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This is the kind of book that won’t leave you indifferent because of the topics it brings up, which you can discuss over and over and not reach any conclusion at all.
Michael is an engineer; a 28 year-old boy who is very successful at work but not in his social life: he does his projects at home and rarely goes out, and the only relationship with a woman he has had happens every Saturday, when he sees a prostitute called Jacquie. One Saturday night when Jacquie is leaving, they find an unconscious, undernourished and probably drugged girl on the road; Michael looks after her while the ambulance is coming and the following days he feels worried about the girl, so he visits her in the hospital several times and they begin to fall in love with each other.
Her name is Jenny, she is fourteen and has had a really tough live: she had been sexually abused by her father, then he died and her mother abandoned her in the streets and she has been a prostitute mainly to get food and sometimes drugs until now. Michael feels guilty about having certain feelings towards a girl who is under-age, but it turns out that he is the only one who visits her and Jenny knows it, so she encourages him to keep on visiting and, eventually, take her to his house, which happens in the second part of the book.
What I liked about the book was two things. First of all, the relationship between Jenny and her father is rather complicated: it should have began as a child’s game of exploration at daddy’s bed – that her father didn’t discourage – when her mother went to work and ended up in a relationship between lovers in which Jenny was the dominant half and looked for it every morning, her father being the only one who felt guilty – sometimes. So Jenny never regrets it because for her it was normal, and remembers it as the best moments of her life.
This is so shocking. In fact, I have seen on Goodreads that many people gave up reading at this point, but despite the shock I think this is great for discussion owing to the controversy about what is normal and what is not in this Electra complex taken to the limit.
Besides, we have also the relationship between Michael and Jenny, which is also forbidden, but “less forbidden” than incest, and frustrates them since they feel like a couple but they have to avoid sex and they can’t explain their situation to others.
But the way the story is developed isn’t very good. The dialogues are terrible: I know that Jenny is a girl that hasn’t had an education and she has to speak like that, but Michael is an engineer; he must be used to talking with clients but every time he says something to Jenny or to the social workers he is monotonous and often ridiculous, so it sounds as if he has a mental age of ten. These dialogues make the read slow instead of adding some rhythm. On the other hand, I am really worried about the poor Australian children who are under the care of the social services of that country because, if the book is accurate, they can be left with the first stranger who seems to care for them, claiming that he loves a certain child and wants to began a relationship with her. This lack of responsibility of the social services is quite disturbing and makes the story a bit incredible.
So well, this is not a book for everyone because there is sexual content that might disgust some readers, but nevertheless this is precisely the thought-provoking part of the story. For the rest, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Keep calm and read 20 books in English: 17/20
From Isi 
Jenny Rat sounds thought provoking and disturbing, but perhaps, as you said, it can shine some light on the social services system. Thanks for the review.
Perhaps from the Spanish point of view, this fact about the social services is shocking because I think that here it works very differently.
But anyway, the book makes you think a lot about relationships and what is the consent of a child in those issues. I have discussed the book with my boyfriend and well, we never get a real answer.
This does sounds like a disturbing story, but I don’t think reading about incest would bother me too much, as long as the sexual descriptions are kept to a minimum. Is it?
As for the rest of the story, it sure sounds predictable. Sexually abused by her father, turns prostitute, falls in love with an older man…. Anyway, despite it sounding like a predictable story, the second half of the story sure makes up for it, it seems 🙂
Great review, Isi!
Thanks, Mel!
Yes, there is sexual content, but this is not an erotic story, so it is described just to the point to let you know what happened.
In the second part the question is about who is the strongest one, because both characters seem to be very weak, so they learn from each other. It’s interesting but, as I said, I didn’t like the narrative style.
This book sounds amazing. . . until you told me all the reasons why it wasn’t! I have no problem with controversial stuff, but I do have a problem with not-amazing writing and dialogue. Thanks for the heads up!
Exactly: the plot is super interesting but the narrative style wasn’t very good and didn’t make me keep on reading because sometimes was repetitive and boring.
It’s a shame because it’s a great subject for discussion.
I can see why you decided not to recommend this one. Not only are the topics… difficult, but if the dialogue is badly written and the events unrealistic in even the most basic way, then I doubt there would be many people who would enjoy this. I do have Tabitha Suzuma’s novel Forbidden on my ‘must read soon’ list, as I have seen so many reviews which despite the subject matter recommend it, so I’d never dismiss a well written book due to the content, but I think that will be my fill of difficult books this year. (Last year I read Virginia Andrew’s first novel – it was HORRIBLE.)
Oh, I didn’t know that book, but sounds interesting too, this time between siblings. Well, hope you like it and hope it is well written, gripping and so on 😉
Neither did I know Virginia Andrew! As you see, I have to take a look over the blogosphere to get to know the new books that people are reading!
That’s the best thing about blogs – they increase your book knowledge! 🙂 Well, that and the wonderful people who write them!
I agree! 🙂
The thing is that I’m Spanish and some of the books which are popular in other countries don’t come to my country, so I discover most of them thanks to the blogs I visit. My list is infinite, as you can imagine (due to the fact that I actually have two list: one in Spanish and now another in English!)
Well at least that’s one thing holding me back – I only read novels in English. 🙂 Otherwise my wish lists would be truly unmanageable! Lol.
Interesting! The best books are the ones that leave you thinking about it and debating the pros and cons of it afterwards and it sounds like this one does it. Rebecca and I had a conversation recently about how the disturbing books are the ones most people tend to run away from even though they can be the most thought-provoking.
Yes, when a book is thought-provoking, despite de subject, I think it’s positive.
Neither do I understand why people don’t want to face these issues the books bring up because they are interesting and everybody has a point of view. They might be disgusting, but I’m sure this is happening somewhere!