What do you think?
Rate this book
Dirty Weekend
"Bella woke up one morning and realized she'd had enough." So begins the triumphant tale of one woman's personal vendetta against a world of peeping toms, rapists, and obscene phone-callers.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
About the author
Helen Zahavi
6 books15 followersHelen Zahavi is a British novelist who worked as a Russian-English translator before becoming a writer.
Her first novel, Dirty Weekend (1991), is about a young woman who is tormented by a predatory neighbour until she finally has enough. So with a smile on her lips and a gun in her hand she goes out in the night and kills seven perverts in two days.
The book caused a media storm on publication and critical reaction was extreme and polarised. A half-page article in The Sunday Times questioning the book's morality and the author's sanity set the tone for much of the press comment that followed. The novel was attacked by Salman Rushdie, defended by Naomi Wolf, and analysed at length in both the broadsheet and popular press.
Despite - or perhaps because of - the controversy, the book went on to become an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Czech and Korean. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and adapted into a film by Michael Winner, the director of Death Wish. Helen Zahavi has a screen credit as co-writer.
She has written two further novels, True Romance (1994) and Donna And The Fatman (1998), both of which have been widely reviewed and translated.
Her first novel, Dirty Weekend (1991), is about a young woman who is tormented by a predatory neighbour until she finally has enough. So with a smile on her lips and a gun in her hand she goes out in the night and kills seven perverts in two days.
The book caused a media storm on publication and critical reaction was extreme and polarised. A half-page article in The Sunday Times questioning the book's morality and the author's sanity set the tone for much of the press comment that followed. The novel was attacked by Salman Rushdie, defended by Naomi Wolf, and analysed at length in both the broadsheet and popular press.
Despite - or perhaps because of - the controversy, the book went on to become an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Czech and Korean. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and adapted into a film by Michael Winner, the director of Death Wish. Helen Zahavi has a screen credit as co-writer.
She has written two further novels, True Romance (1994) and Donna And The Fatman (1998), both of which have been widely reviewed and translated.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews
May 12, 2007
This is THE BEST post-break-up book ever.
April 16, 2020
Apparently, Dirty Weekend caused a stir on its publication in 1991. It tells the story of a young woman called Bella, who one day – having been stalked by a neighbour for weeks – snaps and decides she's 'had enough'. She proceeds to go on a killing spree, targeting abusive and misogynistic men, which basically seems to be every man she comes across. The scenes of rape, assault and murder are grubby and lurid, the deaths come thick and fast, and Bella's ability to get away with it is far-fetched to say the least; all in all, the book comes off as a sort of feminist American Psycho. (This and Psycho were published in the same year, but I can't find an exact date for Dirty Weekend, so I'm not sure whether it could've been a response to Ellis's novel.) It's easy to see why it would have been controversial.
At first, I wondered if this might turn out to be one of those 90s books (like In the Cut) that would be ripe for reissuing, but it quickly becomes apparent how badly it's aged; for one thing, there's a lot of casual racism. The style irritated me to the point of distraction; there's so much repetition I felt like I'd had to read everything twice. (This is genuinely a typical pair of sentences: 'It wasn't so bad when autumn came. When autumn came it wasn't so bad.') Another problem is the omniscient narration, which denies Bella any sense of interiority. Occasionally there's a funny line: 'to [Bella] all dogs are male... they are the natural fascists of the animal world'. Occasionally there's a powerful one, like the part about how doing 'penance to society' isn't an adequate punishment for rape: 'They haven't made society too scared to walk the streets. It's not society they've scarred.' That feels like a bit of real anger glinting out from behind the cartoon violence – yet it comes from the narrator and not from Bella herself, who never really becomes more than an empty symbol.
Definitely interesting, but pretty dated now, and (ironically?) would've been a lot better if it had allowed its main character to have more of a voice.
TinyLetter
At first, I wondered if this might turn out to be one of those 90s books (like In the Cut) that would be ripe for reissuing, but it quickly becomes apparent how badly it's aged; for one thing, there's a lot of casual racism. The style irritated me to the point of distraction; there's so much repetition I felt like I'd had to read everything twice. (This is genuinely a typical pair of sentences: 'It wasn't so bad when autumn came. When autumn came it wasn't so bad.') Another problem is the omniscient narration, which denies Bella any sense of interiority. Occasionally there's a funny line: 'to [Bella] all dogs are male... they are the natural fascists of the animal world'. Occasionally there's a powerful one, like the part about how doing 'penance to society' isn't an adequate punishment for rape: 'They haven't made society too scared to walk the streets. It's not society they've scarred.' That feels like a bit of real anger glinting out from behind the cartoon violence – yet it comes from the narrator and not from Bella herself, who never really becomes more than an empty symbol.
Definitely interesting, but pretty dated now, and (ironically?) would've been a lot better if it had allowed its main character to have more of a voice.
TinyLetter
July 30, 2020
Dirty Weekend by Helen Zahavi was a familiar sight on the London underground when it came out in 1991. I was inspired to finally read it, twenty years on, having noticed that The Curiously Specific Podcast had done an episode about it, and I wanted to listen to the podcast having read the book. Needless to say the podcast is a great listen. It adds more interest and humour to the reading experience.
Dirty Weekend is a well written, deadpan revenge noir, which features plenty of unapologetic violence, that won't be to everyone's taste. It was a few decades ahead of its time.
Bella, our protagonist, credibly and powerfully describes how an intelligent and stable person develops low self esteem, and how that feels. I was beguiled by Bella, the everywoman who has had enough of the daily humiliation meted out by men.
Dirty Weekend is written in a stocato, somewhat repetitive, style which works really well with the content, and is an interesting counterpoint to the graphic violence. It's no surprise that Michael Winner chose to make a film adaptation.
The Brighton setting, a place I know very well, only added to my enjoyment.
The book was very divisive when it came out. Some reviewers loved it, some hated it. Perhaps those in the latter category had never encountered exploitation type fiction before? Either way, it seems relatively tame by modern standards.
4/5
Dirty Weekend is a well written, deadpan revenge noir, which features plenty of unapologetic violence, that won't be to everyone's taste. It was a few decades ahead of its time.
Bella, our protagonist, credibly and powerfully describes how an intelligent and stable person develops low self esteem, and how that feels. I was beguiled by Bella, the everywoman who has had enough of the daily humiliation meted out by men.
Dirty Weekend is written in a stocato, somewhat repetitive, style which works really well with the content, and is an interesting counterpoint to the graphic violence. It's no surprise that Michael Winner chose to make a film adaptation.
The Brighton setting, a place I know very well, only added to my enjoyment.
The book was very divisive when it came out. Some reviewers loved it, some hated it. Perhaps those in the latter category had never encountered exploitation type fiction before? Either way, it seems relatively tame by modern standards.
4/5
October 1, 2010
I remembered I read this one when it came out and now looking at the GR reviews, I confess I'm a little surprised at all the high-fives proffered by the female reviewers. Because Dirty Weekend is right there with I Spit on your Grave or Last House on the Left or Baise-Moi, all those rape revenge movies that got trashed by all the critics and are generally hated by women for pretty good reasons. So I wonder if the reviewers here like those movies. And I do think you can compare Dirty Weekend the book with those movies because Dirty Weekend is not to be described as literature in any way, shape or form, it's one of those books which say "Film Me Please" on every page.
(Which Michael Winner did. By a man's friends ye shall know him.)
(Which Michael Winner did. By a man's friends ye shall know him.)
April 7, 2011
This is strong, provocative fiction whose style is reminiscent of the writers Gordon Lish (e.g., Peru, Dear Mr. Capote), early Jenny Diski (e.g., Nothing Natural) and Andrea Dworkin (Mercy, Ice and Fire), in terms of its honesty to consider and portray ugly realities and truths through the experiences of their female characters and the chameleon forms of violence perpetrated against women. Dirty Weekend, an account of 48 hours of violence against one woman, and her retributions, is by turns bizarre, poignant, powerful and empathetic.
