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This Gorgeous Game
This Gorgeous Game
Author: Donna Freitas
"I know I know I know I should be grateful. I should be grateful to have his attention. To have him take such an interest in me.  — I should. I know I should.  — I will. No, you are grateful, Olivia, I tell myself as if I am my self's imaginary friend, sitting across the table, giving advice. Start acting grateful then...  more » his latest demand, this pile of typewritten pages he hands me with a face that says, Please, Olivia, oh please don't be difficult and just do this for me, is staring, no it's glaring at me from the coffee table like a monster that might eat me. I feel like if I touch it I will go up in flames or the pages might bite. 

Am I making too much of this? Isn't it just a matter of grabbing hold of the stack and moving it in front of my eyes so my eyes will begin to scan those black marks on the page which will magically arrange themselves into words that my brain will recognize and understand and volia, I'm finished before I know it. 

Then, when he asks, because he will ask, I'll be able to answer truthfully, "Yes, I read it. I did," and he will smile and I'll be Good Olivia again. 

I wish I'd never won that stupid prize which is what got me noticed by him . . . no . . . what got my writing noticed by him which is what led to the initial introduction which somehow turned into communications and invitations and coffees and attending office hours and going to High Profile Events together--his words--even before the summer started."
ISBN-13: 9780374314729
ISBN-10: 0374314721
Publication Date: 5/25/2010
Pages: 224
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 3

4 stars, based on 3 ratings
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
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skywriter319 avatar reviewed This Gorgeous Game on + 784 more book reviews
THIS GORGEOUS GAME is one of those books that, try as hard as you can, you won't be able to get off your mind after reading. It's chilling and astonishingly well-written, and if you're looking for a book that will disturb and move you, this should be the one.

Stalking is extremely difficult to discuss, because it's personal, upsetting, and so subtle you don't realize something's wrong until it's already happened. That's why what Donna Freitas has accomplished in THIS GORGEOUS GAME is so impressive and respectable. In writing alternatingly lyrical and down-to-earth, Freitas captures the simultaneous realism and surrealism of Olivia's situation. Passages of unearthly beauty entwine with creepy situations for the mood that this story needs to be effectively convincing.

Olivia narrates her story with all the subtlety that this topic demands. Most of us will know what's happening, can see the signs, but we can also see why Olivia could not have noticed the signs like the way we with our foresight can. Olivia's story perfectly captures the terror of stalking, because it's precisely its near-invisibility that makes it so disturbingly powerful.

THIS GORGEOUS GAME is as far from a light read as you can get. I still get goosebumps every time I think about or try to talk about this book, which hopefully shows the power that Olivia's story had over me, the effect of Donna Freitas' words. If physical horror isn't your thing and you want to read something that will affect you profoundly, THIS GORGEOUS GAME is the ultimate choice. See if you get chills from reading it as I did.


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