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Oola
A provocative and impressive debut delivered with a uniquely sinister lyricism by a brilliant 21-year-old; a story about sex, privilege, desire, and creativity in the post-college years
The first thing Leif notices about Oola is the sharp curve of her delicate shoulders, tensed as if for flight. Even from that first encounter at a party in a flat outside of London, there’s something electric about the way Oola, a music school dropout, connects with the cossetted, listless narrator we find in twenty-five-year-old Leif. Infatuated, the two hit the road across Europe, housesitting for Leif’s parents’ wealthy friends, and finally settling for the summer in Big Sur.
Leif makes Oola his he will attempt an infinitesimal cartography of her every thought and gesture, her every dimple, every snag, every swell of memory and hollow. And yet in this atmosphere of stifling and paranoid isolation, the world around Leif and Oola begins to warp--the tap water turns salty, plants die, and Oola falls dangerously ill. Finally, it becomes clear that the currents surging just below the surface of Leif’s story are infinitely stranger than they first appear.
Oola is a mind-bendingly original novel about the way that--particularly in the changeable, unsteady just-post-college years--sex, privilege, desire, and creativity can bend, blur, and break. Brittany Newell bursts into the literary world with a narrative as twisted and fresh as it is addicting.
The first thing Leif notices about Oola is the sharp curve of her delicate shoulders, tensed as if for flight. Even from that first encounter at a party in a flat outside of London, there’s something electric about the way Oola, a music school dropout, connects with the cossetted, listless narrator we find in twenty-five-year-old Leif. Infatuated, the two hit the road across Europe, housesitting for Leif’s parents’ wealthy friends, and finally settling for the summer in Big Sur.
Leif makes Oola his he will attempt an infinitesimal cartography of her every thought and gesture, her every dimple, every snag, every swell of memory and hollow. And yet in this atmosphere of stifling and paranoid isolation, the world around Leif and Oola begins to warp--the tap water turns salty, plants die, and Oola falls dangerously ill. Finally, it becomes clear that the currents surging just below the surface of Leif’s story are infinitely stranger than they first appear.
Oola is a mind-bendingly original novel about the way that--particularly in the changeable, unsteady just-post-college years--sex, privilege, desire, and creativity can bend, blur, and break. Brittany Newell bursts into the literary world with a narrative as twisted and fresh as it is addicting.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2017
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1708 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
April 14, 2017
This is a story of obsession that goes beyond the object being obsessed about. Leif and Oola are in their twenties when they meet and were attracted to each other. Leif has been getting house sitting jobs all over the world and Oola joins him. During their travels from one house to the next, they only have each other and become isolated. Leif’s obsession with Oola keeps growing until he not only wants to know every inch of her, both physically and mentally, but he wants to become her.
I chose this book because of the beautiful writing by the author that the publisher promised. And yes, there is beautiful writing in this book, as well as crude, rough language. The author writes with wit and black humor but I found the book to be very drawn out in parts and offensive in other parts. I find obsession fascinating and usually like strange, unsettling books but this book also involves drugs, fetishism and gender bending. Though in thinking about it, I’ve read other books involving those topics that I thought highly of. This one was just too coarse for me. I think the author does a good job in showing the deterioration of this relationship but I think it possibly requires a younger, more modern audience. Overall, it just wasn’t for me though I did appreciate the author’s talent.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
I chose this book because of the beautiful writing by the author that the publisher promised. And yes, there is beautiful writing in this book, as well as crude, rough language. The author writes with wit and black humor but I found the book to be very drawn out in parts and offensive in other parts. I find obsession fascinating and usually like strange, unsettling books but this book also involves drugs, fetishism and gender bending. Though in thinking about it, I’ve read other books involving those topics that I thought highly of. This one was just too coarse for me. I think the author does a good job in showing the deterioration of this relationship but I think it possibly requires a younger, more modern audience. Overall, it just wasn’t for me though I did appreciate the author’s talent.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
February 4, 2017
Lyrical Nihilism, With A Side of Ennui and Dread
Despite the fact that the characters initially range all over the globe this is an L.A. novel the way anything written by Joan Didion or Eve Babitz is basically an L.A. novel. Heck, our heroine Oola's narrative recounting of her childhood could be a chapter in Babitz's "Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A.". And I mean that as the highest possible form of praise. In the first half of the book the hot, bleached white, dry, languid, and vaguely decadent prose sketches two lost souls who may have the means, but certainly don't have the will, to save themselves. City of Angels indeed.
At the halfway point we wonder if it is possible to be passively-obsessed. Our ridiculously unreliable, deceiving, and increasingly unbalanced narrator mixes lucid observations and comments with unnerving descriptions of Oola, and at this point we begin to become uneasy about whether his obsession will stay within the realm of thought and feeling or move into the realm of action. You'll have to read the book to find out the answer to that question.
Of course, at some level the plot is sort of a snipe chase. The point is to listen in on the conversations between Leif and Oola, to follow the weird path traveled by Leif's mind, and to tease out and appreciate what the author is doing with any particular sentence. Many staged pieces, recollections, reminiscences, and bits of narrative history sit outside of the story, and could easily be shuffled and reinserted at different points in the book without doing it too much violence. Since you can say the same thing about nightmares and social history opinion pieces I guess that's oddly appropriate.
