The Love of a Bad Man in Aussie Readers

Jul 30, 2016 Michael Livingston rated it really liked it

I really don't know how to rate this collection - Woollett is an incredibly skilled writer, drawing you into the fucked up relationships between her women characters and their dreadful men. The stories are all based in reality, so you get Eva Braun, Myra Hyndley as narrators, and the overall feeling is a kind of woozily sick horror.

I found the damaged people and the horrible things they did a bit much to deal with at times - probably because these weren't characters, but real people made messy ...more

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May 24, 2018 Scribe Publications added it

Shelves: fiction, australian-fiction, australian-literature, australian, short-stories

Like Helen Garner, Laura Woollett is impelled to explore the darkest corners of the human heart, the savage cognitive distortions of love; to understand and empathise with the monstrous, rather than to instinctively recoil or judge … Woollett’s pitch-perfect command of narrative voice, period, and psychology creates 12 tales to fascinate and unnerve.
Cameron Woodhead, The Age

[Woollett] raises unnerving questions about the nature of desire: about why any of us are drawn to people who are bad, or b Like Helen Garner, Laura Woollett is impelled to explore the darkest corners of the human heart, the savage cognitive distortions of love; to understand and empathise with the monstrous, rather than to instinctively recoil or judge … Woollett’s pitch-perfect command of narrative voice, period, and psychology creates 12 tales to fascinate and unnerve.
Cameron Woodhead, The Age

[Woollett] raises unnerving questions about the nature of desire: about why any of us are drawn to people who are bad, or bad for us, and why we stay with them. That she refuses to answer them is not to the detriment of The Love of a Bad Man, and in fact ensures that the collection never feels gimmicky … The stories are entirely concerned with conveying the distinctive interiority of the women, with the exploration of their impulses and insecurities. It is by the accretion of these case studies, rather than by armchair psychologising her girls, that Woollett builds her case.
Veronica Sullivan, The Lifted Brow

A genuinely fresh reading experience … we’re sure to hear a lot more from this talented writer in coming years.
Books+Publishing, Four Stars

An unusual and affecting reading experience, coupling true crime with literary fiction … Laura Elizabeth Woollett is refreshing, challenging, and utterly unique and I’m already looking forward to her next achievement.
Readings Monthly

With each finely tuned voice, Woollett draws empathy from abject horror. A confident and mesmerising performance.
Melanie Joosten, Author of Berlin Syndrome

The idea is intriguing and the execution goes well beyond expectation … The Love of a Bad Man gives sophisticated insight, and is full of empathy and nuance for the people portrayed.
Lip Magazine

The Love of a Bad Man is a rare combination of immense writing talent and wondrous imagination. You've never read a book quite like this one.
Jeff Gunn, Author of Go Down Together and Manson

Chilling … [Woollett] has rendered these women so real, so believable, sympathetic, and even likeable in some cases, despite the dreadful things they condone or participate in.
Austcrime

Compelling and powerful … Woollett has inhabited the spirit of these various women in a manner both thought-provoking and touching.
Ruth Wykes, Co-Author of Women Who Kill and Invisible Women

Woollett’s work in her female narrators’ interior lives, her in-depth research and deployment of detail and vernacular, combines to lend a frightening and compelling understanding to these women’s choices, and in some but not all cases, their coercion.
Homer

Seductive and enthralling … Woollett is a master of her craft. You won’t be able to put it down.
Stephanie Dickinson, Author of Love Highway

The Love of a Bad Man imagines the inner lives of historical figures who committed crimes all in the name of love … The stories treat death with a gothic inevitability and explore human darkness with a light touch.
Lou Heinrich, The Guardian

[Woollett’s] stories are beautifully written – poised and elegant.
Eithne Farry, Daily Mail

[T]he varied voices are what makes this collection outstanding … truly unsettling reading.
Emerald Street

Woollett explores power, obsession and warped love in this absorbing collection.
Sharmaine Lovegrove, Elle

Woollett is skilled at giving each woman a different voice, from the dramatic correspondence of Veronica Compton, to the semi-educated whining of Blanche Burrow. What each woman has in common is their transformation.
New York Journal of Books

[W]hat sets Woollett apart is the ease with which she floats through the lives of her protagonists … an experiment in the limits of empathy.
Crimereads ...more

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Dec 14, 2018 Robin rated it really liked it

I liked the concept behind this collection of short stories of real women and their 'bad' men, which were all written with sharp perception and empathy. Highly recommended. ...more

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