The publishers who signed off on the short synopsis for this book are the worst. Absolutely nothing in the description prepared me for the author to describe mounting sexual tension between a preteen girl and a 26 year old man.
The writing was incredible, I was sucked into the story, while my stomach turned. I am beyond disgusted that her writing was so evocative that there were times I found myself, for the blink of an eye, rooting for their relationship to work out before my better sense slapped my brain awake and reminded me that this was child abuse.
The fact that Greenwood was able to get me to that place – a mother with 2 daughters, one of whom is 10, absolutely disgusts me and scares me. We are so easily influenced by emotion and rawness and shock value. The good reviews for this filth proves that.
This is how integrity and honor and morality is destroyed and filth is normalized.
Reviewers talking about how great it was, how nuanced the characters were, how this covered a “gray” area they hadn’t considered…they have accepted the relationship between these fictional characters and enshrined this “love” in their hearts as an epic tale of overcoming childhood trauma. I think rather they have moved their moral compass just another tick toward depravity, where a traumatized little girl in blood curdling detail describes how she masturbated a nearly 30 year old man.
This is not a love story, this is filth. And I want to wash my brain and ears and heart out. This is not ok.