solidly disturbing, twisty little road trip into hell.250 s karen3,997 171k

He felt bad: it was the first time he had thought of himself as a villain. By stuffing Clarice in a suitcase and bringing her home, had he become a criminal?

this is a play on the abduction thriller which morphs into a revenge story and then a reversal of the revenge story, and it features teo, one of those "he puts the anti- in antihero" narrators who is somewhere on the spectrum, or who at the very least knew how to keep his feelings separate, which transforms his kidnapping of clarice, a girl he will make love him back one way or another, into high comedy through the magic of flat-affect and skewed perspective.

supposedly.

i don't love this one as much as other people do.

i just never warmed to the character. obviously, there's a stiffness and a remove to his tone on account of his limited emotional range, but even apart from his character, there's a pronounced tendency towards stylized prose that makes the book read more posed than dynamic, and i've never been a fan of stilted, overfussed prose.

She opened her eyes and glared at him. "Do you really think you love me?"

"Yes."

"What you feel is infatuation. It's an illness, an obsession. It's anything but love."

"I don't believe in the taxonomical classification of emotions, Clarice."

She shook her head and retreated back into silence.

and maybe the translation has something to do with it; maybe it's better in the original portuguese and yadda yadda, but it's just so frequently flat and dead on the page:

He rested against the railing in the prow, thinking about many things and the consequences of those things.

feel free to make this sentence more interesting, mad libs-style:

(man's name) rested against the (noun) in the (noun), (verb/ing) about many (plural noun) and the (plural noun) of those (plural noun).

i acknowledge that this is funnier than most books in which a woman is kidnapped, drugged, stuffed into a suitcase, and then wooed with an engagement ring, due to teo's propensity for understatement and misplaced social cues:

"Liar! All you've done is lie from the start!" she said, hunched over in the armchair. Her head was between her knees, bobbing up and down with her sobs. Her spinal vertebrae moved under her skin a snake. Clarice had lost around nine pounds over the last few days. She was skeletal but still beautiful. If he could paint, he'd have painted a portrait of that moment. He considered going to get his camera but thought it might be offensive.

his inability to read a situation properly:

Suddenly, Clarice jumped on Teo. She scratched him and tried to bite him. She hit him in the face with the pillow. Teo held her wrists and managed to handcuff her. He was most annoyed at her actions. She was proving to be quite uncouth.

or to perceive reality:

Teo tried to give her space. He knew she wouldn't hold out for long. Couples always made up.

his poor grasp of the nuances of love and sex and women:

Slowly, Clarice was opening up to him; she d him. It was natural - she didn't have anyone else. He nourished her, gave her love and attention. The least he could expect in return was a subtle form of affection, which would soon grow stronger - he was certain. At the end of the day, even hippie feminists succumbed to real men. Good sex was an exchange. Before having sex with Clarice (something he had imagined was unpleasant for any woman), he had gone to the trouble to satisfy her.

and his norman bates-caliber mommy issues.

there's an additional nod to Psycho, in that teo's most meaningful (and thankfully nonsexual) relationship up to this point was with a corpse; his medical cadaver gertrude. but teo is most assuredly not a psycho himself.

we know because he tells us so.

He didn't want to come across as sick or a psycho. With time, he'd prove to Clarice that she was wrong. He was incapable of abusing her: he lacked the animal instinct that men received at birth. This was just one of his qualities. If there were more people him, the world would be a better place.

okay, he's maybe a little self-delusional, but definitely not a psycho!

He placed Clarice back in the larger suitcase. It was amazing how flexible she was and how she folded up so easily, a little travel toothbrush.

hmm. well.

The insults kept coming. The sweet, hoarse voice was the same, the gestures too, but she was another woman. That wasn't his Clarice.

He took another step forward, needing to shut her up. He picked up the book and slammed it down violently on her head. Clarice against Clarice. He hit her a few more times until she was quiet.

goodness, that's no way to treat a clarice lispector book! or someone named clarice. or, you know, anyone.

besides Psycho, there are also shoutouts, either implicit or explicit to The Collector, Misery, The Silence of the Lambs, and the frequently-mentioned Lolita, although rest assured - the girl in this book has reached the age of consent. even though she doesn't. consent.

it does, however, mirror Lolita's dirty-boy road trip as well as the shifting of the power dynamic between the two and it's ultimately much more disturbing than Lolita. and yet somehow also less interesting.

having said that, i will confess that my jaw did - literally - drop once, and i was



but apart from that, there isn't anything that's going to lodge permanently in this high-tolerance-for-depravity brain of mine.

it's not unendurable or even unenjoyable, but it's not my preferred style of writing, which pretty much casts a pall over the entire book.

but i'm in the minority on this one, so have at it.

come to my blog!distant-lands netgalley not-a-polyglot136 s Kyra30 111

Hello, you.



......Oh wait, this story isn't about Joe Goldberg. It's about a young Brazilian man named Teo Avelar.

Teo, a med school loner, meets Clarice at a bbq and immediately develops an unhealthy obsession with her. During a short period of time following their encounter; Theo manages to stalk her, get rejected by her, and then kidnap her. The way it's narrated and Theo's thought process throughout runs perfectly parallel to You. Seriously, the vibes were so similar... I loved it.

My thoughts the entire time were pretty much: "holy shit, Teo is absolutely delusional." He was so confident that what he was doing would work out in the end. That Clarice was falling in love with him. Even when Clarice was completely miserable he would convince himself that she was doing it out of love. His demeanour & thoughts often made me feel quite uneasy. His confidence in himself made me uncomfortable. And around page 195 he did something extremely sinister & cruel it made a huge wave of anxiety rush over me, which I'm still feeling right now.

There were a few things about it that kind of threw me off. The formatting of the screenplay was one, but that was a minuscule part of the novel. The relationship with Clarice's parents nearing the end just didn't seem realistic. And everything to do with his own Mom & their dog really upset me. But overall, I thought this book was amazing. If you are a fan of mysteries and/or psychological thrillers then this is a book for you!

ALSO, HELLO Dexter!!! (& that's all I will say on that topic as I don't giving spoilers in my ).111 s1 comment Elyse Walters4,010 11.3k

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK....

What would it say about me if I recommend this book to my friends?
Probably in good conscience, I should never suggest this book to anybody...
However, you should see me over here, I'm still laughing silly.

I just finish reading "Perfect Days", by Raphael Montes, Brazilian Crime novelist,
seconds ago.

I suppose it's suppose to be 'chilling' and 'creepy'...but I found it hilarious!!
SOOOOOO OUT OF THE BOX... I just had to laugh.

After reading the first chapter - and learning that Teo, ( medical student), was in love with Gertrude ( a corpse), ... a brilliant first chapter it was, if one is willing to look at it this way: 'brilliant - as in WEIRD - brilliant'.....
I 'had' to turn to my husband, (lucky for me he was home), and share what I had just read.
He laughed and said...."keep me posted on this one".

NOTE: I was a Kinesiology major at Cal many moons ago - had worked on cadavers - so, so far I wasn't squeamish about anything in the Science lab.

Moving on to Chapter 2... "Goody, more characters...real people". Teo is in his early
20's , interested in pathology, a loner, a virgin, awkward, ( obviously), and lives with
his mother a paraplegic ( of course). Isn't the story getting good already?

Just wait...the fun hasn't even started...
Teo meets Clarice.
Teo s Clarice
Teo 'takes' Clarice....(just you might take an apple from the fridge)
I actually happened to have kinda adored these two main characters.
Off they go to the lake.. ( where the fun kicks into high gear)

Where other people may find this book disgusting..,I found it charming in a satire-way!

WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT
....GONE GIRL ... This Brazilian author has a unique style very much his own.

ADDED ENJOYMENT FOR TWO:
....This book takes on a different flavor when you start reading parts of it out loud to your partner - ( groups of friends would add more flavor yet)

LOVED IT ....in a crazy - insane - way!

Thank You Penguin Press, Netgalley, and Raphael Montes ( what else ya got up your sleeve?....I may be interested!) :) Kelly (and the Book Boar)2,603 8,901

Find all of my at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/

Might as well go ahead and file this one under “that awkward moment when a book about a nutter who kidnaps the girl of his dreams isn’t quite weird enough to please me” . . .



Perfect Days had a ton of potential. I mean the very first chapter started off by explaining how medical student Teo has made besties for the resties with a fellow classmate named Gertrude. The only problem? Gertrude is the cadaver . . .



Ahhhh, quit being such a stiff! ItÂ’s not they had the smexy relations.

The story goes on to show Teo meeting the female lead, Clarice, for the first time. The two exchange pleasantries at a party, Teo ummmmm acquires ClariceÂ’s number and he sets his sights on making sure another meet-cute happens in the future. When Clarice isnÂ’t appreciative of TeoÂ’s advances, he realizes itÂ’s just because she needs more time to get to know him. HeÂ’s nothing if not a real giver, so he arranges a romantic getaway for the two of them and refuses to take no for an answer . . . .



The remainder of the story is how Teo and ClariceÂ’s relationship ummmmmm evolves over time . . .



And here’s the part where I become kind of a butthole. I d Teo and his tale of Perfect Days just fine – I just didn’t it. I mean, obviously I enjoy nutty stories and dark subject matter and I 100% saw the pitch-black humor that was contained within the pages of this book . . .

“On days when Clarice was in a bad mood, he avoided being around her. He suspected she might have some sort of bipolar disorder, that it was pathological.”

^^^^Hehehehe. ThatÂ’s good stuff. Unfortunately, there was something missing in this one and I have to blame it on a man named Joe . . .



