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    Careless in Red
    Careless in Red
    Careless in Red
    Audiobook (abridged)11 hours

    Careless in Red

    Written by Elizabeth George

    Narrated by Charles Keating

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In her most eagerly anticipated novel yet, Elizabeth George brings back Scotland Yard's Thomas Lynley to investigate a ruthless crime.

    After the senseless murder of his wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley retreated to Cornwall, where he has spent six solitary weeks hiking the bleak and rugged coastline. But no matter how far he walks, no matter how exhausting his days, the painful memories of Helen's death do not diminish.

    On the forty-third day of his walk, at the base of a cliff, Lynley discovers the body of a young man who appears to have fallen to his death. The closest town, better known for its tourists and its surfing than its intrigue, seems an unlikely place for murder. However, it soon becomes apparent that a clever killer is indeed at work, and this time Lynley is not a detective but a witness and possibly a suspect.

    The head of the vastly understaffed local police department needs Lynley's help, though, especially when it comes to the mysterious, secretive woman whose cottage lies not far from where the body was discovered. But can Lynley let go of the past long enough to solve a most devious and carefully planned crime?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 6, 2008
    ISBN9780061630644
    Author

    Elizabeth George

    Elizabeth George is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels of psychological suspense, one book of nonfiction, and two short story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the MIMI, Germany's prestigious prize for suspense fiction. She lives in Washington State.

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    Reviews for Careless in Red

    3.5/5

    668 ratings90 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Lynley, still recovering, is hiking when he runs into the body of a boy who's fallen from a cliff while climbing. Things, as usual, aren't what they seem.Lots of characters to care about and suspect, and Lynley, broken as he is, struggling to deal with it all
    • 3/5
      Wow.So, after reading this book, I completely understand why it provoked such strong reactions from people when it was released. I mean, who really WANTS to read a book about a sexual predator using her status as a teacher to seduce young men into destructive relationships? But, I have to admit, I couldn't put it down. I literally read this book in less than a day. It sucked me in like a train wreck you can't look away from and didn't let up until the unbelievable (unless you watch the news) ending.I'm sure by now everyone knows that this book is filled with graphic descriptions of sex and it pulls no punches. You WILL want to take a shower after reading it - it's that gross. Even more disturbing than the graphic nature of the book was the honest, almost sociopathic way in which Celeste, the protagonist, goes about explaining what drives her.The book opens as Celeste, a 24-year-old 8th-grade teacher in Tampa, is preparing for the first day of school. Over the next several weeks she'll peruse the available students in her classes and settle on Jack, a quiet 14-year old in her English class. She then seduces him and embarks on a sexual relationship with him, dodging her police officer husband, his absent divorced father, and a handful of potentially nosy neighbors and coworkers.There is no pretense of feelings on her part, though Jack romanticizes the relationship - for Celeste, it is entirely about sex. Her non-stop fixation on sex borders on the pornographic. (This is not a book you will be inclined to loan out to people or recommend to friends.) Claire is a sociopath. She doesn't attempt to rationalize or pretend that her desires are something they aren't, nor does she attempt to elicit sympathy from the reader by blaming her predilections on past trauma, they just are what they are. She wants to dominate every situation, emotionally manipulating everyone in her life to cave to her needs, and she is matter of fact about it, from start to finish. Strikingly, Celeste speaks of no friends with whom she has an honest relationship. Every single one of the few relationships she has is based on a lie. She shows no contrition for her deviancy, nor does she make any attempt to control it.Through straightforward, graphic prose and a well-developed female antagonist that will remind you of Gone Girl, Nutting has given us an American Psycho-esque look into the mind of a predator. While I'm not sure I liked it, I'm glad I read it.
    • 3/5
      Well-written and very hard to put down - but . . . very unpleasant and not very believable story about a woman pedophile. Truly I thought she had imagined a male pedophile and then changed the main character to a female. Not really sure about the need for a book like this. It did remind me of Notes on a Scandal, of course, but this was written in a much more titallating manner.
    • 4/5
      Tampa by Alissa Nutting is not a book for everyone. In fact, it might not be a book that you even want to read. It’s rated 3.33 on Goodreads.But I’m giving this weirdly uncomfortable book 4 stars. Why? Because only great writers make you feel REALLY uncomfortable with the topic you are reading about.Let me explain. . .Celeste is a (fictional) teacher in Tampa, Florida. She’s 26, gorgeous, married to a wealthy handsome man, and is so excited to start teaching English!Why is she so excited? She wants to sleep with a fourteen-year-old male student and . . . For the full review, visit Love at First Book
    • 4/5
      In her novel TAMPA, Alissa Nutting successfully portrays an interesting female character, one to be pitied as tragic. A cursory reading might give the impression that the novel is merely teen porn for young males fantasizing about hot teachers, but from a literary perspective, I see much more going on here.

