Clandestine Confessions

A gripping, dazzling and insightful novel about rape, trauma self-destruction and fighting spirit.

Nina Holden’s debut novel, Clandestine Confessions, is heartwarming and heart-wrenching at the same time. The author’s forthright, though sensitive portrayal of a young woman’s plight makes for an extremely rewarding read.

Elize Carlier is an intelligent girl whom everyone expects to go to college after she graduates from high school. However, Elize has always dreamed of discovering the world so she applies for a job abroad and finds one in a hotel on a Caribbean island.

One Friday evening, a repairman comes over to fix the sink in her kitchen and he rapes her. She reports the crime to the police but they do not help her. Elize is afraid to tell her colleagues what has happened because they all know the man who assaulted her and she fears they will not believe that he is capable of committing such an awful deed. In fact, it was the bellboy at the hotel where she works who introduced her to the rapist.

Elize decides to try to forget the incident but after her season in the Caribbean has ended, she feels forced to keep traveling because she does not want to confide in her family and due to her hypersensitive behavior they may become suspicious.

Eventually Elize ends up working in a hotel in Greece, where she meets Claudio with whom she begins a relationship, hoping that being with another man will free her from the rapist’s ghost that follows her wherever she goes. Although to the outer world Claudio appears to be the perfect gentleman, he demands that Elize just gets over the rape, even though the memory of it is often triggered. His abuse escalates, but when she truly cannot endure it anymore, