Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "alissa-nutting"

Tampa by Alissa Nutting

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Inside the mind of a narcissistic hebephile.

Celeste is eager to begin her new teaching position as the new school year begins, excited and full of enthusiasm. But her true intentions are hidden beneath the surface - she is a predator with a predilection for pubescent boys.

She soon selects a target from amongst her pupils - Jack - and sets to work on seducing him, her grooming quickly escalating into a sexual relationship with the teenager.

But as Celeste's insatiable desires escalate, her veneer of normalcy threatens to crumble, exposing the true face lurking behind her mask for the world to see.

'Tampa' is a psychological drama, on one level playing out as a taboo erotic fantasy, on another exposing the impact of criminal, abusive and exploitative behaviour. Told from the perspective of central character Celeste, we are sucked into her world of paraphilic compulsion, as she grooms and exploits her young victims. She feels her behaviour is justified, while simultaneously being aware that it isn't in taking measures to avoid detection and apprehension. She finds it grossly unfair how so many people in the world can freely explore their sexual desires and she cannot.

The novel explores society's perception of grooming and sexual violence and the key issue of consent, as well as challenging the pre-conceptions as to how both victims and perpetrators look or behave. Sadly, in reality, we often encounter scenarios where there is an apparent struggle to perceive and empathise with victims of abuse, which is particularly evident in the criminal justice system - many often seeking ways to apportion some blame to the victim, expecting them to behave or present in certain ways or expecting the pattern of abuse to develop in a particular way in order to be 'believable', or else simply not believing a crime has even taken place. While we may have made some small progress in recent years in the perception of female victims as victims (with still such a terrifyingly long way to go), the struggle to perceive men as victims of abuse when that abuse is not committed by another man appears to have changed even less. The novel places this question as central to Celeste's defence - "how could a teenage boy who gets to have sex with his attractive teacher possibly be a 'true victim'?"

That being said, Celeste herself does not use this notion to justify her actions to herself. She is entirely aware of the potential damage she can cause to her young victims and nevertheless chooses to pursue her own desires. In fact, she relishes in it - her true sexual gratification comes from the power. The sex is never focused on the pleasure of her partners (victims); it is entirely focused on her own pleasure. In a twisted way, this is where the novel succeeds in its erotica - you could be forgiven for momentarily forgetting this is not a story about pleasuring the body of a beautiful woman, her victims relegated to nothing more than tools for that purpose - she certainly never claims any emotional attachment. Her narcissism dominates the entire novel.

Controversial material such as this only works when it is exceptionally written. Nutting has crafted the narrative cleverly - using Celeste's sociopathy to draw us in whilst simultaneously providing just enough detachment throughout. Our empathy with the victims comes through our own reflection, never from Celeste's perspective - as she isn't truly capable of it. This makes the story a compulsive read, preventing us turning away in disgust from the explicit sexual content. We're in Celeste's head, not in the reality of the situation, as she uses her beauty and capacity to lie and to charm so convincingly to manipulate everyone around her and to achieve her sole objective of satiating her desires.

Disturbing and thought-provoking, 'Tampa' is an intense and extraordinary novel that challenges perception and raises awareness whilst simultaneously delivering a gripping story.



View all my reviews
Visit me on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Instagram