Book Review: The Bombshell
Here’s my review of The Bombshell by Darrow Farr. Leave a comment if you’ve read it, plan to read it, or have any book recs to share. And don’t miss today’s writing prompt.
The Bombshell by Darrow Farr is a novel whose main character will infuriate and annoy you as much as she charms and intrigues you. Believe me when I tell you that you haven’t read a coming-of-age story quite like this one before— one with an entitled teenage girl who unexpectedly becomes the face of a short-lived, chaotic domestic terrorist movement while falling in love for the first time.
Love her or hate her, you will be enchanted by the unabashed confidence and moxie of Séverine Guimard from the very first page of the novel to its very last. At times, Séverine is manipulative and reckless and immature, but other times she is entirely rational and emotionally vulnerable in ways that make her character realistic and empathetic, though she never comes across as broken or weak, which is refreshing for a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl.
You might have sympathy for Séverine when she’s kidnapped by a radical terrorist group at the beginning of the novel, for example, but still end up having difficulty sympathizing with her and the more extreme actions she takes after she steps into the spotlight on behalf of Corsican independence, even if you end up ultimately believing that she was brainwashed or negatively influenced by her captors, and especially if you see her character as embodying the colonizing oppressor and causing much more harm for those seeking independence than good.
As you follow Séverine’s journey in the novel, you will never stop wondering what exactly ends up radicalizing her as she becomes more entrenched in Soffiu di Libertà, their political aims, and their personal lives. Is it her need to protect her ego, mixed with her need for attention? Is it her need to become her own person on her own terms, not the person others expect her to be? Is it the political philosophy her captors introduce her to, especially those centered around decolonization, as posited in Les Damnés de la Terre (Wretched of the Earth) by Frantz Fanon? Is it her need to impress her captors and their cohort? Or does she become radicalized when she begins to fall in love (Or is it lust?) with one of her captors? Or perhaps her radicalization is a combination of all those things, exemplifying the wonders and perils of youthful idealism and passion, the combustibility of celebrity, and the sublime force of young love and lust as one comes of age?
Along with Séverine, you’ll unpack and or revisit the confusing and thrilling trials and tribulations of being young and passionate and idealistic, but from a unique and explosive angle with incredibly high, life and death, stakes. While learning about Corsican politics and tourism in the 90s, you’ll encounter Marxist theories and unpack decolonialism and how various terrorist groups, including the one Séverine is with, often work to leverage those theories for the better, and much worse, especially with an unexpected and unlikely person like Séverine at the helm. Yet you’ll never get bored or overwhelmed while reading this novel and the political ideals it explores because Séverine is a character who refuses to get bogged down by abstract ideals or be underestimated and ignored by anyone. She will make you think about decolonization and what’s at stake, whether you want to or not, and whether you believe in what she says and does or not.
The dialogue in this novel is also rich and entertaining and expertly crafted, and without it, Séverine would not be able to become who she becomes. Séverine is witty and hot-headed, impulsive and dangerous, but also composed, reflective, and tender when she needs or wants to be. And the complex layers of her character, as well as all the other characters in the novel, come through vividly via dialogue throughout the novel, allowing readers to get to know each character intimately as they come of age and explore and test the boundaries of what they believe and who they are, warts and all.
Overall, I would recommend this novel to those who want to read a more unique and exciting coming-of-age story. I would also recommend it to those readers who enjoy character-driven novels, in which characters engage in engrossing dialogue that pulls you in and keeps you both intellectually and emotionally invested in them and what they’re doing for the entirety of the novel.
Have you read this book yet, or plan to read it soon? Leave a comment to start a discussion. Or tell us what we should read and review next!
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© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
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