If you have already fallen in some form of creepy, deranged love with met Joe, youÂ’ll totally understand. If you havenÂ’t met Joe, you should make it a priority to do so ASAP. When writing about a despicable character and taboo subject matter, an author reaaaaaaally needs to be willing to go there. He or she has two options: (1) Write the most horrible person you can that your readers will love to hate (Brett Easton Ellis and Herman Koch are farkinÂ’ EXPERTS at this) or (2) Write the most horrible person you can and make your readers fall in love with him (see Joe above and also Dexter). Whichever path is chosen, the plot HAS. TO. GO. THERE. There can be no pause, no break in momentum, the story simply has to be balls to the wall with crazy. Bottom line, as bizarre as it may sound, Perfect Days just didnÂ’t go far enough for me.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!arcs crunken-love nutters ...more78 s Trina898 3,902

Good concept. Terrible execution.

The writing was very... lacking. There was barely any characterization beyond villain and victim. There was ZERO tension. Things just happened without any build up. It was so straightforward that it kind of felt reading a murderer's to-do list. There was no surprise to anything and I couldn't get invested or root for anything/anyone. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never did. There was one attempt at a twist that reversed itself within 20 pages, and nothing ever provided any true conflict. The scene transitions were also non existent. Teo would be in the kitchen cooking and suddenly we get descriptions of something happening in another room because he'd walked into that room without the author telling us. This happened several times. I thought the writing issues were a fault of the translation (I read the English version) but have heard from others that these things are true in the original as well.

HUGE content warning for just about everything. Violence and gore, sexism, homophobia, rape, suicide references, tons of ableism. Because this is very close 3rd person following a villain, this didn't bother me too much because he's supposed to be awful, you're supposed to dis him and think he's wrong. But other characters reinforce a lot of ableist ideas in particular. And the ending basically rewards all of these behaviors. (Which granted, I think is pretty common in the horror genre because it's unsettling, but I felt so unfulfilled. Perhaps I just don't the horror genre?)

As far as comparisons to You, they are very fitting. Except this main character has much less personality, and it doesn't have the edge of being told in 2nd person. If you hated the main character in You, you will probably equally hate this one. If you loved You, this may not live up to it. It didn't for me at least.

The only good thing I can say about this book is that it was compulsively readable. I read it quickly, although I did want to DNF it a couple of times and nothing paid off for me in the end. I think the concept was intriguing and might be more enjoyable to other readers. This just wasn't the type of thriller I prefer. I need much more tension and conflict.2017 adult horror ...more75 s Paulo Ratz185 5,373

Mais um livro lido do moço Raphael!

Eu confesso que a escrita desse livro me prendeu bastante. Mais do que Jantar Secreto, que é o livro mais recente, mas que li antes deste. A narração é em terceira pessoa, mas muito conduzida pelo ponto de vista do Theo, que é um cara LOKO. E pra mim isso foi o mais interessante, acompanhar como a cabeça dele torce e retorce todas as informações externas. Eu senti ódio por ele o tempo TODO.

Claro, já conhecendo a escrita do Raphael, eu sei que o que ele gosta de causar na gente é desconforto. E desconforto é o que você vai sentir o tempo inteiro nesse livro, mais ainda pro final, e não por ser nojento como foi Jantar Secreto, mas por ser perturbador. Não é o tipo de história que tem uma superação, que o bem vence o mal ou algo do tipo. O Raphael não se importa com os seus sentimentos nem com o que você quer que aconteça no final. Tudo que ele puder fazer pra te deixar irritado, com nojo, tenso, ele vai fazer! E eu acho isso muito corajoso e vejo que ele é bem sucedido nessas escolhas.

Minha maior irritação, OBVIO, foi que quando Clarice assume o controle da situação, o tempo foi tão curto que não deu pra saborear, eu só ficava gritando TUA BURRA, FAZ MAIS COISA.

A sensação que eu tenho ao terminar o livro é: KD MINHA JUSTIÇA? Não espere isso do livro, migos. Meu único problema com a narrativa que me fez tirar 1 estrela foi que eu achei que tinham muitas pontas soltas na trajetória criminosa do Theo e foi difícil acreditar que a história acabaria realmente como acabou. Fora isso, super recomendo!54 s STEPH319 34

This book is creepy and outrageous at the same time. The main character is a sick piece of work and assholes him shouldnÂ’t be allowed to walk among us.

Teo is a young medical student who kidnapped Clarice, an aspiring screenwriter—the girl of his dreams. Drugged and sedated, he kept her in a pink suitcase and took her on a twisted journey across Brazil, in the hopes of making her fall in love with him. (Seriously?)

Sick, right? Just reading the premise makes me squirm with disgust and contempt for the male character. I was intrigued so I had to take a dip but this is just an awful read for me.

It hasn’t been an hour since I read it and I have almost forgotten what the story is all about. I’m gonna put this book in the “awful” box, close the lid and completely forget about it.54 s Dalia Nourelden616 899

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