Acts of Desperation

“Meditating your own victimhood is just part of being a woman. Using it or denying it, hating it, or loving it, and all of these at once. Being a victim is boring for everyone involved. It is boring to me to present myself through experiences that are instrumentalised constantly as narrative devices in soap operas and tabloids. Is this why I am so ashamed of talking about certain events or of finding them interesting? This is part of the horror of being hurt generically. Your experiences are so common that they become impossible to speak about in an interesting way.”

ACTS OF DESPERATION by Megan Nolan is about an unnamed narrator that falls madly in love (is it love or obsession? Can those sometimes feel the same?)with a man named Ciaran. Reading this was a jarring experience. I reflected on past relationships I have been a part of that forced me to forget who I was in service to my partner. Moments I’m not proud of, but they shaped me in profound ways. Sometimes I wanted to look away or found myself being judgmental towards her but I caught myself because I knew some of those moments felt more familiar than I would’ve liked to admit. As @didionmademedoit said this read was visceral. I loved it. I also have to agree with @thatgoodgoodbook . This will be compared to Rooney, but I think this one goes much deeper. It’s darker and to me rings more true.

But lots of content warnings for this one. There are mentions of self harm and rape. So please go into this carefully if those topics are triggering for you.

[ID: The novel Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan laying flat on a white fence]

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