      Celeste's striking beauty is not the book's deeper focus. Her extremely narrow perception of masculine attractiveness is the focus. She's not attracted to males or men, but rather young males caught at a moment of transition--as if running past the lens of a camera--a flicker of worth, a flicker of mortality frozen and desired, and then the horror of a young man emerging and becoming a man.

      Celeste, without any intellectual depth of mind, without any emotional attachment to any human being or even any other living creature for that matter, without any capacity for love or genuine emotion, is masterfully portrayed as a human doll with only a thousandth of a regular human's nerves intact. These nerves are connected to her genitals and breasts and a tiny portion of her brain that moves her like a robot into situations where those few nerves are stimulated.

      Nutting evokes our sympathy when Celeste reveals that all she wants is to enjoy these fleeting slivers of male identity in transition, but she is so incapable of thought that she puts herself in the most absurd settings imaginable: first as a teacher under constant tension of discovery, and even more absurd, in Jack's private home across the street from a nosy gossip who ridiculously never notices her coming and going regularly in her Corvette. With this red flag waving, obviously the book is not meant as realism. It is a fusion of male teenage fantasy and waking nightmare.

      SPOILER: In the final paragraphs Celeste says she'll eventually have to look for her fleeting young boys "in an urban area with runaways hungry for cash whom I can buy for an evening" (262). That Celeste doesn't realize that she could have done this from the beginning and simplified her life, seems to be Nutting's main point--Celeste is a tragic figure to be pitied, a few nerves and curves but no mind and most tragically, no heart for love. And she is okay with that.

      Celeste confesses to her nightmarish imprisonment when she says of her once desired Jack and Boyd, that them now being almost 18 is sickening to think of, and if Boyd were to appear she "would have a visceral reaction of nausea--it would be no less horrifying than seeing a three-hundred-year-old corpse reanimated" (262). For Celeste (now 30) to see Boyd (now 18) would be pure horror. This is not your average high school fantasy fiction. This book is tangled in the dark. It is about an externally beautiful woman who couldn't be further from being at peace with the natural realities of life.
    • 4/5
      Blogged at River City Reading:
      Alissa Nutting's forthcoming novel centers on Celeste Price, a first-year teacher with an intense sexual obsession with young teenage boys. With eerie precision, Celeste aligns each piece of her life to meet her sexual demands; she is well provided for by her wealthy husband and able to take a job teaching eighth grade English to scout potential prey. As the school year progresses, she lures her student Jack into a secret relationship, inching closer to exposure each day.

      I could hear the teacher-verse exploding from the moment I heard Tampa discussed on the Bookrageous podcast. In general, we teachers tend to be uproariously opposed to anything that paints us in a bad light. Can you imagine what the general consensus will be just from reading the blurb? Unfortunately, I fear that's where many teachers will stop, despite the fact that they may remain caught up in the discussion. I figured if I was going to have a real opinion of the novel, I should probably read it.

      There is no doubt, from the first page of Tampa, that Celeste Price is on the far side of sanity, with Nutting shouting her perversions loud and clear. Even readers well traveled in the smutosphere may find themselves shocked and appalled. It takes a jarring, disturbing, what-the-Hell-am-I-reading first few chapters to accept the fact that Celeste's blunt descriptions of her intentions and actions are not going anywhere.

      At this point, readers can begin to appreciate Nutting's devotion to her character. From beginning to end, Celeste's vain, predatory, one-track mind never wavers. While it is something no one is comfortable with, Nutting's ability to crawl inside Celeste's mind and pick apart her thoughts on not only teenagers, but her husband and co-workers, is spot-on and often brilliantly funny.

      I think it was wise of Nutting to forego a backstory for Celeste, though it left her feeling somewhat one-dimensional at times. Had readers known her family history or the path she took to her compulsions, Nutting would have opened the door for debate over the causes of pedophilia and might have distracted from the novel as a whole.

      In the end, Tampa is a daring, well-written book willing to push boundaries and spark conversation. While it will surely leave readers feeling uncomfortable, it may also leave them feeling surprised by the change in a sometimes monotonic reading atmosphere.
    • 4/5
      Alissa Nutting's Tampa will draw obvious comparisons to Nabokov's Lolita solely because of their similar subject matter, but Tampa is a very different novel. Lolita is marked by high modernist language; lush, playful, and tricky. This is a novel marked by the cool sparsity of our contemporary postmodernism. Celeste Price is a sociopath, a calculating personality that aims to manipulate everyone around her to her greatest benefit. The psychological depth of her character is formed by Nutting's tight prose, and it is a highlight of the novel. The most disturbing thing about the novel though is how deeply it is entrenched in superficial American materialism. Celeste's beauty and status blind everyone to her damaging obsessions and her cruel manipulations. Until they do not, but what that requires is shocking. This novel was surprisingly well crafted and handled a touchy subject matter with precision. Part suspense and part cultural satire that gives an unnerving portrait of a sexual predator. I want to read Nutting's first book, a collection of short stories, and see what other themes she explores.
    • 4/5
      This book is...different. Nutting succeeded in delving into the hideously grotesque minds of female sex offenders. I noted that at least a 3rd of the scenes felt unnecessary (perhaps thrown in for extra shock factor) which seemed to sidetrack the story from the character study, and drew more attention to the lewd and off-putting sexual acts committed. That said, the focus on erotic encounters highlighted just how much the sex offender needed therapy (to say the least!). To summarise my thoughts: too much sex and not enough character development, but a brave and applaudable attempt by Nutting to broach the taboo and sensitive topic that is female pedophilia, whilst, more importantly, raising the differences in which female pedophiles are treated differently to their male counterparts in not only media, but the eyes of society and the law.
    • 4/5
      In which an unhappily married ephebeomaniac begins her career teaching junior high by evaluating the boys for a subject with her most desired characteristics to gratify her sensual passions and makes a successful approach to him. In many ways this is a difficult and flawed book; long sections of its prose reside in a grey area between a romance novel and quasi-pornography, and I defy anybody to identify a single character in it who is the least bit likable. Yet this trainwreck is difficult to look away from; the characters are well-drawn and the plot thickens beautifully. The easy comparison of this as a sort of reverse Lolita is incomplete and flawed in at least one major way; Humbert Humbert is a fool, and our narrator is no fool. Though not exactly likable, her frankness and quickness in anticipating tactics and scenarios is intriguing. And I especially liked that the novel didn't end up as a morality tale.
    • 4/5
      'The rage of lust was like an IV drip in my veins; I felt it beginning to spread inside me with the helpless awareness of someone realizing she's been slipped a drug.'Celeste has the intensity of a psychopath or even a serial killer when it comes to her sexual obsessions. The desperation in doing whatever it takes to satisfy her need was disturbing to say the least. Her complete disregard for how her actions would affect others in her life was unsettling. Celeste is hands down one of the most warped characters in literature I have ever had the pleasure of reading.Comparisons to Lolita cannot be helped (although it could also be compared to Belinda by Anne Rampling, one of Anne Rice's lesser known novels written under a pseudonym), despite the fact it's actually quite different it still manages to touch upon the same subject. Unlike Lolita, this is not a retelling of events or even a confession but a first person accounting of the main characters sexual forays. But be warned, Celeste makes Humbert Humbert look tame in comparison. Nabokov wrote a truly lyrical story that managed to win over many readers despite Humbert's wrongs; he became one to be pitied. Nutting has done the opposite with her character Celeste and does not ever intend for you to pity her or feel sorry for her affliction. She's extremely lewd and vulgar and the pages reek with indecency and she's not ashamed to admit it. 'I found that sometimes it was a relief to do something unattractive in private, to confirm that I'm deeply flawed when so many others imagine me to be perfect.'She found anyone that had begun to show signs that adolescence was leaving them to be completely foul and disgusting and was utterly envious of the female children of her class. The fact that she was flawless and appeared much younger than her true age I think was the only mitigating factor that prevented her from personally disgusting herself as she took extremely good care of herself to avoid showing signs of her age for as long as possible. It could also be said that her sexual encounters with the younger boys was seen as a purifying or cleansing ritual in her eyes. Bottom line, she was an extremely disturbed individual.Tampa is a book that opens up the discussion that women are obviously not always the victim, that they can be just as guilty and just as psychopathic as their gender counterpart. It's a topic that forces you to look at the stereotypes in society today whether it is gender stereotypes or even stereotypes based on looks alone. Also, it definitely brings to light how the pursuing of an older woman no matter the age of the pursuer has become slightly glamorized over time. In an interview with Cosmo (incredible review, definitely worth a read), the author stated that there is a void in literature about female sexual psychopaths and she sought to fill it. I can't think of any books related to the topic either but I have to applaud the fact that Nutting tackled this subject head-on and didn't water it down simply to avoid controversy. The extensiveness of her sexual conduct did at times seem gratuitous and left you feeling just as empty as Celeste, however, there’s no denying this was an exceptionally scandalous yet efficiently written debut novel.
    • 5/5
      Advanced edition kindly provided by Netgalley.This was an unbelieveably good read. I could not put it down. Incredibly graphic and disturbing, the writing was nonetheless fantastic. For a psychogical fiction fan like myself, what a compelling tale Nutting tells. The author has obviously extensively researched the obsessive tendancies of the pedophile. If you can manage to get past the explicit sexuality, the novel provides great insight into the various personality traits and compulsions of a modern-day psychopath. Sure to be a bestseller. Highly recommended.Four and a half out of five stars
    • 4/5
      It's so hard to judge this book. It has to easily be one of the most controversial books I have ever read. The story is about Celeste Price, think Debra LaFave or Pamela Smart. She is a beautiful, young teacher married to the perfect man. She has everything going for her and is beloved by everyone, because they cannot see the diseased, mentally ill person she is on the inside. Her entire focus from the time she gets up until she goes to sleep is how she can have sex with prepubescent boys in her English class. And has sex she does, in excruciatingly detailed encounters that make you feel like you are reading child pornography. I have taught middle school boys and what was described here was truly sickening to me. I kept trying to find some motivation for Celeste's actions but it boils down to the fact that she is a psychopath clean and simple. No regard whatsoever to anyone else's feelings. Everyone who comes in contact with her has their life destroyed. Reading about how she wrecks havoc on everyone around her was the fascinating part, kind of like viewing a car accident on the highway. I just couldn't look away. It kept my attention until the end but I felt icky after. At my local library this is displayed on a table with the newly arrived teen books. Someone made a mistake.
    • 4/5
      Nauseating and fascinating at the same time. This account of is easily the most disturbing book I've ever read. I had previously read Alissa Nutting's collection of short stories, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, and found them absurd and funny, sometimes gross but very sharp. I can see how the same mind created this book, taking some of the seedy, macabre elements to an extreme. Celeste's meticulous, single-minded pursual of her young target borders on psychopathic, and her detached language is reminiscent of the similarly monstrous American Psycho. This book filled me with a sense of dread, but I couldn't stop turning the pages.
    • 4/5
      So, once you get that this is a clever commentary on society's discomfort with female sexuality ramped up to the Lolitas with lashings of underage rumpy-pumpy, you've pretty much understood the whole thing.

      I liked it. Nutting is no Nabokov but so few writers are that it barely matters. I wouldn't want all my narrators to be this disturbing and amoral, but I'm willing to put up with the odd one or two.
    • 3/5
      The controversy around this title is deserved, I believe: its content is deeply unsettling. However, ultimately I found its descent into caricature to be disappointing - after raising issues it failed to offer any real catharsis or shift in its main character. Yes, it's black satire, but it ended up lacking emotional truth within the satire more than I would have liked.
    • 1/5
      Edgy, controversial, provocative. These are all words I have seen used to describe this book. I would like to add a few more; hilarious, amateurish, crap. How this book managed to be anything other than a self published e book, with either a porn cover or no cover picture at all selling for .99 cents is a mystery. This is the most far fetched story I have read outside of the letters to Penthouse magazine in the 1980's, it reads like one, only told from the seducers point of view rather than the one being seduced. The editing is horrible, on one page she (the pedophile sociopath main character Celeste) decides not to wear underwear on the next page she thrusts her hand into her underwear. Later when having sex in her car, (a convertible Corvette) she falls off the seat to the ground, then it is the floor and then she is back on the ground. Editing like this is ok if the story were any good, but it is not. There is NOTHING believable about this book. Celeste"s husband is a cop, but clearly the dumbest one on the planet. Celeste dresses overly provocative at school yet she is a first year teacher, and no one says a word to her about doing so. She doesn't seem to teach anything at all during any of her classes, but again no ramifications she has so much leeway she manages to masterbate multiple times while at school.Celeste is supposedly also a sociopath, but this is not explored very deeply, and instead barely displays any attributes of one outside of drugging her husband (a cop- yeah this is believable), how she treats the father of the first boy she seduces, and showing no regret for her actions with her student conquests, (one the first year of teaching, one in the second year, who she has sex with at the home of the first student (read the book if you care how this is possible- trust me it is not worth it)Based on the way the teacher and student hook up so often everyone around them has to be blind or drunk not to catch on to what is going on.If this were teenagers hooking up or adults you would feel ok laughing, but because it is students and teachers, it is pathetic, you never get into the mind of Celeste, you just see she is a pathetic, narcissistic, woman who does what she wants how she wants.I am pretty sure the intent of this book was not to be funny, but it is so laughably implausible I found myself confused throughout most of the book, is it ok to laugh, I don't think this is supposed to be funny. the. Fact that it takes place in Florida, is really the icing on the cake, since it seems to be a state used to whacky crazy people.It is not until the last 30 pages or so the author try's to point out the double standard between a male and a female committing such a horrible act, but by then it is beside the point, yes there are double standards right down to the fact that a woman wrote this book and got it published where as a man would probably get arrested. It also has an unbelievable ending but for the fact that so much of the story was unbelievable this should not surprise any reader.What amazes me most is that a book like this is on bookshelves! If this had been written by a male author there would be a public lynching at best or more likely calls for child pornography charges, but because it is a woman, it is edgy, and provocative. What could have been a psychological thriller, or deep dive into what makes a female pedophile act as they do, instead it is amateurish, raunchy porn for porn sake, which is fine but don't hide behind the title of literature. Save you time and money and read something well written, pornographic, or funny, when that was the original intent of the book!
    • 4/5
      As expected, the book was dirty and explicit in many places and in many ways. But I did enjoy the amazing writing. I think most of the books that have been put out there that have involved being in a perverted mind has never really did it that well. This writer was able to pull it off though. I enjoyed the book but can only recommend it if you will not have a problem with some dirty, dirty going on.
    • 3/5
      Twenty six year old Celeste Price is the perfect apex predator. Beautiful, well off and manipulative , she stalks her prey with a single minded ruthlessness. Her prey are fourteen year old boys. Despite being married to a handsome police officer who was born into a wealthy family, Celeste pursues her obsession with a single minded intensity that cannot be diverted. She lands her dream job as a middle school teacher and promptly begins an affair with one of her less physically developed students. Over the course of the school year she becomes ever more involved, knowing that soon her prize will age out and she will need to find a new subject. The beauty of her new position she feels is that there will be an endless supply of candidates, year after year. But even the most carefully laid plans and the most manipulated of young lovers can come unglued. Far sooner then she would have expected, Mrs. Price's double life becomes totally unraveled, the shock of a community and the devastation of a young boy.
    • 5/5
      A most excellent return to George's Inspector Lynley mysteries. While I could understand the merit of What Came Before He Shot Her, I had a very hard time identifying with any of the characters, and really didn't appreciate the end result. My fear had been this was the end of the Lynley series, and wished it had perhaps gone on an up-note. But, thankfully, the series continues!In this story, Lynley has chosen the solitary route of the Cliff Walk up Cornwall, England, still broken from the destruction of his personal life. During his journey, he discovers the body of a teenager, which kicks of the next investigation of whodunit. George weaves yet another wonderful mystery, full of uncertainty until the very end.
    • 5/5
      Every character in this book is despicable. The subject matter is repulsive and “icky.” I felt like I had to take a shower every time I put the book down. I LOVED EVERY PAGE OF IT.
