulating.
Throughout the novel the reader is brought in and out of the narrator’s therapy sessions, which take place following the events of the main story. As well as breaking up the main narrative, these sessions serve as a chance for the character to shed further light on the events that occurred occurring events and to question the morals of all involved. His name is never revealed, further distancing the reader and reinforcing the idea that these criminals walk among us, entirely anonymous.
Ultimately Rohypnol is an investigation of disillusioned youths in modern day society and how wealth enables and protects them. Hutchinson also shines a light on the thin line between innocent bystander, accessory, and instigator of crime, asking at which point a person becomes responsible.
As fantastical as it seems at times, the most terrifying aspect of this story is that events like these are very much a reality. Sexual predators such as the ones introduced in this novel operate and blend-in seamlessly into everyday society. This fact makes the story even more chilling. Unless it isn’t already clear enough, this novel is not for the faint-hearted and is not for everyone. However, if you enjoy dark, gritty stories which both challenge and stimulate then you are in for a treat.
September 16, 2012
With a subject matter such as this you would hope for something of a similar ilk to a Bret Easton Ellis or Chuck Palahniuk novel. While the characters of Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden are gritty, macho and 'liberated' protagonists - there is no such cornerstone to this novel. The plot is a good one but poorly executed into a fantasy world - what girl would secretly like being drugged and raped? You should really only read this novel if you have an interest in crime, pathological characters or Australian fiction. Even then, beware that the characters are not edgy, likeable, progressive or complex. This genre has a lot to offer but not this book.
April 24, 2019
This motherf*cker needs Jesus.
It's quite a well-written book, but the subject matter is terrifying - it's rife with aimless cruel mysogyny. I get that the author is setting the protagonist up as the most anti of heroes, but his efforts to let him off the hook towards the end - even mildly- beggar belief.
I chose to read it on the strength of Christos Tsiolkas' glowing praise on the cover and that it won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, but honestly - I can't recommend anyone read this.
It's quite a well-written book, but the subject matter is terrifying - it's rife with aimless cruel mysogyny. I get that the author is setting the protagonist up as the most anti of heroes, but his efforts to let him off the hook towards the end - even mildly- beggar belief.
I chose to read it on the strength of Christos Tsiolkas' glowing praise on the cover and that it won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, but honestly - I can't recommend anyone read this.
March 9, 2013
A well-written novel about thoroughly nasty people. It's not nice reading, but it is compelling.
April 18, 2022
Never really gets off the ground.
October 1, 2023
I read this book after it was recommended by a friend, and I honestly think it is one of the worst books I have ever read. Not just because of the entire storyline, but it seemed rushed, almost like speaking an entire sentence without taking a breath.
This book is about a group of guys that drug and rape women, and bounces back and forth between the past and the present. It details the narrators experiences with the group, as well as his present thoughts and feelings throughout therapy sessions, sprinkled in with ramblings about “The New Punk,” and how it’s all about “fuck people” and “every man for himself.”
I feel this book is very try-hard, with a hint of wishing it was American Psycho. It starts off flat and ends flat, but I’m not really sure what I should expect from a book of this nature? More violence, more gore? It feels almost bad to say it was boring, because entertainment shouldn’t be found in this. But I digress, it was boring.
The only thing I did like about the book is that it highlights how people like this can fly under the radar, pass us on the street and we wouldn’t even know it. This is something I think about often, have I ever passed someone on the street that has done something so horrific they should end up in prison? I mean, I’ve definitely been in the same room as some weird insecure man that has assaulted a woman before, but have I ever been in the same room as someone who is hiding a murder? Not super likely, but you never know, right?
Anyway, not a book I would read again and not one I ever want to think about again.
This book is about a group of guys that drug and rape women, and bounces back and forth between the past and the present. It details the narrators experiences with the group, as well as his present thoughts and feelings throughout therapy sessions, sprinkled in with ramblings about “The New Punk,” and how it’s all about “fuck people” and “every man for himself.”
I feel this book is very try-hard, with a hint of wishing it was American Psycho. It starts off flat and ends flat, but I’m not really sure what I should expect from a book of this nature? More violence, more gore? It feels almost bad to say it was boring, because entertainment shouldn’t be found in this. But I digress, it was boring.
The only thing I did like about the book is that it highlights how people like this can fly under the radar, pass us on the street and we wouldn’t even know it. This is something I think about often, have I ever passed someone on the street that has done something so horrific they should end up in prison? I mean, I’ve definitely been in the same room as some weird insecure man that has assaulted a woman before, but have I ever been in the same room as someone who is hiding a murder? Not super likely, but you never know, right?
Anyway, not a book I would read again and not one I ever want to think about again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2018
Christos Tsiolkas says this books is written without pretension but he must surely just mean without traditional literary pretension as this unapologetic and relentless novel is pure post-Palahniuk pretension, post-Welsh pretension such is the ease with which it can be categorised and the lack of attempt to disguise his influences. It’s almost a parody of the style it is so pretentious.
April 9, 2023
Uncomfortable & horrifying but the writing is good. The best horror writers will never produce something as scary and terrifying as this.
It's a lot to take and will stay with me for a long time (probably in my nightmares).