In any event, if you want a dark, provocative, witty, occasionally humorous, (but more often unnerving), report on the state of our gender bending, privileged and lost mid-twenty somethings this is a rather remarkable place to start.
(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
Despite the fact that the characters initially range all over the globe this is an L.A. novel the way anything written by Joan Didion or Eve Babitz is basically an L.A. novel. Heck, our heroine Oola's narrative recounting of her childhood could be a chapter in Babitz's "Slow Days, Fast Company: The World, The Flesh, and L.A.". And I mean that as the highest possible form of praise. In the first half of the book the hot, bleached white, dry, languid, and vaguely decadent prose sketches two lost souls who may have the means, but certainly don't have the will, to save themselves. City of Angels indeed.
At the halfway point we wonder if it is possible to be passively-obsessed. Our ridiculously unreliable, deceiving, and increasingly unbalanced narrator mixes lucid observations and comments with unnerving descriptions of Oola, and at this point we begin to become uneasy about whether his obsession will stay within the realm of thought and feeling or move into the realm of action. You'll have to read the book to find out the answer to that question.
Of course, at some level the plot is sort of a snipe chase. The point is to listen in on the conversations between Leif and Oola, to follow the weird path traveled by Leif's mind, and to tease out and appreciate what the author is doing with any particular sentence. Many staged pieces, recollections, reminiscences, and bits of narrative history sit outside of the story, and could easily be shuffled and reinserted at different points in the book without doing it too much violence. Since you can say the same thing about nightmares and social history opinion pieces I guess that's oddly appropriate.
In any event, if you want a dark, provocative, witty, occasionally humorous, (but more often unnerving), report on the state of our gender bending, privileged and lost mid-twenty somethings this is a rather remarkable place to start.
(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
May 6, 2017
4.5
A dark, quirky, moody story of obsession gone wrong. 20-somethings Leif and Oola meet at a party and he is almost instantly smitten with her. Well, I suppose smitten is not the right word exactly, because there is nothing positive about Leif's attention. It is clear that Oola isn't exactly looking for a relationship, but the two end up together anyway under strange circumstances. Leif is part of an extensive and very wealthy family, and his "job" is to house-sit for various relatives while they are on vacation. Which is a lot. Basically, Leif offers Oola free room and board and an adventurous romp across Europe & the US. She says yes because come on now, who wouldn't?
It is clear from the beginning that neither of our protagonists is quite right in the head, but it's truly shocking how bizarre things get. Oola at first appears listless and eccentric, but it's soon clear that she is perhaps as crazy as Leif. And Leif... whoof. One of the most unique narrators I have ever encountered. There are shades of Joe from You, but Leif is delivered with more insidious finesse. His madness creeps up on the reader as slowly as it creeps up on Oola. By the time they are in Big Sur and Leif has constructed a literal museum to Oola in the attic by stealing everything she touches, part of you doesn't even realize how crazy it is until you put the book down.
This is a purely character-driven book, so if you're looking for plot it's probably not for you. I mean, things happen, but the actual events are few and far between. For the most part we are just hanging out with Leif and Oola as they drift aimlessly through life. There's a sense of ennui and hopelessness to both the writing and the plot. While Leif's commentary is biting and sarcastic, it's also sad and rather pathetic. Just like him.
I was going to rate this a solid 4 until I got to the last chapter. In it, Leif addresses the reader directly. He'd done it a few times before but only in bits and pieces: his end monologue sent shivers down my spine and I know it's going to stay with me for a long, long time.
A dark, quirky, moody story of obsession gone wrong. 20-somethings Leif and Oola meet at a party and he is almost instantly smitten with her. Well, I suppose smitten is not the right word exactly, because there is nothing positive about Leif's attention. It is clear that Oola isn't exactly looking for a relationship, but the two end up together anyway under strange circumstances. Leif is part of an extensive and very wealthy family, and his "job" is to house-sit for various relatives while they are on vacation. Which is a lot. Basically, Leif offers Oola free room and board and an adventurous romp across Europe & the US. She says yes because come on now, who wouldn't?
It is clear from the beginning that neither of our protagonists is quite right in the head, but it's truly shocking how bizarre things get. Oola at first appears listless and eccentric, but it's soon clear that she is perhaps as crazy as Leif. And Leif... whoof. One of the most unique narrators I have ever encountered. There are shades of Joe from You, but Leif is delivered with more insidious finesse. His madness creeps up on the reader as slowly as it creeps up on Oola. By the time they are in Big Sur and Leif has constructed a literal museum to Oola in the attic by stealing everything she touches, part of you doesn't even realize how crazy it is until you put the book down.
This is a purely character-driven book, so if you're looking for plot it's probably not for you. I mean, things happen, but the actual events are few and far between. For the most part we are just hanging out with Leif and Oola as they drift aimlessly through life. There's a sense of ennui and hopelessness to both the writing and the plot. While Leif's commentary is biting and sarcastic, it's also sad and rather pathetic. Just like him.
I was going to rate this a solid 4 until I got to the last chapter. In it, Leif addresses the reader directly. He'd done it a few times before but only in bits and pieces: his end monologue sent shivers down my spine and I know it's going to stay with me for a long, long time.
July 23, 2023
TW: Language, cutting, cheating, eating disorder, bullying, family drama, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, depression, smoking, drugs, drinking, rape,
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:The first thing Leif notices about Oola is the sharp curve of her delicate shoulders, tensed as if for flight. Even from that first encounter at a party in a flat outside of London, there’s something electric about the way Oola, a music school dropout, connects with the cossetted, listless narrator we find in twenty-five-year-old Leif. Infatuated, the two hit the road across Europe, housesitting for Leif’s parents’ wealthy friends, and finally settling for the summer in Big Sur.
Leif makes Oola his he will attempt an infinitesimal cartography of her every thought and gesture, her every dimple, every snag, every swell of memory and hollow. And yet in this atmosphere of stifling and paranoid isolation, the world around Leif and Oola begins to warp--the tap water turns salty, plants die, and Oola falls dangerously ill. Finally, it becomes clear that the currents surging just below the surface of Leif’s story are infinitely stranger than they first appear.
Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 272
Rating: -⭐
What I Liked:
1. I am OBSESSED with that cover
What I Didn't Like:
1. I hate the characters
2. I hate the writing style
3. I hate the story
4. I hate that I tried to finish this book
5. I hate that this book exists
Overall Thoughts:
Book starts off talking about it being summer in May, but summer isn't till June.
Sigh this is one of those artsy - you wouldn't get it - I'm not like other girls - novels. Everyone is so unique and quirky. They don't eat meat but instead feed pigs their tie nails. Forget working - these people are rich because their parents invented a new kind of pen. There are no lines that people won't cross because lines don't exist.
Just some sweet gems that pepper this story.
Oh yes, when Oola talks about herself you get that she was - could have been a model - she just sat down and knew how to play piano. She's really not like other girls! Talk about manic pixie dream girl.
60 pages into this book I was BORED. I found myself scrolling on my phone to avoid reading this book. I hate these characters.
Nope…can’t say that’s a thing.
Final Thoughts:
If I ever knew people like this I would ditch these people at a café pretending to go to the bathroom. I'd be exhausted at them always trying so hard to be so quirky and different. You are not these things. You bleed and poop so you are just like everyone else.
Book drags on and on. There's a certain point where you have zero idea where this book is going.
I ended up dnfing this book at page 100. Reading 100 pages felt like I had read 500. I swear if I had to read another 100 pages I think I would have burned my library book.
Recommend For:
• Gibberish pointless dialog
• Pretentious annoying young people
• Novella's
IG | Blog
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:The first thing Leif notices about Oola is the sharp curve of her delicate shoulders, tensed as if for flight. Even from that first encounter at a party in a flat outside of London, there’s something electric about the way Oola, a music school dropout, connects with the cossetted, listless narrator we find in twenty-five-year-old Leif. Infatuated, the two hit the road across Europe, housesitting for Leif’s parents’ wealthy friends, and finally settling for the summer in Big Sur.
Leif makes Oola his he will attempt an infinitesimal cartography of her every thought and gesture, her every dimple, every snag, every swell of memory and hollow. And yet in this atmosphere of stifling and paranoid isolation, the world around Leif and Oola begins to warp--the tap water turns salty, plants die, and Oola falls dangerously ill. Finally, it becomes clear that the currents surging just below the surface of Leif’s story are infinitely stranger than they first appear.
Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 272
Rating: -⭐
What I Liked:
1. I am OBSESSED with that cover
What I Didn't Like:
1. I hate the characters
2. I hate the writing style
3. I hate the story
4. I hate that I tried to finish this book
5. I hate that this book exists
Overall Thoughts:
Book starts off talking about it being summer in May, but summer isn't till June.
Sigh this is one of those artsy - you wouldn't get it - I'm not like other girls - novels. Everyone is so unique and quirky. They don't eat meat but instead feed pigs their tie nails. Forget working - these people are rich because their parents invented a new kind of pen. There are no lines that people won't cross because lines don't exist.
"The cunt I thought I'd come to know was suddenly a tunnel; I was standing at the mouth. The desert clatter fell away. I didn't hear the coyotes that night."
Just some sweet gems that pepper this story.
Oh yes, when Oola talks about herself you get that she was - could have been a model - she just sat down and knew how to play piano. She's really not like other girls! Talk about manic pixie dream girl.
60 pages into this book I was BORED. I found myself scrolling on my phone to avoid reading this book. I hate these characters.
”Every twelve-year-old girl, on some level, wants to be raped.
Nope…can’t say that’s a thing.
Final Thoughts:
If I ever knew people like this I would ditch these people at a café pretending to go to the bathroom. I'd be exhausted at them always trying so hard to be so quirky and different. You are not these things. You bleed and poop so you are just like everyone else.
Book drags on and on. There's a certain point where you have zero idea where this book is going.
I ended up dnfing this book at page 100. Reading 100 pages felt like I had read 500. I swear if I had to read another 100 pages I think I would have burned my library book.
Recommend For:
• Gibberish pointless dialog
• Pretentious annoying young people
• Novella's
IG | Blog
April 1, 2017
This is such a fucking incredible book. I have so many thoughts and feelings. I also really really really relate in so many ways to the protagonist (which is often disturbing) and I want to write about this book SO. BADLY.
Read
March 28, 2019DID NOT FINISH. This actually is not a bad book, a character study of a dysfunctional young couple and their world-weary globetrotting adventures, but it's hampered by three details that I in particular have a low tolerance for: the prose is much more flowery and artsy than my normal tastes; for being written from the point of view of a male narrator, it never stops feeling like it's coming from the mind of a female author; and it's set within the world of wealthy, willowy, Eastern Seaboard liberal-arts trust-fund hipsters, a milieu I don't particularly like and that certainly I find impossible to make any kind of emotional connection to. None of these three elements are dealbreakers on their own, but all three of them at once made me give up on this novel pretty quickly, although I would still recommend it to those who don't mind these kinds of details as much as I do.
January 29, 2017
Edgy, fast-paced, thrilling. This book really drew me in. Very modern and culturally in-touch, especially in regard to sex and gender. Many interesting parallels to Lolita-- for example, the salacious narrator Leif is something like a genderfucked millennial Humbert Humbert. Ms. Newell builds suspense masterfully-- this book will have you squirming on the edge of your seat. Highly, highly recommend!
May 24, 2017
Stunning/brilliant use of language. More modern art than novel.
May 31, 2017
Oola is not what I expected. It made me uncomfortable at times while reading it, but because of this I ultimately enjoyed it. This is a novel about an obsession that starts out innocent enough, but turns more sinister and disturbing over time.
Lief and Oola meet at a party and this is when Lief becomes enamored with her almost instantaneously. Oola isn’t looking for a relationship, but Lief offers her an adventure of house sitting for the rich across Europe and the US that she finds too irresistible to pass up. Early on it becomes obvious that both Lief and Oola are a little off. At first it seems that they are both eccentric, but as we learn more about them it becomes clear that there is mental illness lurking beneath the surface.
One of the reasons I enjoyed Oola is because it is a character driven story. Lief starts out as a weirdo, but seems pretty harmless, but as the story progresses his madness slowly creeps up on you. There is very little in terms of major events within the plot. The story progresses as a series of interactions and changes in the character's’ relationship with one another.This is a novel is fascinating and a compulsive read for anyone who loves a good psychological suspense read.
Lief and Oola meet at a party and this is when Lief becomes enamored with her almost instantaneously. Oola isn’t looking for a relationship, but Lief offers her an adventure of house sitting for the rich across Europe and the US that she finds too irresistible to pass up. Early on it becomes obvious that both Lief and Oola are a little off. At first it seems that they are both eccentric, but as we learn more about them it becomes clear that there is mental illness lurking beneath the surface.
One of the reasons I enjoyed Oola is because it is a character driven story. Lief starts out as a weirdo, but seems pretty harmless, but as the story progresses his madness slowly creeps up on you. There is very little in terms of major events within the plot. The story progresses as a series of interactions and changes in the character's’ relationship with one another.This is a novel is fascinating and a compulsive read for anyone who loves a good psychological suspense read.
April 17, 2017
What a debut novel! Twenty-five-year-old Leif and twenty-one-year old Oola are quirky "soulmates"--at least in Leif's mind. As they travel from place to place, house-sitting and getting to know each other, Leif's obsession with her grows as he watches her adoringly and memorizes every gesture and curve of her body. And yet she is still a mystery to him and as circumstances begin to change--the water tastes salty, she becomes paranoid due to the aliens watching her--Leif has to wonder what is happening to his girlfriend. Although depressing at times--maybe just because at my age those post-college years are way behind me--it is brilliantly written by a fresh new voice in fiction, one that I imagine we will hear from again!
March 29, 2018
A bisexual trustifarian and a waifish flowerchild meet at a party in London, and spend the remainder of the book growing closer and more infatuated with each other as they skip around the world, housesitting for their parents' rich friends. Eventually the infatuation overripens and the rosy glow of a new relationship dulls; the relationship--as well as the two individuals comprising it--begins to fray along the seams.
I think the author wrote this when she was 21, so it's really just all-around impressive. The writing in particular is outstanding, clean and incisive, observant and intelligent. I would say that I'm not sure the book sticks the landing, however. I wasn't sure where it was going to go with maybe 10% of the book left, and I'm still not completely sure what happened.
I'm excited for what this author puts out next!
I think the author wrote this when she was 21, so it's really just all-around impressive. The writing in particular is outstanding, clean and incisive, observant and intelligent. I would say that I'm not sure the book sticks the landing, however. I wasn't sure where it was going to go with maybe 10% of the book left, and I'm still not completely sure what happened.
I'm excited for what this author puts out next!