From the outset, the story of Bella takes on the level of a fable or parable. By the opening pages, she has already been threatened with sexual violence by a man who lives opposite her. He promises to pour acid on her skin. But then 'Fate found Bella one night ... and whispered in her ear. And when she woke up, she knew she'd had enough'. It is from this point that she is empowered; no longer wishing to remain persecuted and victimised by the ignorance and violence so common in so many men. She decides, with the help of a mystic, that - since men seem only to view her as a victim - she is unable to at least act even as a bystander and avoid their glare, so concludes that she has no other choice than to take action.
In a series of explicitly and clinically described episodes, Bella enacts her ideas of retribution upon one violent man after another. If these extreme scenes are powerful, it is because of the brutal honesty in the evocation of Bella's pain and outrage, and the attitudes of the men that only wish to threaten and oppress any iota of self-regard that she may have.
It is an uncompromising novel, working as it does within the ugly, hypocritical shadows that our supposedly moral society casts. Occasionally cliches do spill over the overall quality of the writing, yet Zahavi's strength - to be celebrated, and foolish, if not impossible to deny - is in her fluidity and razor-blade precision to evoke a dark vision; a sinister fable-like version of feminist understanding and empowerment.
From the outset, the story of Bella takes on the level of a fable or parable. By the opening pages, she has already been threatened with sexual violence by a man who lives opposite her. He promises to pour acid on her skin. But then 'Fate found Bella one night ... and whispered in her ear. And when she woke up, she knew she'd had enough'. It is from this point that she is empowered; no longer wishing to remain persecuted and victimised by the ignorance and violence so common in so many men. She decides, with the help of a mystic, that - since men seem only to view her as a victim - she is unable to at least act even as a bystander and avoid their glare, so concludes that she has no other choice than to take action.
In a series of explicitly and clinically described episodes, Bella enacts her ideas of retribution upon one violent man after another. If these extreme scenes are powerful, it is because of the brutal honesty in the evocation of Bella's pain and outrage, and the attitudes of the men that only wish to threaten and oppress any iota of self-regard that she may have.
It is an uncompromising novel, working as it does within the ugly, hypocritical shadows that our supposedly moral society casts. Occasionally cliches do spill over the overall quality of the writing, yet Zahavi's strength - to be celebrated, and foolish, if not impossible to deny - is in her fluidity and razor-blade precision to evoke a dark vision; a sinister fable-like version of feminist understanding and empowerment.
February 5, 2021
This is like reading the female version of a Chuck Norris revenge movie. Are Bela's criminal acts defensible? Marginally, if at all. Is she a model of moral propriety? Heck, no. But for everyone who has ever been cat-called, stalked, molested or goddess forbid, raped, this book is like a cleansing tonic, an opportunity to live out your violent revenge fantasies. The subtitle of the book is "A Novel of Revenge," after all.
Here's a quote:
"She was too nice. She was just too nice. Niceness had always been her undoing. People take advantage of you, if you're nice. They hit you in the mouth with the heel of their shoe. They think they'll get away with it, because they know that you're nice.
"A lot of the world's trouble is caused by nice people. If they weren't so nice, no-one would hit them. And if they didn't get hit, they wouldn't hit back. Which would be a good thing, because when a nice person hits back, she hits back hard.
"Logically, she should wear a sign, saying: The woman is vicious. If attacked, she will retaliate."
Strongly recommended for anyone who likes a remorseless, avenging angel.
Here's a quote:
"She was too nice. She was just too nice. Niceness had always been her undoing. People take advantage of you, if you're nice. They hit you in the mouth with the heel of their shoe. They think they'll get away with it, because they know that you're nice.
"A lot of the world's trouble is caused by nice people. If they weren't so nice, no-one would hit them. And if they didn't get hit, they wouldn't hit back. Which would be a good thing, because when a nice person hits back, she hits back hard.