Also, I really respect that Andrew Hutchinson writes really dark stories. It's refreshing in a way - I hope he keeps writing. I really rate his other book too!
It's a lot to take and will stay with me for a long time (probably in my nightmares).
Also, I really respect that Andrew Hutchinson writes really dark stories. It's refreshing in a way - I hope he keeps writing. I really rate his other book too!
October 17, 2021
traumatic to read, yet, very well-written
January 29, 2023
kinda pretentious kinda traumatising kinda goofy
not sure why I read this
not sure why I read this
January 7, 2011
Wanting to be an author myself I figured I should start supporting Australian fiction, so I bought this as it looked interesting and as though it may have something to say. Even though I wasn't going into it expecting Heart Of Darkness I still came away majorly disappointed. No wonder Aussie fiction doesn't get much recognition; the characters are 2-D, unbelieveably stereotypical and bland, the story makes no sense and when he is trying to be deep the best thing he could think to say seems to be 'Fuck People' as if that is some utterly profound rule with which one could base their lives. The characters are like try-hard anarchists, date raping women and turning their backs on their parents and society at large. Having the main character follow these flimsy ideals makes the whole premise seem ridiculous. Plot holes also abound, not the least of which the fact a well known group of date rapists live within the community and are never confronted nor questioned by peers. Picked this up wanting to like it, but for drug induced humour and working class violence and profanity I'll stick with Irvine Welsh.
February 1, 2012
Gruesome and nasty and gritty, yes; as amazing as Tsiolkas' blurb seems to suggest, no. I quite enjoyed this as a surprisingly - and gratifyingly - understated amorality tale but the downside of an alienated, disassociated, unconnecting central character being an alienated, disassociated, unconnecting central chap is that he doesn't really get into your head (so the ultimate "I could be out there..." sort of ending doesn't really come off as frightening. And the "New Punk" stuff doesn't really work, except to the extent that it's part of said chap's security blanket.
Nevertheless, worth a look: lovely clear writing, very nasty vision, a distinctly modern-Australian young voice; Hutchinson's someone to watch.
Nevertheless, worth a look: lovely clear writing, very nasty vision, a distinctly modern-Australian young voice; Hutchinson's someone to watch.
June 25, 2014
You know, you would hope with a subject matter such as this that Hutchinson could summon the integrity to write a book where some of the female characters have a sense of rationality and agency. Instead, instead of a look into the pathological, frightening but nonetheless fascinating psyche of the male characters in this novel, you get a shady and shallow borderline romanticised version of the effects of rohypnol and youth apathy on the young adults. I struggled through this book because of the blasé characters and the lack of substance.
If you want to write a book about rape, have the decency to write a good book about rape rather than playing some sort of pseudo-sexist, male power fantasies about control. This book had some serious issues.
If you want to write a book about rape, have the decency to write a good book about rape rather than playing some sort of pseudo-sexist, male power fantasies about control. This book had some serious issues.
December 18, 2011
I should know better than to approach anything with expectations, but you’d think a blurb would be something you could safely rely on. Not in this case. I thought this story would be about apathy, about an adolescent’s self-destruction when confronted with a future full of disappointment and hardship. Instead, I got an amateur attempt at teenage Fight Club with the addition of crude rape. Unfortunate, as there were brief moments of brilliance, narrative-wise. The characters were unrealistic, which I possibly could have overlooked if it was well written, but it wasn’t that either. The prose was sloppy and laborious, the imagery unnecessarily graphic. Not worth the RRP.
February 24, 2014
Occasionally interesting but not great overall. There are moments in this short novel that are totally compelling, but then it is let down in the moments that follow by either sloppy writing or - it seems - a lack of interest from the author in what is been written. Comes across as a juvenile wet-dream at times, attempting to shock and astonish but doing neither. I think there is enough here for me to look into the author's other work.
December 16, 2023
This book was extremely well written. However, the topic was so grim, and the characters so unlikeable that I couldn't embrace it. Not since reading Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho years ago (also well written!!) has a book had such a gruesome impact upon me. This book will stay with me for all the wrong reasons!!
June 8, 2013
He can write, actually, all writers can but this story was a bit, "why bother?" If you're going to write a story about something that clearly is disturbing, ask anyone who has been drugged and raped, then write more than just a damn story that goes nowhere, otherwise, discover comedy.
December 23, 2015
Hideous and confronting subject matter aside, this book was not terribly well written and certainly not well edited, so I don't believe it read very well. The premise is good, however I found the execution lacking.
September 22, 2009
Amazingly crafted, made me feel sick to my stomach.
I am delighted to not know any people that fit this story, however I can see that it is all too shockingly real.
I am delighted to not know any people that fit this story, however I can see that it is all too shockingly real.
January 9, 2010
Scary that there are people out there like the characters in this book. I'm glad I read it, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone, except my sociopathic ex.
October 11, 2011
The most disturbing book I've ever read. And really very well written. Can't say I'll re-read it though. Once you figure out exactly what the front cover illustrates... *shudder*
Read
January 8, 2015Disturbing
February 24, 2016
That was seriously intense but I think I liked it?
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews