Ratings6
Average rating3.5
I found The Exhibitionist to be an enjoyable and compelling read. The story's immediately perceptible rising dread builds throughout the course of this family drama as characters are unleashed. Those who arrive fully formed (primarily Ray, the petulant and abusive patriarch-baby around whom this family orbits) devolve and wither in our hands as an important weekend unfolds. The weakest upon introduction eventually make the most sense; we come to understand them - root for them - as they shed their timidity and live for themselves.
This is not a book I could have left unfinished and the ending did not disappoint. I look forward to reading more work by Charlotte Mendelson. Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC.
Publication date planned for July 4, 2023.
This book was a slog. I felt it was very montonal and the only reason I pushed through it was to see if it got any better. The characters were rather dull and I was really underwhelmed. I had really high hopes but this one just didn't hot any marks for me.
A portrait of a truly dysfunctional family, starting with the patriach Ray Hanrahan, a visual artist past his prime and a total narcissist who, nevertheless, has bullied and manipulated his entire family (wife, children, ex-wife) into cowering beneath his thumb. The action takes place over a single weekend and is based in England but it's story could be replicated anywhere when a single individual, a narcissist to the nth degree, puts his fame and happiness above all else. Not someone I would pick to form the spine of the book and not someone I enjoyed reading about. This one wasn't for me. My thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book.