"Logically, she should wear a sign, saying: The woman is vicious. If attacked, she will retaliate."
Strongly recommended for anyone who likes a remorseless, avenging angel.
October 28, 2022
Featuring a protagonist who is 'bad at life,' this text attempts to lay down the rule followed by lumpenized antisocial nihilists: 'these are the rules. And they are not arbitrary.'
When one lives "an abortion of a life," it's fair to say that one is 'detached' and can't 'see things as they are'--lumpenization is foundation only for the superstructures of alienation and epistemological failure, i.e., false consciousness. The protagonist's false consciousness orients around religion: 'she must have sinned in a previous life.' Because she must be punished, she 'knows that she's never had any rights. Rights are fiction. Rights don't exist.' It's the normal roll call of fascist belief. Her implicit fascism leaks out at various places, such as using immigrant status as an insult and referring to a potential assailant as untermensch. Adopting the ideology of the self-oriented survivor, she resolves 'Cut out my heart and put a stone in its place.' Though she states that 'there's nothing underneath' to find if the layers are peeled off, her beliefs seem identical to those fascistic assailants against whom her efforts are directed.
The narrator comments on the protagonist's character and conduct throughout--it's difficult to know when it's ironic or not: 'God bless you, Bella. God bless you for reclaiming the night.' Often she acts against gender as a group, rather against a particular offender, just as her assailants act against gender as a group in the other direction--an application of collective responsibility doctrine that is of course always wrong.
None of the protagonist's interlocutors are particularly sympathetic; the several who do not assault her nevertheless lose credibility in other ways. Most of them share the belief that 'they made [me] do it.' The protagonist also uses this idea at times--her violence is a necessary pre-emption when it is not immediately deterrent or strictly retributive. That her violence is disproportionate is less the point than the fact it is so commonplace in the text, and but for the restraint of victims of sexual offenses, there would be these sort of reprisals taken regularly.
The question for me becomes whether the gender regime depicted here is intrinsically or merely incidentally lumpenizing.
Recommended for bolshie penises, illusory Boadiceas, and readers who itch for lepers to come along.
When one lives "an abortion of a life," it's fair to say that one is 'detached' and can't 'see things as they are'--lumpenization is foundation only for the superstructures of alienation and epistemological failure, i.e., false consciousness. The protagonist's false consciousness orients around religion: 'she must have sinned in a previous life.' Because she must be punished, she 'knows that she's never had any rights. Rights are fiction. Rights don't exist.' It's the normal roll call of fascist belief. Her implicit fascism leaks out at various places, such as using immigrant status as an insult and referring to a potential assailant as untermensch. Adopting the ideology of the self-oriented survivor, she resolves 'Cut out my heart and put a stone in its place.' Though she states that 'there's nothing underneath' to find if the layers are peeled off, her beliefs seem identical to those fascistic assailants against whom her efforts are directed.
The narrator comments on the protagonist's character and conduct throughout--it's difficult to know when it's ironic or not: 'God bless you, Bella. God bless you for reclaiming the night.' Often she acts against gender as a group, rather against a particular offender, just as her assailants act against gender as a group in the other direction--an application of collective responsibility doctrine that is of course always wrong.
None of the protagonist's interlocutors are particularly sympathetic; the several who do not assault her nevertheless lose credibility in other ways. Most of them share the belief that 'they made [me] do it.' The protagonist also uses this idea at times--her violence is a necessary pre-emption when it is not immediately deterrent or strictly retributive. That her violence is disproportionate is less the point than the fact it is so commonplace in the text, and but for the restraint of victims of sexual offenses, there would be these sort of reprisals taken regularly.
The question for me becomes whether the gender regime depicted here is intrinsically or merely incidentally lumpenizing.
Recommended for bolshie penises, illusory Boadiceas, and readers who itch for lepers to come along.
