Do You like book The Blue Place (1999)?
Excerpted from the full review:"I made a pretty terrible joke with myself when I began drafting notes for this review. I said “Hmm. Aud Torvingen is like an Atalanta from Atlanta!” Were you to read The Blue Place, though, you might agree with me that the comparison between Aud and Atalanta is more than a little on the nose. They’re both light on their feet; they both refuse to comply with notions of what a ‘proper woman’ should do, think or resemble. That said, I’d rather chase Aud than a golden apple because, well… Aud Torvingen is hot. Of Nordic ancestry, the six-footed former elite police officer no longer needs commission work to support herself financially, but accepts certain jobs for the challenge and curiosity they inspire. It would be untrue to say that she doesn’t think too much of a late-night run-in on an Inman Park sidewalk with a woman whose hair smells of fresh rainshowers. She does, even though she knows the woman she encountered can’t have set the building behind her to bursts of flames. The curious night that gives rise to these disjointedly-connected events persists: the woman turns another corner into Aud’s life, asking for the kind of assistance that Torvingen has (perhaps unfortunately) become all too skilled at giving.If you declare that you love violence for the purity of it, odds are that you will find yourself alone at the buffet table, but the singular protagonist of Griffith’s novel would understand what you mean. There is an electric pulse to the concerns and rhythms of the human body in the writer’s prose: all these ways that we can bend, shatter, solder ourselves back together with far fewer implements than one might think. In the pauses of a conversation with Julia Lyons-Bennet, Aud considers what the woman at her side thinks of excitement, and, by extension, of danger.“Danger… means suspending consideration and just being, acting and reacting, moving through a world where everything but you cools and slows down so you can glide between the blows and bullets and take out someone’s heart. Danger is desperately seductive.”What’s laudable about Griffith’s sculpting of Torvingen is that her past extends far behind her, like a trail whose former rest-stops are only visible when she shares them. Her character is written with the uncomfortable heft of too-muchness — too much messiness, too many close calls, too few safe places. The sanctuaries we think of as inviolable are often a hair’s breadth away from being gutted, Aud reminds us. She reinforces this hard lesson as much by what she muses to herself, as by the string of events that set the narrative to a blistering string of causalities."You can continue reading my review of The Blue Place at Novel Niche.
—Shivanee (Novel Niche)
When it comes to lesbian romance novels, this one actually falls on the good side of things. It's not just about the physical attraction, instant romance thing. There's plot here that the author actually thought through and works pretty well. The tension is good, the story is enjoyable, the characters are likeable. In short, it's an entertaining read and you won't feel like you wasted your time at the end of the book.Still, it's not high literature, but I'm assuming that's not what you're looking for when you get to this review page. The main flaws are easily summed up. They're not too bad and didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book, but they did grate at some points:1) The prose. If you're going for a first person pov, the language should be believable. A lot of Aud's inner dialogue just isn't. No way will anyone think like that. Especially the similes can turn out to be rather embarrassing and downright silly. There is a whole conversation too where Aud tells about something that happened in her past and just no way does anyone describe anything like that. I do think it happens less and less as the story continues, but it can really pull you out of your immersion when such a silly description pops up.2) I'm pretty much repeating what most people said: Aud is just too much of a Mary Sue. She can do anything and do it well and do it better than you. And conveniently explains it in her inner monologue so you can keep up with her. 3) Violence. A reviewer said that once you get on in the story, you would truly understand why Aud is as violent as she is. I honestly don't think it's ever explained and I can't relate to how much enjoyment she gets from the violence she performs. It's jarring at moments and makes it harder to relate to the character at those points. I don't know if it's me or a failure on the side of the author to make me understand it. It does make it so that the ending of the book is plausible and completely in character, but it doesn't help me like the character more. On the other hand, it didn't make me hate them either, it just felt a bit absurd at times.
—Voronwer
now that was a surprise. i've picked up the first book completely on a whim, to get distracted, and the beginning was almost laughably standard lesbian noir (if there IS a standar lesbian noir, that is). aud torvingen, a half-norvegian ex-policeman private security person, is cold, contained, gorgeous, violent, irresistible; she picks up women in bars and views people, aside from a couple of friends (or "friends") as objects to be moved at will. but she takes on a case of a distraught woman whose friend got killed, and then - changes. about fifty pages in this paperback airport thriller premise deepens and unfolds into a beautiful, dense, breathing narrative that had me swallow the whole trilogy in a day and then wander stunned for a couple of days more. it's a surprisingly - adult? grown up? - story about grief, and trauma, and breaking the violence taboos, and reconnecting with your own humanity, and limits of self-defense (half of the third book is practically a self-defense manual, and it's amazing), and mothers and daughters, and various shades of feminism, and the true terror of falling in love. aud's "disturbing lesbian-chick Übermensch" (to quote a goodreads review) traits start out as a potential titillating cliche and get honestly, painfully, respectfully explored and challenged and made real, and her offhand, practical, solid kindness turns out to be a just as solid and needed foundation of her personality. i've also really loved that aud's orientation was absolutely taken for granted by the narrative, without either excess drama or coy subtlety; it just was there, solid and accepted. almost all the important relationships in the books - romantic, friendly, filial - are about women, in glorious variety.
—egelantier