    • 4/5
      Loosely based on true events, Tampa is the fictional account of Celeste Price, a beautiful young8th grade teacher sexually obsessed with adolescent boys. Fourteen is her target age, before they start turning into men.Celeste has an empty marriage to a cop named Ford, who’s almost too handsome himself. She can barely stand the thought of him touching her and has to drug herself to have sex with him. Sometimes she drugs him to avoid sex. The book is all about sex, is sexually charged throughout, and the language reflects this. A student’s raincoat is “A hideous color, like the erection of a dog.” The voice is Celeste’s and it is confident, true and pitch perfect throughout the story.Celeste is a narcissist with an extraordinary ability to ignore the wrongness and consequences of her actions. The only time Celeste doesn’t seem to be dissembling is when she admits to not wanting children because if she had a boy she would eventually be tempted by him. And when she tells the baffled Ford – after all has been revealed – “It’s just what I like.” She is unrepentant until the last word of the novel. Celeste’s obsession is who she is.
    • 2/5
      I wanted to rate this book higher. It is extremely well written but the difficulty of the subject matter prevented me from doing so. Still, when one considers the subject matter, it was amazing how the author could help you relate to especially the main character. The amount of detail and thought put into how the character felt, why she did the things she did, could almost allow you to live in her shoes for a brief time. I would recommend selectively to friends who are capable of handling the difficult topic and the vulgar nature of the beginning part of the book.
    • 5/5
      First and foremost, in the publisher’s own words Alissa Nutting’s debut novel, Tampa, is a serio-comedy. It is meant to be sexually explicit, reminiscent of American Psycho in the character’s psychology, and satirical about desire. It is not for the easily disturbed or sexually timid. The subject matter is one of society’s largest taboos, and the main character is a narcissistic psychopath.That being said, Tampa is an absolutely brilliant novel and will rank among the top books of the year. Celeste truly is every single foul word and clinical label one could throw at her, and yet Ms. Nutting creates a character that is ever so slightly sympathetic in her depravity. Jack, for all his youth, is not quite the innocent he appears to be, and the ticking time bomb that is their relationship is a fascinating study of power and sex.Celeste is a psychiatrist’s dream case because she displays such a wide variety of mental disorders and addictions. She is all about power and sex. She is the type of person who feels that the world owes her everything because she is beautiful. She uses her outward appearance to hide her thoughts and present the world with a model front – polite, helpful, and sincere. When that fails, she uses sex to manipulate others. She is psychopathic in the truest sense – charming, manipulative, capable, highly organized, remorseless, and disregarding of the laws and the rights of others. She is also highly sexualized, given over to pleasuring herself for hours on end and still ravenous for more. She is psychopathy, narcissism, and sexual addiction all rolled up in one package.However, her mental disorders also create a sense of the true sadness behind her situation. She knows her predatory nature, her seduction and use of teenage boys, as well as her behaviors surrounding anything having to do with achieving her goals is so very wrong. She even acknowledges this in her recognition that she absolutely cannot have children, not only for narcissistic reasons but also because of the fear of having a boy and ultimately walking down a path of taboo behavior even she does not want to contemplate. It is the only time she ever hints that she cannot control her urges and in fact is helpless when they become too much for her. It is this comment which elicits the hint of sympathy, for if she is truly psychopathic and beset by multiple personality disorders and mental illnesses, her behavior to some extent is not her fault. She is quite frankly very ill.This smattering of sympathy is just that though – very tiny and only because she does recognize her harmful actions. However, as she does nothing about them other than to gratify them, the compassion is fleeting. She is ill but seeks no help. She makes no excuses and seeks every opportunity to rid herself of annoying obstacles to the fulfillment of her desires. Again, she is an absolutely fascinating character that is simultaneously revolting and intriguing.As mesmerizing as Celeste is, her boys are equally interesting. Their involvement with Celeste generates an entirely new path of discussion. One can easily see their manipulation at her hands but surprisingly, one can also see where their physical existence reduces her power. At several points, Jack’s demands/pleas/desires force Celeste to abandon her immediate plans to avoid disrupting the entire arrangement. Her obsession with fulfilling her sexual needs places the power firmly in Jack’s hands, and it is enthralling to watch him realize this fact. Even better, this is something Jack’s eventual replacement understands almost immediately, and it ultimately leads to her downfall. The dynamics of the situations in which Celeste places herself are disturbing and yet captivating because they are so nuanced.Tampa is like the proverbial train wreck. It does not bear watching and yet one’s eyes remain glued to the carnage like a junkie waiting for his next fix. Psychologically, it is one of the best books published. Ms. Nutting explores the pathology of a pedophile and her victims with a detailed exactness that is frightening in its explicitness and yet utterly absorbing. Everything about Celeste is appalling except for that one small modicum of pity when one considers how truly sick she is, while the boys garner both pity and a bit of fear once they realize their own abilities for manipulation. It is a shocking and utterly unforgettable story, and it is no wonder the book world is all abuzz about this breathtaking story.
    • 1/5
