Tampa: A Novel Kindle Edition

You're going to have a problem with this book. That's just a fact. Putting puts you right in the head of a pedophile and the only way out is through.

Based somewhat on real events, Tampa tells us the story of the aptly name Celeste, an eighth grade teacher obsessed with her underage male students.

It's dark, it's very graphic. It's hard to read, it's short but will feel much longer. There are sense that are hard to get through. Nothing does not pull punches here at all. The POV she chose will not allow it. From the moment you start this book you are in the head of a psychopath as she hunts her prey.

This is Lolita without the flowery beautiful prose. This is pure and raw. A female pedophile, whose thoughts must be on par with any male pedophile, reminds us that safety for us and or children is only an illusion.

Celeste Price is a true monster. A complete sociopath. Let's get that out there right away. No one is going to condone her thoughts or behavior in this book, but that's not what it's about. Alissa Nutting seems to have set out to create a complete portrait of a sociopath, and she did an excellent job. On characterization, it's hard to argue that she did anything about a terrific job. For those who argue there was no character development, I don't think that's true at all. The character of Jack grew and changed throughout the book. I found him to be a very realistic portrayal of a teenage boy in that circumstance. I will concede the other characters were not particularly well-drawn, but I think that is all part of the creation of the character of Celeste. She is the star of her own drama. None of those other people--her husband, Janet, Buck--were ever anything more than cardboard cut-outs to her. Celeste is the ultimate unreliable narrator. And Celeste has no character growth because she's a sociopath, she's not capable of it. The novel was wittily-written and vividly defined. I do think it's hypocritical that Amazon sells this out in the open, a book with vividly described sex with a 14-year-old boy, while they constantly and arbitrarily restrict access to titles other titles with sexual content in their Romance and Erotica sections, but that has nothing to do with this book. I could not give it 5 stars because some a couple gaping plot holes and a huge factual error that drove me crazy every time I encountered it: Corvettes do NOT have backseats! I find it hard to believe that no one who beta read or edited this book has been close enough to a Corvette to know that, so it's pretty shocking to me that this slipped through considering how much of the action takes place in that very car. It pulled me right out of the story every time it happened.

Hmmmm this is a tough one to rate.

I'm giving it three stars with some reservations because it's a compelling read in a don't-want-to see-but-can't-look-away-from-an-accident kind of way.

While the book deals with the very serious issue of child sexual abuse it's also wickedly funny in parts. Just how seriously can you take the following sentence: "I was afraid if things fell apart with Jack I'd have to grab Trevor and pound him in the PE storage shed, then flee town immediately-surely Trevor wouldn't be able to keep the secret longer than an hour."

The main character Celeste is not a character, she's a caricature. Apart from a vague reference to an experience with another teenager at the age of 14 that may have led to her preference for adolescent boys she is a woman without a history, family, friends, interests or any thoughts that don't revolve around finding a young boy on the cusp of manhood and corrupting him to fulfil her needs. Although there's some element of truth to the compulsive, predatory needs that drive her, if it's realistic insights into the mind of a child abuser you're after you won't find them here.

Celeste's lack of human emotion would be fine if this was satire, but although it has satirical elements it strives for more and this is where the lack of depth works against it. Like so many authors who write about characters who do abhorrent things Nutting has taken the easy way out by making Celeste a complete monster. Nutting has courted controversy with the many graphic sex scenes that pepper the book but it would have been far braver in my opinion to have created a more nuanced character who does have pangs of conscience and is capable of real emotions.

One thing the book does well is show the damage inflicted on Jack. Even though he feels at first that all of his fantasies have come true when his hot teacher starts to notice him, Nutting shows the toll the abuse takes on him in subtle ways before the sensationalist ending. She also does a decent job of drawing attention to the double standards and media fascination when the predator is an attractive young woman.

In the end though I was left with an unsettled feeling about this one. Is a book which portrays the abuse of minors in an ultimately superficial way actually exploiting the very issue it should be be shining a light on? I'd love to know what the author's intentions were so I'll have to dig up some interviews to find out.

Update: After reading through some other reviews I had a bit of an epiphany about this book. One of the major themes of the book I think is western culture's obsession with youth and sex. Celeste embodies this with her pathological fear of ageing and insatiable desires that completely define her. Perhaps she is better understood as representative/product of this culture rather than as a 'realistic' character.

There is a lot in this debut novel to offer anyone interested in the sexual deviant's mind. Celeste is a fascinating woman and living in her brain for 200-some pages gets downright scary.

This is a bit of a sister book to Lolita, I think, in that someone with a profound perverse fixation on prepubescent sexuality is narrating their lives in an almost matter-of-fact way. It's not as good as Lolita, but few books are. What Tampa DOES accomplish very well is build up an undeniable picture of a predator. Our society has a double standard when it comes to consent, teenagers, teachers sleeping with students, all maintaining the "women can't help it and the boys don't mind either" mentality. This novel turns that on its head a bit.

Plot wise there are no twists, no real character arcs except Celeste's, but she is a narcissist so it feels intentional and it works. The book is more of a character study and voyeuristic look into the obsessive mind of an hebephile.