December 6, 2008
one of the best feminist books EVER. revenge fantasy but with a plausibly awkward, angry & not-superhuman protagonist. read read read.
May 15, 2016
'There are certain laws of nature, she reflect, certain iron laws, that you flout at your peril. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Men with thin skulls shouldn't try to to involve randomly selected women in their fantasies'
I stumbled upon this book in a list of 'feminist' books to read. While a murderous rampage slaughtering rapists and creeps may not appeal to the sensibilities of every feminist, I loved it. Little is said about the rage that lies beneath the intense socialisation of women to be polite in every situation and to automatically respond with passivity and conscientiousness. The extreme violence of the novel is a cathartic release of what happens when Bella, our everywoman, has had enough. She looks men in eye and makes corny jokes knowing that she has a gun in her handbag. Zahavi riffs on Bella 'reclaiming the night' by being armed and her style has the brash humour of Irvine Welsh. Welsh's recent effort to portray female violence in 'The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins' is laughably limited compared to Dirty Weekend by a patriarchal view that limits the rage of women to ex-boyfriends and uses the societal pressure placed on women to create a lame satire on the dieting industry. Zahavi gets straight to the point in a series of scenes that push the limits of violence but never depart from the truth that they originate from: the embarrassment of a sexual failure that spirals into violence, the ramblings of an attacker about the difference between 'good women' and sluts, the vulnerability of heels clacking in a deserted car park.
PTSD studies routinely compare the prevalence of trauma for women in the general population with war veterans on the basis of the similar level of violence that women are exposed to in society compared to men that have seen combat. Zahavi strips back gender politics to the sheer physicality that they entail. Men can physically overpower women and this makes women vulnerable. When Bella ventures out late at night she is entering a war zone where women are killed. When she lives alone her world can be shattered by the man watching across the street. Zahavi uses her pantomime scenes of blood and semen to name and attack the fear women have walking home in the dark with set of keys clenched in their fist. Walk into any self-defence class and you'll see the fear of Bellas who have never been taught to fight by their fathers and have never even been told that they can shout back in the face of the most extreme injustice and oppression.
This novel has very little literary merit, the style is amateurish in a way that adds to its charm with clumsy prose that seems so excited to keep up with the heroine that it forgets itself, but it was the most entertaining novel that I've read in a long time. It has the appeal that only ferocious women can have. It's Patti Smith spitting on stage. It's Germain Greer topless in a magazine. It's Kim Deal purring 'Happiness is a warm gun'. What it is not is Emma Watson politely asking the UN to consider women as equals. It is not a consent workshop earnestly explaining what sexual assault is in the hope that men assault women out of ignorance. Where those aspects of feminism have their place, and as someone vehemently opposes violence, 'Dirty Weekend' is an exhilarating war cry against passivity and a riotously enjoyable one at that.
I stumbled upon this book in a list of 'feminist' books to read. While a murderous rampage slaughtering rapists and creeps may not appeal to the sensibilities of every feminist, I loved it. Little is said about the rage that lies beneath the intense socialisation of women to be polite in every situation and to automatically respond with passivity and conscientiousness. The extreme violence of the novel is a cathartic release of what happens when Bella, our everywoman, has had enough. She looks men in eye and makes corny jokes knowing that she has a gun in her handbag. Zahavi riffs on Bella 'reclaiming the night' by being armed and her style has the brash humour of Irvine Welsh. Welsh's recent effort to portray female violence in 'The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins' is laughably limited compared to Dirty Weekend by a patriarchal view that limits the rage of women to ex-boyfriends and uses the societal pressure placed on women to create a lame satire on the dieting industry. Zahavi gets straight to the point in a series of scenes that push the limits of violence but never depart from the truth that they originate from: the embarrassment of a sexual failure that spirals into violence, the ramblings of an attacker about the difference between 'good women' and sluts, the vulnerability of heels clacking in a deserted car park.