      After reading Lolita earlier this year, I was excited to read a story with the genders reversed. Well, Nutting is no Nabokov and Celeste Price is no Humbert Humbert. Do not even approach this novel with expectations that they will be similar because they are nothing alike. You will be severely disappointed.Celeste is depicted as a total psychopath--a predatory woman who has no natural affection for anyone or remorse for hurting anyone. She is consumed with her sexual desires and they are all that matters. Okay, I get that. I can buy that these urges torment this woman and rule her life, but making Celeste so unrepentant and predatory seems extreme. Not only do I find it hard to believe that someone would feel no shame for such actions or be so aggressive in them, but it distances the reader--especially when Celeste delves into her obscene and ridiculous fantasies. Much of the book felt hyperbolic. There was no elegance, no subtlety, no undertones that sent shivers through my body--everything was in your face and felt melodramatic. Some of this may stem from a naivety that I just can't believe someone would be this selfish or disgusting, but even Humbert Humbert was charming in his own twisted way. It seems as though Nutting was more interested in creating a monster than creating a real character.Beyond that, the writing was difficult to swallow. I don't mind the graphic bits. I'm not referring to that at all. But the writing style was often ridiculous. Celeste seems to speak with language and syntax that suggests she is educated, but the language is overwrought and is flimsy in terms of intelligence. It seems as though we are supposed to be impressed with how she uses language but there is clearly no reason to be. In fact, it's the opposite. This may be a part of Nutting's plan--to further develop Celeste into this over-the-top creature feature--but I think it was the wrong route. Not only did it make me want to set the book down on several occasions, but it was completely unnecessary--especially if it was being used simply as a tool to "establish" Celeste's "character." There are better ways to develop characters.The good I got from this book is the challenge to assumed morality that it poses. Are there people out there like Celeste Price--monsters in the truest sense of the word? If there are, what should be done with them? Can we trust someone who has committed such crimes to not do them again? In Celeste's case, we know we can't. How do we decide who to let start a new life when they all might be plotting the next time they can give into their disgusting, harmful, predatory urges? I wish these themes would have been played with more instead of the circus ride Nutting took us on.
    • 4/5
      Let me just start out by saying that Alissa Nutting doesn't care if you're uncomfortable. There's not a page of this novel that doesn't make somebody unhappy. Celeste Price is a twenty-six year old middle school English teacher. She's also a pedophile, relentlessly fantasizing about boys and then using her position to prey on them. Like Humbert Humbert, she's full of rationalizations about her behavior; unlike him, she's devoid of the cultural wrappings that served to make what he did palatable. She's perfectly aware of the potentially devastating consequences to herself if she is unmasked and utterly unconcerned about the effects on the boys she manipulates. Tampa is told from Celeste's point of view. It's an unpleasant place to be. She's a consummate manipulator of everyone from her victims to her husband to her co-workers. She knows how to use her youth and beauty to distract people. She's also deeply insecure as her ability to lure victims is entirely based on her youth and beauty. Nutting is doing some interesting work here. She's written a compelling, compulsively readable novel about something terrible. She makes the reader look at what Celeste is doing and the excuses she makes, even as she confronts the reader with how differently we would regard the same narrative from a middle-aged man.
    • 4/5
      "... thirty-one is roughly seventeen years past my window of sexual interest." (p.1). Thus, Celeste describes her husband, and thus, right from the start she makes clear what she wants. Celeste is a female, predatory pedophile.Sadly, repeated sex scandals over the past three decades have numbed readers, and although sexual assault on children by pedophiles still evokes horror, Tampa, by Alissa Nutting is much more a parody than a shocking novel.The inversion, of making the pedophile in Tampa a female character highlights the groteskness of the idea. Pedophilia is grotesk of itself, and Alissa Nutting uses hyperbole to magnify the problem: the disproportionate, excessive weirdness of Celeste Price is almost humoristic.Celeste Price is married to the over-averagely handsome Ford. Aged 26, she works as a high school teacher. She is smart, direct and predatory. The novel is written from her perspective, so the reader follows her ridiculous reasoning in line. Celeste's mind is like a parallel universe. Her predatory, rational acting comes natural to her. Her sexual drive toward young adolescents is complete and hard-core. The novel shuns no taboos. Celeste strives for complete sexual relationships including penetration.Tampa makes the most of its theme, driving Celeste to ever more precarious escapades. Nothing is crazy enough. If she cannot have a boy, she masturbates. She focuses on pupils in her own classes, whom she first approaches after class. If successful, she tries to develop complete sexual relationships with the boys in their homes. Caught, almost in flagrante with Jack's father, she seamlessly proceeds to seduce the father, merely to cover up what has been going on with the son. When Jack's father dies of a heart attack, she takes it in her stride. When boys pass on, or become "too old" she swoops down onto other boys.Most if not all pedosexual scandals in the real world involve men predating on either young boys or girls. A female sexual predator and sociopath such as Celeste Price in Tampa, do they exist? The psyche of Celeste is a clever construct, whether 'realistic' or not. Nutting does a better job with Celeste's young victims. The psychology of the boys in the novel is quite convincing. Not entirely plausible, though, Tampa has the bravoura of the novels of John Irving, while Celeste has the obsessed mindset of a female American Psycho.Like the novels of John Irving, ridiculous and balancing on the edge of credibility, Tampa by Alissa Nutting is very well written. However, as the novel is very explicit about sexuality, it is clearly not for everyone. Besides, its taboo theme, however close it may come to parody, is probably not acceptable to all readers.
    • 3/5
      This is a hard one to rate. It was intriguing to read and root so much against an awful character.

