Eliza Clark, a British author, sets the record straight for a debut novelist when it comes to books laden with dark humour, explicit content and gore.
The book features Irina, a psychopath, as the main female protagonist who is a photographer by profession and has a fetish for capturing the boy parts. This is one of the most disturbing books I have read this year. The book is grotesque, gory, explicitly sexual, and portrays the open use of drugs and alcohol; it’s bold, fearless and exceptionally written.
The book, set in London, mainly focuses on art and exhibitions taking place amid the social construct in the underbelly of London, where artists like Irina thrive. She has many secret admirers for the kind of work she displays; colloquially, they are called perverts, and they call themselves admirers of exclusive contemporary art.
Irina is a dark, cold-hearted, selfish, narcissistic and manipulative woman yet extremely talented. She blends easily, charms people and uses them, especially men and boys, for the purpose of her art, which also shows the shift in contemporary societal power dynamics. She targets and picks innocent boys at random, using her soft features and charm to model for them. She thrives on her inner darkness (which we get to witness in her childhood backstory) and doesn’t even repent it. She knows that boys are just a means to an end, although at the end, nothing makes her happy, not even the photography she was so passionate about. This book is also exceptional because it’s just the opposite of what we witness in society, of what we read, it’s antipodal to how men exploit women.
Another narrative, which is annoying and appalling at the same time, is the relationship between Irina and Flo. Flo is yet another woman in the book who is equally pestering because she loves Irina, irrespective of how unstable Irina is mentally; Flo is simply obsessed with her. Flo, like a child, tries to get Irina’s attention, to make her jealous, by not leaving her chauvinist boyfriend. There is not enough space in the storyline for setting appropriate physical boundaries. There is a certain kind of frantic energy this book carries; you might even enjoy it only if you can absorb and sustain it. It’s out of the box and an absolutely stunning piece of literary fiction.
Irina’s character is portrayed so beautifully that you can despise her with all your might, yet you cannot not love her. You won’t be able to put the book down because you’d want to know what she did next, how she got away, and thereafter. The book is simply unputdownable.
If you like a book with a constant, eerie feeling that follows you on every page you turn till the end, then this book is for you. The more I dived deeper into the book, the darker it became. Initially, I thought Irina was on a spectrum, but this fallacy cleared out very soon. I am equally amazed and disturbed by my capacity to love this book so much. However, this book is not for the faint-hearted. This book comes with a lot of trigger warnings; read it only if your conscience allows you to.
It’s a perfect read for the season because it is the wintery, spooky season.
Ankita Mishra
Ankita Mishra is a law postgraduate whose intellectual curiosity extends far beyond the courtroom. An avid reader with an enduring passion for literature, she finds solace and inspiration in the pages of novels and short stories. Her literary tastes gravitate towards the dark and introspective corners of fiction, where themes of love, loss, and longing unfold with haunting beauty. Drawn especially to themes of unrequited love and emotional depth, she tries to explore the human psyche through the lens of timeless authors and complex characters. What began as a simple hobby has over time culminated in a passion; from reading books to reviewing, leading to a bookstagram account. Her dual interests in law and literature probably reflect a mind attuned to both justice and emotion—analytical yet deeply empathetic, logical yet poetic.