May 10, 2017
"Oola" is, in my opinion, easily one of the most brilliant books I've ever read. Having said that, it's not for everyone. If you prefer pacy, plot-driven reads replete with events-as-landmarks, this is not the book for you. Not a lot 'happens.' Rather, the interiority of Leif (the narrator) serves as this debut novel's North Star; truthfully, said interiority is more of a black hole, a devouring gravitational centre. We are drawn into Leif's thoughts and memories, both of which are frequently non-chronological, and suspended within them like insects in amber. For the most part, the pace of this novel feels slow, but the book is no less entrancing for this. The predominant magic at work is the stunning, innovative language employed by Newell. She evokes Leif's romantic and artistic obsession with Oola (his muse), for example, by having Leif compare the stains on one of Oola's sweaters to a Rorschach test, and refer to himself as a "tube of longing." This unusual, fecund language is not a one-off - it populates every page of the novel, which in and of itself makes the book difficult to consume quickly, like eating a rich meal, but you should ask yourself this: why rush, when to linger is so delicious? And if linguistic originality isn't enough to sell you, let me just say: the novel's denouement will knock you for six.
November 26, 2016
"I kept her on my mind for fear of the moment she might disappear"
This unique and obsessive love story has a great premise. It's a tale of being so completely and utterly captivated by someone that you want to immerse yourself in every part of their being. Wanting to completely posses and devour every inch of them. Leif and Oola have a relationship like no other.
I must admit I found this book a little too literary for my taste and I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. However I really liked the last quarter of the book and seeing how much of an impact Oola has on Leif, it was a great twist to a love story. It's just a shame that it was a struggle to get to a part I enjoyed. Not one for me unfortunately.
This unique and obsessive love story has a great premise. It's a tale of being so completely and utterly captivated by someone that you want to immerse yourself in every part of their being. Wanting to completely posses and devour every inch of them. Leif and Oola have a relationship like no other.
I must admit I found this book a little too literary for my taste and I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. However I really liked the last quarter of the book and seeing how much of an impact Oola has on Leif, it was a great twist to a love story. It's just a shame that it was a struggle to get to a part I enjoyed. Not one for me unfortunately.
June 25, 2017
Loved the authors writing style.
May 17, 2017
An eerie and curious love story, Oola grabbed my attention like a new crush. Newell's queer sensibilities allow for characters that don't reify normative tropes of identity or relationships. She plays with gender, obsession, and sex with an ambivalent sarcasm that is refreshing and contemporary. There are clever gems throughout, including a nostalgic and relatable description of a California Denny's that got me all up in my feelings. I want more!
May 31, 2017
It's so hard to write about this book because this book is so beautifully written. Oola by 21-year-old debut author Brittany Newell is edgy, lyrical, and full of heart. This novel won't be for everyone, but in the right hands, its readers will fall in love.
Oola is a completely original story of obsession gone wrong. In a strange hybrid between Lolita and Caroline Kepnes's You, the reader is sucked into the depths of Leif's fixation. Swept away by the young couple's whimsical sense of invincibility, you almost miss the madness that slowly seeps in as Leif builds a shrine of Oola. Observing her every move, capturing fallen strands of hair and used tissues - Leif's actions almost seem charming under the guise of Newell's gorgeous writing. It isn't until you set the book down that you realize the disturbing reality built by the two lovers.
Although, don't pick this book up with the expectation of a firey and fast-paced story. This novel is entirely character-driven, a dive into the mind of someone in the throughs of obsession. It is raw and intense, and at times, brings into question the boundaries of gender. If you love character studies and passionate prose - this one is for you.
Oola is a completely original story of obsession gone wrong. In a strange hybrid between Lolita and Caroline Kepnes's You, the reader is sucked into the depths of Leif's fixation. Swept away by the young couple's whimsical sense of invincibility, you almost miss the madness that slowly seeps in as Leif builds a shrine of Oola. Observing her every move, capturing fallen strands of hair and used tissues - Leif's actions almost seem charming under the guise of Newell's gorgeous writing. It isn't until you set the book down that you realize the disturbing reality built by the two lovers.
Although, don't pick this book up with the expectation of a firey and fast-paced story. This novel is entirely character-driven, a dive into the mind of someone in the throughs of obsession. It is raw and intense, and at times, brings into question the boundaries of gender. If you love character studies and passionate prose - this one is for you.
April 19, 2017
I was thoroughly absorbed for the first portion of the story as the relationship between Oola and Leif unfolded since what's not to like about an unreliable narrator? The slow, tension-building of the beginning of the story reminded me a lot of all the best details in Bates Motel that manage to make my skin crawl while also not being able to look away.
Unfortunately, there came a point where the story started to feel a bit stagnant to me about midway through the novel. I'd heard enough of Oola's background and that's when I became distracted by my dislike for both her and Leif - enough to make me feel like I didn't care to continue reading. What had initially held my interest never seemed to go below surface level in plot development, but I decided to hold out and see if the storyline would peak my interest again.
I wish I had chosen to just admit defeat instead of seeing this one till the end. While I usually embrace the abstract and bizarre, Oola felt too forced and contrived for me to ever really connect to the story.
