23
Oct
2009
Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon
This is a twisty book. There’s a twist, and then another and then another. Seriously, everything I predicted was wrong.
Of course, I’m not very good at predicted the end of mystery-type books because I don’t read a whole lot of them.
So, ten years ago, these four solipsistic artists graduate from a very small art college in Vermont and decide to go “burn shit the fuck down.”
They call themselves the Compassionate Dismantlers, and their leader, Suz writes this Manifesto about how the only way to set something free is to take it apart.
But Suz is bat-shit crazy. For real. And she has this tendency to tell them that they are going to go do this little bit of vandalism and then they like, commit arson or something.
But see, she’s magnetic. And she knows how to talk. She has a way of talking to her friends that make them go along with whatever she wants. Of course, to the reader, she, and the rest of them, are obviously young and idealistic and narcissistic. You know, they debate whether the dream that they had the night before was real and this is really the dream.
And then something bad happens to Suz and they cover it up. And then it’s like, I Know What You Did Ten Summers Ago.
But really, it’s about so much more than the plot. It’s about getting older, and moving from one ideology, one set of desires, into the next. Can you be a true artist, as you once defined it, and hold a day job of the sort you once ridiculed?
And that’s what I most connected with in this book. Because truly, who hasn’t wondered about whether or not they are the sole person in the universe and nothing is real and dabbled with nihilism and then grew up and got the fuck over themselves?
And I wonder, would ten-years-ago me hate now me? I think she’d be disappointed.
If you like this book/author, you might like:
(my reviews in blue)
Angelica by Arthur Phillips
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England by Brock Clarke
Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood
The Fate of Katherine Carr by Thomas H. Cook
I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Other works by Jennifer McMahon:
My Tiki Girl
Island of Lost Girls
Promise Not to Tell
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I enjoyed this book as well. The mystery was intriguing and I had the same thoughts you did about what you become when you “grow up.” I hope the me of ten years ago would like what I am now, but I don’t know!
I loved your review. It kicked ass, lol! And now I really want to read this book.
I like some of the questions this novels poses. If my mes met the young one might be a little disappointed, but hopefully there would be some unexpected things that she appreciated.
This sounds like a freaky, twisted book; I like those! I’ll have to check it out!
Welcome to the read-a-thon (I hope you’re still participating)! Enjoy these first few hours-they’ll fly by! I’m sure you’ll do great.
And I just read my first novella during the first hour.
This sounds a bit like The Secret History, which I loved – I’ll have to check it out!
I LOVED this book. It was really the first mystery/thriller I’ve ever picked up and wasn’t disappointed. Of course, like you said, it has a lot more going than just the scare tactics. I really enjoyed and I’m glad you did, too!