Book review by Corey
My Absolute Darling
My Absolute Darling follows Turtle Alveston, a teenage girl growing up in isolation with her abusive father on the northern California coast. Her world is built around survival, fear, and the belief that she has to depend on him, so even small moments of friendship or independence start feeling dangerous.
I wasn’t expecting this book to get under my skin the way it did. Turtle is frustrating, tough, vulnerable, and believable all at once, and I liked that her growth didn’t happen overnight. The writing is beautiful in places, but the subject matter is extremely heavy, and there were definitely moments where I had to slow down because of how brutal the abuse becomes.
The Goods
- Turtle is a very strong main character
- Excellent sense of place
- The writing is often beautiful
- Her growth feels earned
- The emotional impact is hard to shake
The Bads
- Extremely heavy subject matter
- Some scenes are very hard to read
- The pacing can be slow
- A few sections feel almost too intense
- Definitely not for sensitive readers
My Recommendation
This is a strong choice if you like literary fiction that deals with trauma, survival, and difficult family relationships without softening any of it. I liked that Turtle never suddenly became a completely different person just because she started seeing another way to live, and that made her story feel much more real. If you can handle very dark material involving abuse and control, My Absolute Darling is one of those books that can stay with you for a long time.
