Years later, Tatum reconsiders her decade long fixation and relationship with author M. Domínguez. Did Mateo take advantage of her youth and naivete?
"You were the first person in the world to make me feel seen when I so needed a spotlight on me. That can never be undone."
This debut started out strong but soon enough, small discrepancies and the overall storyline began to irritate me. For instance, while living at the nunnery, Tatum mentioned that since she was an only child, she felt overwhelmed living with so many people, but ummm, hello, didn't she live in dorms while at college?!? Secondly, she remembers thinking that she wasn’t worried about being alone with Mateo and him maybe killing her, but ummm, hello, by that point, she’d already spent weeks and weeks with him while house sitting?!? And that was soon after they first met.
Next, the relationship between Tatum and Mateo was so sporadic and on again/off again that I never understood why Tatum was so drawn to him. It was pretty obvious he was using her... but was she also using him in some ways? Additionally, it definitely felt like the author was trying to make a point, but in my opinion, the storyline fizzled out, and by the end, I was left unsure about how Tatum felt about Mateo. And perhaps that's the point... the past cannot be undone so it's best to learn from it. Lastly, I did like that the majority of the novel was written as a letter from Tatum to Mateo as she filled him in on how she viewed their relationship from a time-warped distance and new, more experience perspective. In my opinion, it was written more to herself than to him as she tried to make sense of what transpired between them while simultaneously deciding whether or not the assault allegations against him could be true.
In my opinion, My Dark Vanessa (4 stars) about this topic was much more powerful.
Location: San Antonio, Texas; NYC, New York; Santiago, Chile
I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
"You were the first person in the world to make me feel seen when I so needed a spotlight on me. That can never be undone."
This debut started out strong but soon enough, small discrepancies and the overall storyline began to irritate me. For instance, while living at the nunnery, Tatum mentioned that since she was an only child, she felt overwhelmed living with so many people, but ummm, hello, didn't she live in dorms while at college?!? Secondly, she remembers thinking that she wasn’t worried about being alone with Mateo and him maybe killing her, but ummm, hello, by that point, she’d already spent weeks and weeks with him while house sitting?!? And that was soon after they first met.
Next, the relationship between Tatum and Mateo was so sporadic and on again/off again that I never understood why Tatum was so drawn to him. It was pretty obvious he was using her... but was she also using him in some ways? Additionally, it definitely felt like the author was trying to make a point, but in my opinion, the storyline fizzled out, and by the end, I was left unsure about how Tatum felt about Mateo. And perhaps that's the point... the past cannot be undone so it's best to learn from it. Lastly, I did like that the majority of the novel was written as a letter from Tatum to Mateo as she filled him in on how she viewed their relationship from a time-warped distance and new, more experience perspective. In my opinion, it was written more to herself than to him as she tried to make sense of what transpired between them while simultaneously deciding whether or not the assault allegations against him could be true.
In my opinion, My Dark Vanessa (4 stars) about this topic was much more powerful.
Location: San Antonio, Texas; NYC, New York; Santiago, Chile
I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.