PTSD studies routinely compare the prevalence of trauma for women in the general population with war veterans on the basis of the similar level of violence that women are exposed to in society compared to men that have seen combat. Zahavi strips back gender politics to the sheer physicality that they entail. Men can physically overpower women and this makes women vulnerable. When Bella ventures out late at night she is entering a war zone where women are killed. When she lives alone her world can be shattered by the man watching across the street. Zahavi uses her pantomime scenes of blood and semen to name and attack the fear women have walking home in the dark with set of keys clenched in their fist. Walk into any self-defence class and you'll see the fear of Bellas who have never been taught to fight by their fathers and have never even been told that they can shout back in the face of the most extreme injustice and oppression.
This novel has very little literary merit, the style is amateurish in a way that adds to its charm with clumsy prose that seems so excited to keep up with the heroine that it forgets itself, but it was the most entertaining novel that I've read in a long time. It has the appeal that only ferocious women can have. It's Patti Smith spitting on stage. It's Germain Greer topless in a magazine. It's Kim Deal purring 'Happiness is a warm gun'. What it is not is Emma Watson politely asking the UN to consider women as equals. It is not a consent workshop earnestly explaining what sexual assault is in the hope that men assault women out of ignorance. Where those aspects of feminism have their place, and as someone vehemently opposes violence, 'Dirty Weekend' is an exhilarating war cry against passivity and a riotously enjoyable one at that.
August 1, 2008
It says something that the author was able to get the hippyest, dippyest, non-violent, anti-vigilantism chick in the world to cheer on each scene where Bella exacted revenge on her attackers. Also, I have never really been into guns, but this book powerfully made the argument that the only thing that can put men and women on equal footing in this world is a gun. A a big helping of rage doesn't hurt either.
There was a discussion of whether we should warn men that we'll strike back if they strike us. Is it fair to change the power structure and not warn them? Or, if we warn them, does it take away all the advantage we can hope for?
The prose in this book was. . . direct. I read all 187 pages in about three hours. The last line chilled me. and made me yell, "You GO, Bella!"
I can't decide about whather I'd recommend this book to men. In some sense I would, just to impress upon them the feeling of powerlessness that can overwhelm a woman's life. I'm no Bella, but I've been peeping-tommed, flashed, yelled at on the street, and it would be nice for the other half of the population to know what it's like to experience the same vulnerability on a daily basis. It certainly isn't a waste of time ot read it since it's so quick. Oh, and in case you couldn't tell by this and other reviews, it's got very adult material.
This, to me, was kind of like a declaration of rights for women... in the 21st century.
There was a discussion of whether we should warn men that we'll strike back if they strike us. Is it fair to change the power structure and not warn them? Or, if we warn them, does it take away all the advantage we can hope for?
The prose in this book was. . . direct. I read all 187 pages in about three hours. The last line chilled me. and made me yell, "You GO, Bella!"
I can't decide about whather I'd recommend this book to men. In some sense I would, just to impress upon them the feeling of powerlessness that can overwhelm a woman's life. I'm no Bella, but I've been peeping-tommed, flashed, yelled at on the street, and it would be nice for the other half of the population to know what it's like to experience the same vulnerability on a daily basis. It certainly isn't a waste of time ot read it since it's so quick. Oh, and in case you couldn't tell by this and other reviews, it's got very adult material.
This, to me, was kind of like a declaration of rights for women... in the 21st century.
March 28, 2010
a wonderful and empowering book, for when you have had enough
January 19, 2021
"Si vous voyez une femme marcher, si elle rentre tranquillement chez elle, si vous la voyez passer sans bruit devant vous sur le trottoir. Si vous avez envie de briser ses os fragiles, si vous avez envie d'entendre ses supplications désespérées, si vous avez envie de sentir la peau rose se contusionner, et si vous avez envie de goûter la peau tendue qui saigne. Réfléchissez. Ne la touchez pas. Laissez-la poursuivre son chemin. Ne plaquez pas votre main sur sa bouche et ne la jetez pas à terre. Car sans le savoir, sans réfléchir, sans le vouloir, vous aurez peut-être posé votre grosse main sur Bella. Or, elle s'est réveillée ce matin et s'est aperçue qu'elle n'en pouvait plus."