Unfortunately, there came a point where the story started to feel a bit stagnant to me about midway through the novel. I'd heard enough of Oola's background and that's when I became distracted by my dislike for both her and Leif - enough to make me feel like I didn't care to continue reading. What had initially held my interest never seemed to go below surface level in plot development, but I decided to hold out and see if the storyline would peak my interest again.
I wish I had chosen to just admit defeat instead of seeing this one till the end. While I usually embrace the abstract and bizarre, Oola felt too forced and contrived for me to ever really connect to the story.
April 26, 2017
What hath Brittany wrought?! Here is an uncomfortably engaging narrative, that while stumbling through the rubble of a millennial backdrop, succinctly choreographs interpersonal pathology. Too the bone, with a keen sensitivity to culturally sanctioned neuroses that pass for normality, Oola flays heteronormative relationship as an antiquated parody. Irregular. Encompassing. Let Oola make it's mark.
February 28, 2017
Evocative character study.
June 25, 2017
'oola' wittled my dendrites down to gnashing, splintering bristles
April 2, 2022
Oola is a successfully disturbing story of obsession and self-discovery. The story is heavily character-driven. Imagery is vivid and creative — for me, this is the best part of the book. I would’ve discontinued it entirely as I did with other books that I read for more than 2 months, but I anticipated more lines worthy of thought and marking so I attentively read on.
March 6, 2017
Oola by Brittany Newell tells the story of an aimless, drifting couple who shack up in Big Sur for a while, him growing his obsession of her, and her languidly passing time until she leaves. The blurb about the book can be misleading, since nothing dangerous really comes off Leif's obsession of Oola. There isn't an event that chills to the bone. Most of the book is Leif's chronicling of Oola, her skin, her hair, her scars, her smell, her cigarette butts, her clothes, her nail clippings, while she hangs out, reads, answers questions, cooks, and practices piano during the one hour he goes running, the only hour they spend together. His mind takes the story back to his younger days, to his previous love interest, a man called Tay, and his own neuroses, while Oola's occasional monologs give glimpses of her "white trash" past. The real turn in the story comes when Oola leaves, though one could point to earlier moments when things start to get strange. Perhaps this moment comes a little too late, because then things happen, and they seem a bit rushed, not well balanced with all the things that happened before, so languid, lost and un-bumpy as they were.
Leif's and Oola's metamorphoses are certainly the crux of the story. While Leif's motives and choices are clear, Oola's are a mystery, despite the fact that most of the book seems to be about Oola. Why does Oola leave? What's up with the salty water? And the aliens? We are not meant to find these things out, or we are meant to speculate about them, like Leif speculates about Oola's inner being by just observing her every move and collecting her detritus.
The obsession gives the first half of the book a sense of claustrophobia that is complete and suffocating, something I believe the authors sets out to do and succeeds well in doing. The events that follow release pressure, and Leif flutters violently like a balloon now letting out air in convulsions. But what is slightly disappointing is that we never really get to know Oola, and maybe that's the point, that one can learn a lot about someone by watching them, or even quizzing them, but it is impossible to know someone completely.
It's strange to try to understand Leif and Oola: who are these people? Do people like this exist? These post-postmodern hipster-come-hippies who aimlessly drift from one bored day to the next, moving but stationary, alive yet stagnant, these people who can afford countless aimless afternoons... are they real? These are the things I find myself asking after I have finished the novel, wondering what they mean, these people and their existence. I feel slightly ridiculous and guilty for having read it, just like I do after watching yet another old film about very rich people bantering on about their lives in black and white, Katherine Hepburn's hair done impeccably and Cary Grant grinning. Perhaps is is so very strange to think of Leif and Oola as these kinds of iconic stars and the rich and spoiled roles they played, but in a way that's exactly who they are, these uber-privileged, lost 21st century Americans who jet set seamlessly (ah, not to have to get visas to Europe...) and rot from boredom.
Leif's sexuality was perhaps the most interesting subject in this novel for me, though I can't quite call it sexuality, as it has little to do with sexual identity or gender expression, but rather a mind displacement, a strong wish to be someone else, not just someone because they are a woman, but someone in particular. Leif is the embodiment of careless daydreams where teenagers don superhero identities and save damsels in distress or the office clerk becomes the boss and fires everyone. Leif takes it to the extreme, finding a strange yet necessary merging with his gender-queer past and present that works well with his desire to become Oola. Though his struggles to embody the very thing he covets seem extreme, there is very little that is actually extreme. The foreshadowing (both in the copy for the book and in the novel itself) of danger and S&M, in whatever loose meaning of its complexities, simply does not materialize into something recognizable as such later.
Recommended for those who like avocados, cats, XXL shirts, salt water, and classical music.
Thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Leif's and Oola's metamorphoses are certainly the crux of the story. While Leif's motives and choices are clear, Oola's are a mystery, despite the fact that most of the book seems to be about Oola. Why does Oola leave? What's up with the salty water? And the aliens? We are not meant to find these things out, or we are meant to speculate about them, like Leif speculates about Oola's inner being by just observing her every move and collecting her detritus.
