This is the story of obsession and abuse, both emotional and physical. The novel begins with Nora, a troubled teen, sent by her parents to Italy. The first time she sees Nicola, the obsession begins. Years later, in NYC, they meet again, this time as business partners. however, Nicola is married. Doesn't really stop him from picking up with Nora again, though.
Nora is a lost soul with a propensity for deep obsession. This book may trigger some people that have been in abusive relationships. However, you may start feeling a bit aggravated at Nora for allowing this craziness to go on for so long. I did enjoy this novel, though.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Mariner for this e-arc.*

I was intrigued by the synopsis of The Absolutes, and I expected a compelling novel. What I got was a frustrating, soulless novel that wanted to be emotionally deep but was instead a bit of nothing. The writing was strangely unemotional for a book that claims to be moving and suspenseful, but I got the impression that it may have been intentional, so that reader sees Nora as completely cut off from reality and how Nicola is manipulating and abusing her. The style of writing and lack of suspense reminded me a bit of the book Death in Her Hands by Otessa Moshfegh. I found the romance of the story completely unbelievable, unless I am to believe that a stranger touching a girl on the ski lift is a life-changing event. So much of the relationship between Nicola and Nora is written about in vague language, and there is no explicit sexual content or 'spice' to make me understand her obsession, at all. Neither Nicola nor Nora were characters that warranted the obsession of the other.

This one was not for me, and I debated between one and two stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and Mariner Books for the digital ARC of The Absolutes by Molly Dektar. The opinions in this review are my own.

This was.....terrible?

Just...vapid, soulless and insipid. It's not sure what kind of story it wants to tell. A romance? Literary fiction? erotica?

It's got little pieces of everything and a lot of nothing.

Thanks anyway!

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to enjoy and read this title. I really enjoyed this, the author writing style is beautiful.

Thanks very much to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the eARC of this gorgeously written novel.

In many ways this book reminded me of Annie Ernaux's Simple Passion: a portrait of an intelligent, independent woman who winds up doing nothing but waiting for a man (to paraphrase Ernaux) and upending her whole life in the process. American Nora first meets Nicola--wealthy, handsome, mysterious, possibly dangerous--as a troubled exchange student in her teens in Turin, Italy during a time that overlapped with the Winter Olympics there. She encounters him again in college and later connects with him a third time through her job in her twenties, ultimately falling into an affair. Like much literary fiction, this is a book that simply must be experienced, as a plot summary can only do so much. I enjoyed the cast of vividly drawn, complex characters and the stunning prose. I suspect I will be re-reading this novel before too long.

I really wanted to enjoy this but the writing was so bad, I couldn’t focus on the majority of the story.

Thank you to Mariner Books for this early Netgalley copy of The Absolutes by Molly Dektar.

Following a string of worrying behaviors, fifteen year-old Nora is sent by her parents to live with her distant relatives in Italy—and the events that unfold there will shape the rest of her life, for better or for worse.

This book focuses on Nora’s artsy inner monologue and her obsession with control—namely being controlled—and how this fixation defines all of her relationships.

Dektar’s writing style is thoroughly descriptive and beautiful, even when the circumstances she’s depicting are morose, morbid, or disturbing. I was sucked in by her prose, for all of its candid and haunting qualities.

I think that fans of Otessa Moshfegh, Emma Cline, and other similar existential female authors might enjoy this novel. However, for me, it was an uncomfortable read that I’d rather not have read at all at the end of the day.

☆ - NOT FOR ME

CW: descriptions of self-harm/cutting; eating disorders; physical abuse; mental manipulation

Unfortunately I didn't really like the book. I was originally drawn in by the synopsis and had high hopes for it.
I do think the writing was beautiful and very detailed, however sometimes it didn't necessarily need it. I've seen someone describe it as an "identity crisis," and I agree with that. The plot had potential but just fell short for me.

The story about a young woman in Italy who embarks on affair with an Italian nobleman. Nora the protagonist just wasn’t my favorite narrator to read.

I couldn't make it past the beginning of the novel sadly. The writing was descriptive to the point of being distracting and the characters didn't pull me in as much as I would have liked.

This book was a let down for me and I chose to not finish it. I think someone else’s review was spot on explaining it as having an identity crisis. Difficult to understand what type of book it was supposed to be. It definitely screams more about a mentally unwell teen than just someone who is anxious.

Vapid and confusing, The Absolutes suffers from a case of identity crisis: is this meant to be a literary character study? A mafia romance? Or an erotic thriller? I'm all for mixing highbrow and lowbrow material, but the author seems to have no clue what kind of audience she is writing for.

