Thank you Henry Holt for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. IYKYK, my reviews are always

PSA: 3 stars does not equal bad.

Writing: 4/5 | Plot: 2.5/5 | Ending: 3/5

THE PLOT

Isabel is a senior English major at Wilder College. Navigating friendship, a sorta rape, and an affair with her professor, Isabel explores what adulthood really means.

MY OPINION

Let me address the 2.5/5 plot score first. I don't really think there was a plot. Imagine your mom writes you a long ass letter explaining all her life lessons through anecdotes, that's what this book was like. It was just one fluid, stream of consciousness about a period of personal growth. I enjoyed learning more about Jewish cultural dynamics and college life in the late 90s.

I felt like this book was driving the speed limit and I really wish Daisy Alpert Florin had just put the pedal to the metal at some point and careened around a corner. It lacked the emotional punch that a story tackling sexual assault, mental health, and inappropriate relationships should have.

For example, her affair with the professor "haunts" her for the rest of her life, yet this relationship didn't even start until the 40% mark in the book??? I didn't sense an emotional connection between the characters that would cause Isabel to be so tethered to this moment in her life. I'm not downplaying the fact a relationship at 21 with a 40+ yr old man is life-altering, but there was no deep professions of love that validated her lifelong obsession with the 8-ish weeks of sex with a professor—especially considering she had several sexual encounters before so it wasn't like a virginity snatcher thing.

The writing was flowing, sometimes a bit over-baked, but very comforting and rhythmic. The theme was clear: men are bums but women pay the price for their bummitude. This coming-of-age story is a niche read.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: fluid writing, tackled sensitive topics appropriately, introspective at times

Cons: lacked emotional punch... I wasn't left wrecked, which I expect from this type of story

Beautifully written coming of age story. Isabel is flawed, often stumbling and incredibly naive. But you feel it. You feel her confusion, her need for validation, her lack of confidence. At one point or another every woman has been Isabel. In the one final semester of college she begins to grow up, stuck in between that sliver of time between girl and woman. That last semester she learns things about who she is and who she needs to become. Everyone that surrounds her has an impact on her life going forward - her friends, her father, her mentors and her professor (as illicit as it was). The author winds you through her life during those 5 months and beyond showing you the trajectory her life took. Wonderful story.

Although My Last Innocent Year is a coming of age novel, it is not your typical tale. As the reader follows Isabel through her college years at the exclusive Wilder and in her reflections from years after, we are drawn in to her relationships; with parents, roommates, professors, friends, and acquaintances. As Isabel is forced to make life choices, or not to make them as the case may be, we endure the repercussions with her. While there is not a fairy tale ending in the traditional sense of the word, the ending is satisfying and appropriate; we see adult life that Isabel has "consented" to live and see her as satisfied with what she has created for herself, right or wrong.

Characters are believably drawn and the setting of an upscale university setting is authentically presented. At times, the references to the Clinton/Lewinsky case seemed out of place, the point about responsibility and choices resonate and ultimately, interesting parallels are drawn.

This story will keep the pages turning; I completed it in a single sitting and my interested never wavered. Author Daisy Alpert Florin expertly captures the uncertainties of life as we navigate unfamiliar circumstances and as people come and go.

The best part of reviewing ARCs is getting a novel like this to read. Beautifully written, this is the story of Isabel, during her senior year at a thinly disguised version of Dartmouth (Wilder). Like so many coming of age novels, Isabel is drawn into the orbit of manipulative professors and classmates.

She questions her own sexual decisions and her talent. She witnesses the messiness of other people’s marriages. Ultimately, she becomes the prey of one of her professors. Isabel is a product of a difficult home, an aloof mother who died when Isabel was 12, and a father who was mired in work.

This is a story of grit and determination, getting past all the negatives. Ultimately, Isabel is faced with many decisions during the time of lost innocence and she has triumphed.

I loved this little treasure, thank you Netgalley!

As much as I believe that not everything an author writes in fiction is their personal belief, I can't let this one go. I don't actually know Florin's opnions on Israel, but I know I don't support an estate that is the cause of deaths of innocents in Palestine and are currently commiting war crimes against its residents, and I won't support a book that will talk about it as if it is a "saviour" estate. Free Palestine.