The obsession gives the first half of the book a sense of claustrophobia that is complete and suffocating, something I believe the authors sets out to do and succeeds well in doing. The events that follow release pressure, and Leif flutters violently like a balloon now letting out air in convulsions. But what is slightly disappointing is that we never really get to know Oola, and maybe that's the point, that one can learn a lot about someone by watching them, or even quizzing them, but it is impossible to know someone completely.
It's strange to try to understand Leif and Oola: who are these people? Do people like this exist? These post-postmodern hipster-come-hippies who aimlessly drift from one bored day to the next, moving but stationary, alive yet stagnant, these people who can afford countless aimless afternoons... are they real? These are the things I find myself asking after I have finished the novel, wondering what they mean, these people and their existence. I feel slightly ridiculous and guilty for having read it, just like I do after watching yet another old film about very rich people bantering on about their lives in black and white, Katherine Hepburn's hair done impeccably and Cary Grant grinning. Perhaps is is so very strange to think of Leif and Oola as these kinds of iconic stars and the rich and spoiled roles they played, but in a way that's exactly who they are, these uber-privileged, lost 21st century Americans who jet set seamlessly (ah, not to have to get visas to Europe...) and rot from boredom.
Leif's sexuality was perhaps the most interesting subject in this novel for me, though I can't quite call it sexuality, as it has little to do with sexual identity or gender expression, but rather a mind displacement, a strong wish to be someone else, not just someone because they are a woman, but someone in particular. Leif is the embodiment of careless daydreams where teenagers don superhero identities and save damsels in distress or the office clerk becomes the boss and fires everyone. Leif takes it to the extreme, finding a strange yet necessary merging with his gender-queer past and present that works well with his desire to become Oola. Though his struggles to embody the very thing he covets seem extreme, there is very little that is actually extreme. The foreshadowing (both in the copy for the book and in the novel itself) of danger and S&M, in whatever loose meaning of its complexities, simply does not materialize into something recognizable as such later.
Recommended for those who like avocados, cats, XXL shirts, salt water, and classical music.
Thanks to LibraryThing and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2017
This book grabbed me from the start and didn't let go. I usually find books easy to start but impossible to finish.
As a queer person, I found is very refreshing and enticing to read a book that included a gender non-conforming character. I rarely relate to characters I could related to both main characters in Oola.
The "love" story in Oola starts out relatively normal but then diverges from the usual storylines into an obsession that is totally horrendous. It is made even more disturbing because of how relatable many of the elements are.
The language used by the author is beautiful, quirky and raw. The descriptions of sexual interactions are very real, not flowery and dramatised. Sex is too often taboo but in Oola sex is just sex. Sometimes is awful and sometimes it's magical.
This book has left me eager to discuss with others! It's a truly modern queer story of love (whatever love is...)
As a queer person, I found is very refreshing and enticing to read a book that included a gender non-conforming character. I rarely relate to characters I could related to both main characters in Oola.
The "love" story in Oola starts out relatively normal but then diverges from the usual storylines into an obsession that is totally horrendous. It is made even more disturbing because of how relatable many of the elements are.
The language used by the author is beautiful, quirky and raw. The descriptions of sexual interactions are very real, not flowery and dramatised. Sex is too often taboo but in Oola sex is just sex. Sometimes is awful and sometimes it's magical.
This book has left me eager to discuss with others! It's a truly modern queer story of love (whatever love is...)
May 7, 2017
This book was intense. The way the author handles the presentation and emotions in her characters was certainly fascinating. I'm not sure what else to say about this book, honestly. Maybe more thoughts will come to me in time.
May 8, 2017
Oola - la!
May 14, 2017
Spent more time wondering about how this book wasn't really about obsession and personal cartography (and the bad, really bad sex) than anything else.
September 29, 2017
Hipster Nonchalance Carried to Extremes.
This book reminds me a lot of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, except it’s better. There’s the same young male character who thinks and acts like a girl. The same absence of any apparent emotional connection with parents or family or friends. The same total lack of any type of conventional morals, together with the almost magical ability to float around the world making half-hearted sexual and drug connections and committing minor crimes without consequence. The same obsession with the offbeat way someone acted or looked or talked, but without any interest in the actual act or the content of the speech. The same lack of a plot.
The first sixty pages succeeded in doing what Tartt failed to do – make this interesting. Oola is just better written, in my opinion. But Oola the character is so cool and unaffected you eventually lose interest in what is happening to her. A promising pianist from a wealthy family, she travels the world with her boyfriend, Lief, in a house-sitting binge for their parents’ wealthy friends. They settle in a house in Big Sur, where they pretty much give up sex and Lief secretly gives up his writing ambitions and instead spends his days cataloging the minutiae of her life. She does say a lot of weird things, but you get tired of it. She casually mentions one day that she prostituted herself at age twelve, apparently just for fun. He doesn’t follow up. He is fascinated by her body and her clothes, but none of it inspires any lust. They mostly hang around, sometimes going to parties, where her weird behavior apparently inspires nothing more than mild bemusement on the part of the other guests.
