Innocents

Rating:
Summary: Not Lolita, but still good
Review: Comparing "Innocents" to " Lolita" is like comparing apples and oranges. Nabokov's writing style is brilliant, while the style of a young Cathy Coote is not in that realm- but offers promise nonetheless. While the two most prominent figures in this book are never named, you can easily see them through the descriptions of the manipulative female protagonist. Drawing her helpless older prey ever deeper into sexual obsession and addiction, the girl's innocent exterior masks her cruel and calculating mind- fully using virtually every stereotype of the schoolgirl fantasy. It does seem difficult to grasp the absence of any concerted effort by the impassive aunt and uncle left behind to find their runaway niece. And one must wonder how no neighbors or even casual observers question the live in relationship between the man and his "niece."

I felt a sense early on that the portrayed "victim" was destined for the inevitable bad ending a man usually faces in such an illicit relationship. However, the conclusion does leave the reader feeling a mix of confusion concerning where the couple is heading.

The book is just long enough to offer an interesting, though graphic and disturbing plotline, without being too lengthy. It will be interesting to see how or if Cathy Coote's style and subject matter evolves in future writings.

Rating:
Summary: Vulgar, but interesting concept
Review: Dark and twisted, this book is an intense read.
It deals with the manipulation tactics of a 16 year old girl who seduces her teacher.
She moves in with him and they have a very sexual relationship.
There were many odd things about this book, though. Things just seemed uncanny - like how the aunt and uncle made no real effort to drag her back to their house. She IS a minor, after all.
The amount of vulgarity and sexual content in this book is extreme. This book is not for the prudish, or the squeamish.
The sex scenes are extremely graphic and steamy, and some are quite revolting.
Over all, this book was well-written. The author, I think, was very precocious, as there were a lot of big, descriptive words used throughout the book.
It was just the element of uncanniness in this book that made it lose a star. At times, it didn't seem very realistic at all.
All in all, an intense, steamy read - a perverse look into the strange intricacies, and hidden desires of the human psyche.


Rating:
Summary: Not So Innocent
Review: Dazzling and Dark.
Two words to describe this odd story. Cathy Coote writes from the perspective of a nameless teen who seduces and manipulates her high school history teacher into a false sense of responsibility and obsession over her.

The sexual scenes in this novel are incredibly detailed and real. And my favorite motif within the novel was that of the constant symbolic comparison of the speaker to a snake. ("You battled yourself, a man wrestling a Boa Constrictor"; "Entertwined on the couch like snakes in their basket") When considering a running symbolism such as this it makes her seem so much more sinister than she admits and even prides herself in being.

However, I stopped reading about 2/3 of the way through. It became too flat and disgusting for me to identify with the speaker any longer. Eventually I picked it up again, and skimming over a few passages I reached the end and again was let down. There is merely the hint of a climax and the book drops its reader into the same pit that the personality of its characters seem to have tumbled into.

I recommend the book for its beautiful diction and description, but warn of its eventual monotany.

Rating:
Summary: Deliciously dark and clever!
Review: I have often wondered what goes through the mind of a pedophile. Having read Innocents, I have gotten a glimpse into the mind of the aforementioned person -- from a sixteen-year-old girl's point of view. The nameless young character describes her thirty-four-year-old schoolteacher's desire for her. He is drawn to her naivete and innocence -- what he doesn't know is that she's manipulating him. Thus, making this one of the most twisted psychological novels out there.