      Also to examine society's views on something like this when it happens.

      The character is sick but Nutting brings something incredibly gross to life with some great writing.

      Ending is meh.
    • 4/5
      OK. First things first. This is not a book to buy grandma for Christmas. If this was a Channel 4 TV programme it would be preceded with a voiceover saying "warning - the following programme contains adult themes of a strong sexual nature and of explicit nudity". If you own this book and have teenage boys in the house I would find a sturdy safe to lock it away in.There is a lot of sex in the novel, and I mean a lot. Like on practically every page for the first third of the book especially, and this was before the main character had even got her hooks into one of the students. This, coupled with the front cover which my husband told me assuredly was a picture of a vagina (to which I retorted that it was merely an innocent buttonhole and to keep his dirty thoughts to himself) meant that I found this book rather embarrassing to read on my public transport work commute. The more I opened up the book to hide the cover, the more I displayed paragraphs of copious shagging to whoever might happen to be glancing over my shoulder. It felt like there was a flashing arrow over my head with the words "depraved middle-aged woman reading dirty book alert" emblazoned on it.It's a book that means to shock, mostly as the sex offender in question is a hot young woman and not some lecherous old man (not sure why Harvey Weinstein sprang to mind there). Celeste is a married teacher whose libido is off the scale, and unfortunately it is young 14 year old boy students who push her buttons, so to speak. For the first third of the book I thought it was very OTT on the graphic sexual content, and the protagonist preying on young teenagers was a very unsettling context. However, unlike 50 Shades of Grey which is all sex and no writing talent, Nutting is a good writer, and once the storyline properly gets going it becomes a gripping and witty read. The reader never becomes sympathetic to Celeste and her deviant ways, but her extreme sexual predator nature makes for some very funny scenes. There's also a great minor character - a fellow teacher - who's akin to Melissa McCarthy's Megan character from the film Bridesmaids, and she adds a lot of humour.It's an unsettling book, and Nutting purposely does that to you as a reader. You're happily reading away one minute and then feel decidedly uncomfortable the next for enjoying a book that has a sexual deviant who preys on young people at its core. She also pushes some interesting questions within the book. If the sexes were reversed we'd be in no doubt that the (male) teacher was a disgusting paedophile, but when it's a hot young female teacher and pubescent sex-obsessed boys who are willing accomplices does it still feel like clear cut abuse?This is most certainly not a book for everyone, and on that basis I would not recommend that you all rush out to your local bookshop to pick up a copy. Having said that, it's a good read.4 stars - shocking yet funny and unlike anything you'll have read before. Now to pick up something suitably straight-laced to redeem my reputation on the bus...
    • 4/5
      Tampa Steve Lowe's perfect review says it all