It’s at this point that the excellent writing just can’t carry the novel all by itself. As if to make up for the lack of a plot, the writing becomes more bizarre:
“The sun set slowly in her scalp: her head looked like a pineapple upside-down cake.”
“I watched her belly button irrigate. ‘You look beautiful,’ I squelched.”
“Suffice it to say it was a sore spot between us, ever since I asked if I could put her tampon in my tea.”
Near the end, Lief imagines in advance, in its entirety, his long trip to the dentist’s office. Then he tells us about his actual trip. Nothing much happens on either one.
The characters never let anything in their lives really upset them, and after a while some readers might adopt the same attitude. Although the writing makes the book a really promising first novel, the characters’ blasé attitude and their focus on the trivia of life might wear some readers down.
This book reminds me a lot of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, except it’s better. There’s the same young male character who thinks and acts like a girl. The same absence of any apparent emotional connection with parents or family or friends. The same total lack of any type of conventional morals, together with the almost magical ability to float around the world making half-hearted sexual and drug connections and committing minor crimes without consequence. The same obsession with the offbeat way someone acted or looked or talked, but without any interest in the actual act or the content of the speech. The same lack of a plot.
The first sixty pages succeeded in doing what Tartt failed to do – make this interesting. Oola is just better written, in my opinion. But Oola the character is so cool and unaffected you eventually lose interest in what is happening to her. A promising pianist from a wealthy family, she travels the world with her boyfriend, Lief, in a house-sitting binge for their parents’ wealthy friends. They settle in a house in Big Sur, where they pretty much give up sex and Lief secretly gives up his writing ambitions and instead spends his days cataloging the minutiae of her life. She does say a lot of weird things, but you get tired of it. She casually mentions one day that she prostituted herself at age twelve, apparently just for fun. He doesn’t follow up. He is fascinated by her body and her clothes, but none of it inspires any lust. They mostly hang around, sometimes going to parties, where her weird behavior apparently inspires nothing more than mild bemusement on the part of the other guests.
It’s at this point that the excellent writing just can’t carry the novel all by itself. As if to make up for the lack of a plot, the writing becomes more bizarre:
“The sun set slowly in her scalp: her head looked like a pineapple upside-down cake.”
“I watched her belly button irrigate. ‘You look beautiful,’ I squelched.”
“Suffice it to say it was a sore spot between us, ever since I asked if I could put her tampon in my tea.”
Near the end, Lief imagines in advance, in its entirety, his long trip to the dentist’s office. Then he tells us about his actual trip. Nothing much happens on either one.
The characters never let anything in their lives really upset them, and after a while some readers might adopt the same attitude. Although the writing makes the book a really promising first novel, the characters’ blasé attitude and their focus on the trivia of life might wear some readers down.
August 9, 2017
Hope this book will receive some hype. Very interesting, beautifully written queer novel about a destructive relationship.
4*
4*
October 26, 2017
I'm noticing that the novels I've given 5 stars this year have trended toward the "you'll utterly love or hate this" end of the spectrum. I picked up Oola because it seemed creepy and intriguing. It was both of those things. It was also stunningly gorgeous prose. I must have said "I cannot believe Brittany Newell is only 21" about 800 times while reading this book. I was absolutely blown away by how strong her writing is. She's SO young, and this book is SO mature.
The plot is simple. Leif is a waspy house-sitter for his parents' rich friends. He meets and falls madly in love with Oola, who joins him as he bounces from city to city. They fall in love in a series of interludes which are sexy and slightly unnerving. Eventually, they settle down in a cabin in Big Sur, where Leif takes up a project to observe everything about Oola, ostensibly so that he can write a novel about her. But, like, EVERYTHING should be taken literally. You'll be hearing a lot about everything from her wardrobe to her toenails - all of it GORGEOUSLY penned by Newell. But once you're becoming fanatic about someone's toenails, you know things are taking a weird, crazy, dark-ass turn - and that's exactly what happens. I can't say any more or I'll spoil it, but at the end of the book, I wasn't ENTIRELY sure what had just happened and wanted to pick it up and re-read it immediately. To me, as a reader, it doesn't get much better than that!
The plot is simple. Leif is a waspy house-sitter for his parents' rich friends. He meets and falls madly in love with Oola, who joins him as he bounces from city to city. They fall in love in a series of interludes which are sexy and slightly unnerving. Eventually, they settle down in a cabin in Big Sur, where Leif takes up a project to observe everything about Oola, ostensibly so that he can write a novel about her. But, like, EVERYTHING should be taken literally. You'll be hearing a lot about everything from her wardrobe to her toenails - all of it GORGEOUSLY penned by Newell. But once you're becoming fanatic about someone's toenails, you know things are taking a weird, crazy, dark-ass turn - and that's exactly what happens. I can't say any more or I'll spoil it, but at the end of the book, I wasn't ENTIRELY sure what had just happened and wanted to pick it up and re-read it immediately. To me, as a reader, it doesn't get much better than that!
May 21, 2018
i teared up in my cubicle at the end
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