The initial setting has my attention: Turin during the 2006 Winter Olympics. I enjoy its specificity, especially being a time frame/event I don't encounter often in fiction. It is too bad the novel quickly moves pass this and settles on something generic and common (yet another story taking place in Manhattan). Even though it is told in first person, the writing is hollow and meandering, overly emphasizing atmospheric prose rather than stating anything substantial. It's ironic when the story is about a woman's fatalistic obsession towards a mysterious Italian, yet the only feeling I got was this is one of the most emotionally empty telling I've read in a long while.

The marketing pitch calls it "A moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric novel ", making me question if I have picked up the wrong book, as I experienced none of those adjectives. The Absolutes is like a self-proclaimed 'art film' that's obsessed with gimmick, but contains no substance. The writing tries to be avant-garde and censorial, but ends up with characters spitting out overly processed, stilted dialogs. It tries to be 'edgy' by toying with BDSM concept and the role of dom/sub, but Fifty Shades and dark romances dive deeper and hold more raw, emotional punches. Even the protagonist herself is murky shadow, poorly realized and incomprehensible — piling on a bunch of human flaws (sexual confusion/frustration, loss of identity, eating disorder) does not a relatable character make.

Oftentimes, even when a novel has limited mainstream appeal, I can still see it being favored by certain niche readers; unfortunately I can't say the same for The Absolutes: too pretentious as literary fiction readers, too emotionally stunted for romance readers, and too timid for erotica readers. Ya... not sure about this one...

I had such high hopes for this book. I find it hard to understand what was the point of it. In my opinion, this book is not a study of desire but about the study of someone in need of mental help. The story is simply infuriating; it promises so much but delivers very little.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me a copy to read I enjoyed the book but I wouldn’t go out and purchase. I would rate it 3/5 stars.

I’m not sure what to think about this book. It’s haunting, it’s confusing, and it depressed me. I didn’t like any of the characters, they just had no redeeming qualities.

Nora meets Nicola when she’s a teen visiting a relative in Italy. She becomes obsessed with him to the point of utter ridiculousness. When their paths cross later in life, she resumes her fascination with him even though he’s married and she’s in a committed relationship. Nicola treats her horribly and she allows it. In a way, this book glamorizes abuse and I can’t tolerate that.

In short, this wasn’t a book I enjoyed, though I’m sure it appeals to some. I give it 3 stars. Thank you, NetGalley and Mariner Books for the advanced copy.

Did not finish. The tone overall felt morose and uninteresting (perhaps because I had recently finished reading My Dark Vanessa, so my experience of The Absolutes may be biased).

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

Maybe you just have to be a woman who's been obsessed with a man to the point of total debasement to fully appreciate Molly Dektar's “The Absolutes,” though I would think even such a woman would find her patience tested by Dektar’s Nora, who continues to be obsessed with a man who would have her believe, like Michael Corleone claimed to Kay, that he’s different from his gangster-like father but increasingly shows himself to be cut from the same cloth. Not exactly showing different stripes, for instance, when he pushes Nora into watching him have sex with another woman and even physically abuses her. Enough, you'd think, to have her hightailing it out the door, yet she persists so unwaveringly in her obsession as to put me in mind of another such novel I read some years ago in which a woman is similarly taken with a man so vile that he urinates on her and ends up killing her. And there was Muriel Davidson’s novel of a few years back, "The Thursday Woman," in which a woman becomes obsessed enough by a man on trial for murder that she gets herself involved with him to no good end. So perhaps more understandable to some women than I might think, such extremity of attraction, though as a male who’s always tried to do right by women I couldn’t help finding Nora’s obsession increasingly exasperating and, frankly, something of a chore to read. Still, the novel is extremely well-written (it’s what kept me turning pages) and on that count anyway I can recommend it to anyone whose tastes run to literary fiction. Just be forewarned that it is very much a literary novel and not, as you might be led to think from some of the blurbs about it, also something of a woman-in-peril story in the way of still another novel I read a few years back in which a new bride is puzzled enough by her new husband's aversion to his family – he won't even introduce them to her -- that she seeks them out on her own and provokes an admittedly unrealistic but nevertheless dramatically satisfying climax. No such dramatically satisfying resolution, however, to Dektar’s depiction of unrelenting obsession.

This was just the type of book I needed to escape the winter blues. I loved the NYC and Italy settings. The character of Nora was interesting to read about - heartbreaking at times but also intriguing. Dektar writes in a descriptive way and I was all for it. I'm giving it five stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for the purpose of this review.

An interesting story full of twists, turns, fun characters and overall a book I would consider reading time and time again.