Set against a post #MeToo landscape, Rachel Kapelke-Dale's The Ingenue delves into mother-daughter relationships, the expectations of talent, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when the things that once made you special are taken from you.
A timely reminder of what it takes for a victim to claim the narrative of abuse ... And yet for all of the novel's dredging up of buried family secrets, the revelations are humdrum, and the reader may be disappointed that there's no real twist here.
Kapelke-Dale’s...absorbing novel delves into the repercussions of sexual abuse, interspersing tantalizing extracts from Evie’s feminist fairy-tale retellings and fragments of Saskia’s teen years with present events that crescendo to a stunning conclusion.
Shocking ending ... Kapelke-Dale (The Ballerinas) crafts a twisted suspenseful tale of expectations and identity, of love and vengeance, that will leave readers breathless.