Quand Despentes disait que les hommes arrêteraient de violer quand ils auraient peur de se prendre un coup d'opinel dans le bide, elle pensait sûrement à ce bouquin. Une lecture incroyable, violente, incroyablement violente. Les agressions (et viols) sont explicites, ça tord les boyaux et ça fait pleurer mais les bourreaux finissent tous par manger les pissenlits par la racine. C'est Sweet/Vicious sous stéroïdes. Aussi dérangeante soit cette lecture, elle a eu sur moi un effet cathartique. On aurait toutes aimé avoir eu le cran d'une Bella un jour.
Quand Despentes disait que les hommes arrêteraient de violer quand ils auraient peur de se prendre un coup d'opinel dans le bide, elle pensait sûrement à ce bouquin. Une lecture incroyable, violente, incroyablement violente. Les agressions (et viols) sont explicites, ça tord les boyaux et ça fait pleurer mais les bourreaux finissent tous par manger les pissenlits par la racine. C'est Sweet/Vicious sous stéroïdes. Aussi dérangeante soit cette lecture, elle a eu sur moi un effet cathartique. On aurait toutes aimé avoir eu le cran d'une Bella un jour.
April 7, 2019
Achat impulsif guidé par un titre accrocheur et un résumé intriguant, ce roman est sûrement la plus belle découverte que j'ai faite récemment. C'est dérageant mais passionnant ! Âme sensible s'abstenir ! Certains passages sont violents et arrachent des "aaah" de dégoût mais quelle histoire ! J'ai adoré le combat de cette jeune femme contre les hommes irrespectueux, misogynes, violents et violeurs. L'héroïne badass parfaite !
July 7, 2016
*mwahahahaha*
December 24, 2019
Paru initialement en 1991 ce roman fit scandale en Grande-Bretagne où il fut censuré. Jugez plutôt : Bella, dont la vie végète dans la médiocrité et la soumission pète un jour une (grosse) durite et parcourt les rues de Brighton pour dézinguer tous les hommes qui l'insupportent. Violent, sombre, rôle et résolument subversif.
September 20, 2023
I originally read this translated, much as I expected it hits even harder in original language.
April 22, 2024
Ce livre a mal vieilli je trouve. La nana se venge de son passé de meuf violentée, en tuant des hommes, et j’ai beaucoup aimé le changement dans son attitude et la description de son intérieur. Mais dommage qu’elle soit raciste, lol, c’était choquant. Et à la fin, ça devenait très répétitif, à vrai dire j’ai pas lu les 5 dernières pages car l’héroïne devenait détestable.
September 21, 2015
To use a cliché, this book is like a punch in the jaw. This has been used to describe books good and bad in my opinion and this one represents the good. Bella's revenge is of the kind where you know you should avert your eyes, but you can't. I realize that this book is nearing 25 years now, and it may be tame in comparison, but in the early 90's it really packed a punch.
August 8, 2010
When I read this the first time in 1994, it was atually entitled "The Weekend". I fell in love with it instantly and have read many times over the last few years. Every woman has a Bella inside, I feel.
April 1, 2012
Finally, a thoroughly satisfying story of a woman's revenge. Flawless heroine, superquotable writing, and a straight, unnuanced, despotic social message. Don't agree with it? Offended by it? Well, fuck you.
October 10, 2007
Amazing feminist revenge fantasy. But be forewarned, there is more hardcore violence in this book than in any Tarantino movie.
May 16, 2023
4.5 soooo good
June 25, 2024
Masterclass misandre très cathartique parce que malheureusement je ne peux pas faire comme Bella. J’ai adoré l’accompagner dans ses meurtres d’hommes et dans son état d’esprit hyper singulier.
Il y a plusieurs livres sortis dernièrement dont le sujet est similaire mais pour le coup celui ci est vraiment très bien écrit et palpitant.
