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Maidenhead (2012)

by Tamara Faith Berger(Favorite Author)

2.96 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

155245259X (ISBN13: 9781552452592)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction

publisher

Coach House Books

review 1: This is not the book you would want to read and write an essay about for your summative assignment for English class.Personally, I found it repulsive and I did not like Myra (the protagonist) at all. On that note, I did not like any of the characters.Looking at it in terms of theories, a Feminism or Marxism lens would be useful but I do not think this genre is one of my preference.
review 2: I downloaded this novel because I was reading a vice.com article about Tamara Faith Berger and the uproar that this coming-of-age story was silently receiving. When the novel starts out with a 16-year-old girl vacations to Florida with her family and an older man pisses on her, I knew that it was something that would catch my interest. I think of Springbreakers. I think of ... moreIrreversible. I think of Dogtooth. I think of all of the cinema that I watch that fits into this underbelly of the world, the parts where you really shouldn't look, yet once you start looking you are either completely repulsed or completely fascinated. I would say I fall in that latter category, and this caused me some years of searching before I found someone who thinks this fascination is acceptable.But that's just me.I finished this slim novel and thought it was alright, a little shocking, a little brave, but nothing really too much to handle. You can see that Myra is looking for something outside of her normal life, away from those who look down on her, from the places where she doesn't really belong. This is something of an existentialist perspective, and she finds this in a situation where she is used, abused, tied up, pissed on, and generally destroyed. All of the things that she was supposed to do disappeared when she was with Elijah and Gail. The good girl she was supposed to be.There is a tie in with the slave mentality and sometimes a slave is more in control that the master. This theory can be argued and is argued during the novel, and this is what really saves Myra from being a freak in this situation, someone who does not see the situation as dangerous as it really is. A few things are left unanswered. Some more aftermath in Myra's case could be in order (does she look for a new relationship like this or is she content with the outcome), but as a whole, it's not too bad. Something to put on the shelf next to Tamara Faith Berger's other works. less

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