Acts of Desperation

By Megan Nolan

Book Overview

Heralding the arrival of "a huge literary talent" (Karl Ove Knausgaard), Megan Nolan's riveting debut is "a blistering anti-romance" (Catherine Lacey) about love addiction and what it does to us.

Wouldn't I do anything to reverse my loss, the absence of him?

In the first scene of this provocative gut-punch of a novel, our unnamed narrator meets a magnetic writer named Ciaran and falls, against her better judgment, completely in his power. After a brief, all-consuming romance he abruptly rejects her, sending her into a tailspin of jealous obsession and longing. If he ever comes back to her, she resolves to hang onto him and his love at all costs, even if it destroys her...

Part breathless confession, part lucid critique, Acts of Desperation renders a consciousness split between rebellion and submission, between escaping degradation and eroticizing it, between loving and being lovable. With unsettling, electric precision, Nolan dissects one of life's most elusive mysteries: Why do we want what we want, and how do we want it?

Heralding the arrival of a stunning new literary talent, Acts of Desperation interrogates the nature of fantasy, desire, and power, challenging us to reckon honestly with our own insatiability.

"Hot as viscera." --The New Republic

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316429856
• ISBN13: 9780316429856
• Release Date: March 2021
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Description of book is more interesting and intriguing than the book itself

Based on the description, I thought this book would be more about dark obsession and was interested in the implied danger of obsessive desire. The main character essentially just trauma dumps the whole book, with the love interest/romance being extremely surface level where no connections to the characters can be made by the reader. In all honesty, the book felt like a longer version of a toxic wattpad story and after reading I was left with nothing to think about or reflect on. I was excited to read it but was very disappointed. It was a quick read, but only because of the lack of substance and development, that allows you to finish the book quickly and without any attached emotions. I do not recommend.