Tampa

"Extremely messed up and hard to read but also written very well. I couldn’t put it down even though I wanted to multiple times. Definitely check trigger warnings, this is a very very difficult one. "

"Great start but then fizzled at the end. I don't even remember how it ended it was so unremarkable. "

"It's so well written you almost forget it's one of the most disturbing things ever typed."

"So messed up but really compelling."

"Quick read. Definitely explicit. "

"#taboo "

"Written well. Uncomfortable topic and didn’t end the way I wanted. "

"If you haven't read this book, I advise you to please approach with caution if you plan to.<br/><br/>It's about a woman.<br/><br/>She is a sexual predator and is entirely fixated on fourteen-year-old boys.<br/><br/>At first, I readied my puke-bucket as I was preparing to read this book. (I listened to the audiobook.)<br/><br/>And granted, I did start out feeling sick, yet from the start, I was fully entertained by this main character and what was going on in her head.<br/><br/>She was just so fascinating.<br/><br/>When she felt disgusted, I felt disgusted along with her. When she was angry and disappointed, I was right there with her.<br/><br/>This, my friends, is the power of good writing. Making you root for a character you would absolutely shame in real life.<br/><br/>I'm not saying that reading and feeling along with this character turned me into this pedo-accepting person, lol. Never.<br/><br/>What I'm certainly saying, though, is that I was rooting for her and hated everyone who worked against her.<br/><br/>Let's take the character Jack, for example.<br/><br/>For most of this book, Jack is fourteen years old, and he is fascinated and even claims to be in love with the heroine. I never saw Jack as a victim, because even though, I know that the heroine pursued him, had her eyes on him and advanced on him like the predator she is, I instead ended up hating Jack for his stupid run at one point in the book that eventually causes the heroine's downfall.<br/><br/>To me, the heroine is the true victim here.<br/><br/>And I also felt bad for her getting caught and going to prison for a while because of (stupid Jack.)<br/><br/>I didn't pity her, but I figured out her problem, and it is such a big one yet simple.<br/><br/>She had an obsession with preserving youth. She constantly brought up how in, in the future, her body will lose its beauty. And that her sexuality will be more difficult to pursue.<br/><br/>To me, this is a very relatable thing.<br/><br/>I may not care about youth and beauty as much as others, but I know many who do, and they could easily be her.<br/><br/>The heroine's mind is so preoccupied with preserving youth, preserving her body's sexual prowess, that this obsession ended up driving her sexuality into a fixation with (youthful) boys.<br/><br/>And yes, I am in fact saying that any of us can be her, if we are not careful:<br/><br/>So into our looks and youth that we become prisoners of our own sexuality.<br/><br/>And yes, the heroine is a prisoner.<br/><br/>She can't escape it.<br/><br/>Even after the awful boys she meddled with sexually ended up getting her in trouble, she still went back to doing the same thing: sleeping with minors.<br/><br/>And yes, I am wholly aware that this review would have been vastly different on my part if the heroine was a man. Not denying that. (In fact, I don't think I would have been comfortable reading it all, if the main character were a man...)<br/><br/>Why? Because I know this type of woman mostly exists in fiction. There's not really any female sexual predators in real life. There is, but comparing it to men is like counting the number of houses in your neighborhood to the number of stars in the whole entire universe.<br/><br/>And most of those "stars" don't really go after fourteen-year-olds, that's usually too old for them.<br/><br/>Comparing this heroine to "true" pedophiles is ridiculous.<br/><br/>That's all.<br/><br/>Anyway, that was a first for me.<br/><br/>If any of you ever end up reading this, let me know what you think.<br/><br/>Lastly, I must applaud Alissa Nutting.<br/><br/>She is one of the most incredible authors I have ever had the pleasure of reading from. This book amazed me and inspired me to write my own "Tampa" of sort...<br/><br/>The character she created touched me so much that my brain started to create its own complicated, flawed and dangerous heroine.<br/><br/>EDIT: Some readers took offence to my review. Let me clarify some points: <br/><br/>I did not say female predators only existed in fiction, I said they MOSTLY did. There's a difference.<br/><br/>I also didn't mean to imply that predators who went after fourteen-year-olds weren't true predators. I just mean that there are worst predators out there and they abuse even younger, more innocent children.<br/><br/>I mean, right now, as we speak, men are râping babies. LITERAL babies... so, I don't think women are what we should be worrying about when it comes to depraved/abusive sxual behavior towards innocents.<br/><br/>By the way, I still stand by everything I said in this review... if you disagree and want to have a discussion, insulting me is not the way to do that. I will dismis you. I do not respond to insults/patronization.<br/><br/>Also, for everyone throwing a fit because I refer to the main character as "the heroine..."<br/><br/>I have no idea what y'all are on about...<br/><br/>Cause that's what she LITERALLY is... it's literally HER story. She is quite literarily/literally the heroine of this story, the protagonist of it...<br/><br/>I don't know what the fck y'all want me to call her..."

"DNF"

"While I understood the subject matter of this novel before I started, that part of it did not bug me at all. I made it through about 30% of the book and it felt like a constant slow start. I did enjoy the little details but I feel like the book was very repetitive and I could not get past 50%. I actually could not finish this so it is on my DNR pile. Maybe in the near future I will give it another chance and possibly update my review."