Innocents

Cathy Coote is the most exciting young talent of 1999 Innocents is destined to be the most talked-about book of 1999 My darling ... All of this is my fault. I can't get your face out of my mind ... There were no mitigating circumstances. There were no excuses. I wasn't young and malleable and suffering from an overdose of Hanibal the Cannibal. I wasn't a victim of child sexual abuse. I didn't grow up in a civil war zone. My uncle didn't beat me. I don't even have the excuse of neglect ... She is a schoolgirl with a secret obsession. He is her high school teacher. When she decides to seduce him, his world turns upside down. I wanted you at that moment, when I understood how desperately you wanted me. I wanted you when I saw how you dreaded to touch me ... When I saw you violently pinching the skin of your own wrist ... 'I do ...' I made the easy declaration seem difficult, pretending to fumble for words that were readily available, 'care about you.' Big eyes again. This was the moment. Biting my lip, making my face tentative, I asked out of the blue, 'Will you kiss me?' She moves in with him; he has no choice but to resign from the school. He takes an undemanding job outside the school system, and the two of them retreat into their own private world. He is delirious with delight and fear; she works to keep his interest at fever pitch. There can be no room for anyone or anything else in his life. As their relationship deepens, she plays ever more elaborate games to get him to reveal his darkest, innermost desires. Then the tables turn ... Precocious, disturbing and morally complex, Innocents is a coolly told portrait of manipulation and desire.