Book Review: Bella Donna
This's perfect for someone who wants the cosiness of an Xmas Lifetime movie but sprinkled w/ the passion fruit seediness of an age dif affair that can get a tad s&my. Though this is set in Paris, it is more about the family/holiday/food culture than the sights, and unexpectedly relatable to Americans. After all, there're a melding of ethnicities w/ Gio the Italian catalyst from the past, Tom the MC's British fiance, etc.
Donna always knows what she wants even if she's not sure it's so right. Even at 16 (an age I'm surprised would raise eyebrows in France, especially w/ someone under 30), she knows she desperately wants Gio because it's like he slithered out of one of her classic romance books like a pretty pet book worm. She's not afraid to be blunt and embarassingly emotional about it, going as far as to peek on her crush in the shower and wait for him in his bedroom. When she's older and he's marrying her aunt, she dares to call him out about staying too close, even to her sister.
It's great how frequently we switch from the past and present w/ almost punny ch titles (especially w/ the Beauty & Beast comparisons), making the book feel lighter than it's big spine. Though cutting down on a few obvious adverbs would admittedly help shave it down, and the too-soliloquoy-perfect dialogue at times. Backstory is well-weaved into those chats though.
This would be a good companion piece for those who enjoyed My Dark Vanessa but wanted something lighter, almost a flipside where the girl is still in the euphoric throes of "grooming" she sought to accelerate. There is also the tabooness of incest in its other sense: being too close to family friends to be appropriate or un-messy even if of-age and tech unrelated.
The big family is immersive and mostly realistic when not theatrically sappy. The insults and inventive words are my favorite like "butter-brained," or "noodle-noggined," or the modern slang used authentically as "cap" and "bitch" and "yikes." The descriptions of fluffy and frizzy hair, and rain and snow are plesant. Some more cool phrases, often animal-centric: "like a sparrow trapped in a clenched fist," "a shiver crawled like a centipede down my spine," and "roleplay under the duvet."
The nice thing about transgressive fiction is the gray middlegrounds, like with Gio, who comes across like a tan vampire. His words may always profess innocence in not wanting to string along a lonely teenager, but his constant lingering and abundant praise say otherwise. He keeps us wondering about his odd obsession w/ longing and "poigant beauty when two people who were once in love are no longer together." And even though the girl is 100% committed to starting these flings, we can empathize w/ her shame over history and kiddy journals being shoved under her nose at family parties and such. The festering wound of unrequitted love is a universal tear/fear.
Even when Donna is being a bit "evil," I love it because it's so unusual, exciting, and surprising how things would up where they are. I guess that makes everything the more forbidden/hot. I understand romance has to hit certain tropes, but I still wish the family or others gave the couple(s) more pushback for tension and realism besides the brother, though that is only partially toward the last fourth. In the end, this seems Neda's most polished piece and I've read her stories in the anthologies Slut Vomit, Hikikomori, Hunger, and probably elsewhere.
Thanks for the review. I wrote this book in a week. Seems I should put less effort in writing :)