      "This is an odd one to rate and review. Was it well-written? Oh, yeah. Almost... too well-written. Felt a couple times like the plot was a bit too overtly manipulated to steer the story toward a particular conclusion, but maybe I'm just being picky.Was it entertaining? Hell, yeah. It was hilarious, in the way that sociopaths can be hilarious with their overriding desire to please themselves at the expense of all others (and specifically, Celeste's inner thoughts about those around her.) The voice of this novel felt so real and so alive, it would be hard to believe that this specific person doesn't actually exist out there, somewhere.Was it arousing in uncomfortable ways. Well, yeah. As a guy, it's difficult not to imagine my own 14-year old self being in that situation, and how amazing it would have been. But then my 14-year old son would walk into the room while I was reading, and that fantasy reading world would come crashing down around me like a controlled demolition. That's when the creepy factor really sets in with this book. Removing yourself from Celeste's fantasy world (which is all-encompassing, as this is written from her first-person perspective) makes the book uncomfortable. Imagining if the gender roles were reversed, makes it creepy as fuck.Bravo, Alissa Nutting, for creating one of the most memorable characters I've ever read. But this is not a book I plan on revisiting any time soon. Or ever."
    • 5/5
      My third book to read this vacation. (I still have to finish the second one I started, wasn't really a good holiday-read). This was a very good holiday read! Another Lynley-novel by Elizabeth George. The book made me feel like I was there, in Cornwall. Like I was there on the spot, with all those people she brings to life and who had means and motive to murder the boy who was murdered.I like her books because of the peoples' lives being described, their interactions, the murder getting solved peace by peace, the recurrence of the same characters solving the murders, the English atmosphere and most of all I like her sense of humor in the character of Barbara Havers. If she writes a book without DS Havers in it, it won't be complete. I just love her!