The subject matter is deliciously dark and disturbing. The novel questions morality and innocence by making said notions seem abstract. This is one of the cleverest reads I have had in a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Yes. Yes, this is just a Nabokov rip-off.
Review: I'm sorry, but yes: this is just a Nabokov rip-off. I can't stand it when people who were bored by page one of Lolita (but did happen to catch snippets of the Jeremy Irons film version when it ran on premium cable 24/7) or who've never read anything else by Nabokov compare books like this to Lolita, but call them "not just another" Lolita. Reviewers say that because they would sound stupid saying "This hack, improbable adolescent writing rivals the richness of Nabokov's any day!" This book comes no where Nabokov; it comes no where near passing for a book you could read all the way through. The narrator is a twerp and the teacher is a nancy. It's the most contrived piece of unlikely affairs I've ever read in writing. I hate how everyone keeps pointing out that author was 19 when she wrote the book. Obviously, she's a bit older than that now, and much wiser to the discriminations and liberties and responsibilities of the art. Maybe. Nineteen or not, the book is ineffective. Rank it up there with "Lo's Diary" and "The End of the Alice."

Rating:
Summary: GO BUY NOW!
Review: OKAY! U MUST GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW. Seriously, this is such an amazing book. To think a 19 year old wrote this is incomphensible. This book was written with such passion and the vocabulary is so amazing. This book is so good please go buy it! This book will capture you and won't let you go.

Rating:
Summary: Yes. Yes, this is just a Nabokov rip-off.
Review: The language of INNOCENTS sails from high, mocking, victorious glee to the depths of self-loathing--not unlike the sixteen-year-old girl who narrates it. It is the voice of this young girl that insinuates into the reader's head, alternately attempting to seduce with her brilliance and disgust with her callous cunning. The story maps out a reverse "Lolita" arrangement, with the beautiful nymphet pulling all the strings and the hapless adult male unwittingly following after her.

This book is not for everybody. The language, in parts, grows overblown and tiresome, and the plot itself offers nothing but an endless cycle of seduction, with no development of characters, no changes. The climax rings hollow, and the ending smells faintly of the end to Fowles' THE COLLECTOR, with just the barest whiff of the cyclic quality of obsession. The seduction scenes are admirable and chilling, but the few actual plot points have an obligatory feel, "thrown in" as it were to advance the story along, with no reason or meaning behind them. In the end one is left with a numbing emptiness--not unlike the narrator herself must feel.

Don't come to this book looking for answers or insights. Ride along and allow yourself to be manipulated by the wily narrator and the very lucid, brilliant author. If Miss Coote has written a second novel, it might be very much worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: A Memorable Disappointment
Review: The language of INNOCENTS sails from high, mocking, victorious glee to the depths of self-loathing--not unlike the sixteen-year-old girl who narrates it. It is the voice of this young girl that insinuates into the reader's head, alternately attempting to seduce with her brilliance and disgust with her callous cunning. The story maps out a reverse "Lolita" arrangement, with the beautiful nymphet pulling all the strings and the hapless adult male unwittingly following after her.

This book is not for everybody. The language, in parts, grows overblown and tiresome, and the plot itself offers nothing but an endless cycle of seduction, with no development of characters, no changes. The climax rings hollow, and the ending smells faintly of the end to Fowles' THE COLLECTOR, with just the barest whiff of the cyclic quality of obsession. The seduction scenes are admirable and chilling, but the few actual plot points have an obligatory feel, "thrown in" as it were to advance the story along, with no reason or meaning behind them. In the end one is left with a numbing emptiness--not unlike the narrator herself must feel.

Don't come to this book looking for answers or insights. Ride along and allow yourself to be manipulated by the wily narrator and the very lucid, brilliant author. If Miss Coote has written a second novel, it might be very much worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: Dark and Seductive
Review: The prose of this book is fantastic; and to think that a nineteen year old had the talent to write a book of this quality. I have read this book twice already and still don't want to put it down. The only thing I didn't like about it was the ease in which the narrator crafted herself into exactly what her teacher so desperately wanted. Other than that, I highly reccomend this book for ages 14 and up.

Rating:
Summary: Riveting read
Review: This book has pretty dark subject matter but it is a really exciting read, it keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens. It also makes you think because you're taught by the media to always think that girls are innocent in that kind of relationship but this shows that female sexuality can be just as complex and dark as male sexuality. Highly recommended!!!