Attention âme sensible s’abstenir : c’est très graphique et trash
Attention homme sensible s’abstenir : ce livre n’est pas pour toi
Il y a plusieurs livres sortis dernièrement dont le sujet est similaire mais pour le coup celui ci est vraiment très bien écrit et palpitant.
Attention âme sensible s’abstenir : c’est très graphique et trash
Attention homme sensible s’abstenir : ce livre n’est pas pour toi
September 15, 2023
DUDEEEEEEEEEE
June 30, 2024
Un bouquin comme un coup de poing en plein face, pas tellement par le traitement du sujet, que par cette écriture qui prend aux tripes dès les premières lignes et qui ne vous lâche pas.
October 1, 2013
I really thought this book was going to be something psychologically fantastic and deep but really all I felt it resulted in being was vulgar and violent. It’s a dark book but it doesn’t really come up with anything profound. Bella is a muddled up and lonely girl who always finds herself the underdog. She is in her dingy little basement flat in Brighton when she discovers she is being watched by a pervy and dangerous guy over the road who begins to phone her, follow her and threaten her. But this time Bella has had enough and rather than cower and hide and be the timid creature she climbs into his bedroom and pummels him to death with a hammer. From here the book just turns into a killing spree. She buys herself a gun and just seems to lose the plot. Mind you, I think I’d lose the plot if I encountered the awful dangerous and perverted characters she does, one after the other. I know Brighton may have the odd weirdo (doesn’t everywhere) but to believe that one person can encounter so many people one after the other that want to attack, rape and murder her is thankfully just not possible! A horrible book really with no purpose that I could draw from it apart from to be shocking for shock sake.
August 4, 2011
Well :) let's start by saying that the book is naughty. Very naughty. But not in the porn romantic kinda way you see in the soap opera books,or how do u call them, but in a veryyy veryyy dirty way indeed. The title speaks for itself. If I would write a book right know, it would probably be in the way Zahabi did it, a bit chaotic, a bit meditative, a bit like a mind, that speaks out, a story-teller that is watching behing the dirty dirty scenes. The idea itself of the book striked me as a very odd one, something new to me. Bella, is a very brittle little woman, always a victim of men's abuse and pain. So she takes the matter in her own hands, litterally. Reading the book was a total agitated excitement, I felt it close to heart, again because of the author's way of writing a bit "all over the place".
What really impressed me was the end :) I am not going to spoil it for you, but it made the book worth it, a lot.
What really impressed me was the end :) I am not going to spoil it for you, but it made the book worth it, a lot.
May 14, 2016
Nice bit of revenge fantasy as Bella kills first the peeping-tom/obscene phone caller who threatens her and then proceeds to take out six other men who attack her. Although perhaps it is too easy because all of the men that Bella kills have it coming, so everything is structured in a way that the pleasure is found in her taking the revenge we want her to take. Still this is a rare book, the woman as avenger. The power is in the point of view. No deep characterization of Bella here, however. In the beginning Bella is messed with and flips from hunted to hunter. And after that she functions more as a symbolic rather than specific character. The style is unique, with a strong incant, but the repetition is overused, and loses its power as the novel progresses.
June 29, 2007
I picked this up in B&N's bargain bin when I was in college, almost 10 years ago. This is one of my favorite books probably because at the time I'd never read anything like it. I've read it a few times over the years and each time it gets my fist pumping in the air, "You go girl with your badass self." I will always remain distrustful of male dentists.
I even loaned it to my dad and he enjoyed it but admitted he was a little scared of the protag.
I even loaned it to my dad and he enjoyed it but admitted he was a little scared of the protag.
December 26, 2007
This books is just purely good. It plays a movie in your head. It is a book about coming back, reclaiming self, saying "I am . . . respect me . . . stop treating me like I exist only to satisfy your idle needs . . . I am . . . respect me or I will reduce you to the slime that you are. . . ." Thats what this book is about. Read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 177 reviews