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  • Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan book cover
  • Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan book cover
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Acts of Desperation

by Megan Nolan

Desire, power, and the pull of an unequal romance

$17.09 USD
$28.49 USD $17.09 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

Desire, power, and the pull of an unequal romance

An unnamed narrator meets Ciaran, a magnetic writer, and becomes deeply attached after a brief romance ends with his abrupt rejection. The ensuing jealousy and longing frame a close examination of how desire can become entangled with dependence and self-abandonment. The narrator’s consciousness is described through opposing impulses: rebellion and submission, escape from degradation and attraction to it, the wish to love and the wish to be lovable. This makes the romance a lens for questions about fantasy, power, and the difficult distinction between wanting someone and wanting to be wanted.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction about love, addiction, and obsessive attachment.
  • Readers drawn to novels that examine desire, power, and conflicting impulses.
  • Readers looking for an adult coming-of-age story centered on romantic loss.

Themes

Desire and fantasyLove and addictionPower and submissionObsession and romantic loss

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A riveting, cathartic literary debut 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.

"A blistering anti-romance." --Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X

"Hot as viscera." --The New Republic
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