Acts of Desperation
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4.0 • 79 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
This "blistering anti-romance" (Catherine Lacey) paints a riveting, cathartic story about love addiction and what it does to us.
Wouldn’t I do anything to reverse my loss, the absence of him?
In the first scene of this provocative gut-punch of a novel, our unnamed narrator meets a magnetic writer named Ciaran and falls, against her better judgment, completely in his power. After a brief, all-consuming romance he abruptly rejects her, sending her into a tailspin of jealous obsession and longing. If he ever comes back to her, she resolves to hang onto him and his love at all costs, even if it destroys her…
Part breathless confession, part lucid critique, Acts of Desperation renders a consciousness split between rebellion and submission, between escaping degradation and eroticizing it, between loving and being lovable. With unsettling, electric precision, Nolan dissects one of life’s most elusive mysteries: Why do we want what we want, and how do we want it?
Heralding the arrival of a stunning new literary talent, Acts of Desperation interrogates the nature of fantasy, desire, and power, challenging us to reckon honestly with our own insatiability.
"Hot as viscera." —The New Republic
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Normal People meets My Dark Vanessa in this page-turning story of a toxic relationship. Debut novelist Megan Nolan pulls us into the choppy waters of her unnamed narrator’s head as she navigates the ugly details of her yearslong infatuation with an aloof and beautiful tortured-artist type named Ciaran. Despite all indications to the contrary—including the fact that Ciaran is still obsessed with his previous girlfriend—Nolan’s protagonist is convinced they belong together. What makes Acts of Desperation such a compelling read is how nakedly Nolan lays bare the ugly thoughts and self-negation that many young women experience. As her fictional character gains some distance from the horrors of her and Ciaran’s power dynamics, we undergo something like catharsis.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vice contributor Nolan deconstructs a young couple's toxic relationship in her fierce and intelligent debut. Things open with an unnamed young woman catching sight of Ciaran, an art critic and "the most beautiful man had ever seen," at a Dublin art gallery in 2012. She appreciates how Ciaran seems "undeniably whole" amid a crowd of shallow social climbers. The narrator then describes their subsequent spiral into a torturous, obsessive romance. She's in her early 20s, a university dropout and aspiring poet who works in a restaurant and parties a lot. Ciaran, meanwhile, is passive-aggressive, insults the narrator's friends, makes cruel remarks ("Did you want me to say I'm falling in love with you? Because I'm not"), and carries on an ambiguous relationship with his ex. The narrator and Ciaran eventually break up, only to get back together a few months later and move in together. An idyllic glow surrounds them, until the narrator begins pushing Ciaran's boundaries, and things devolve. The story is intercut with dispatches from 2019 Athens, where the narrator tries to move toward a future without Ciaran while reflecting on the nature of vulnerability, self-loathing, and her addiction to love with stark frankness. The narrator is remarkable for her complete lack of self-pity and unflinching depictions of her own motives and needs. This mesmerizes from the first page.
Customer Reviews
really well written!!
this book communicates some of the most deeply moving and relatable ideas i’ve ever read, while still being able to tell a relatively cohesive story. the pacing is a bit confusing, but it’s overall a stylistic choice, so i respect it.
Great read !
Amazing 😭
Sometimes you don’t choose the book, the book chooses you
Startlingly real. Starts out with a bang.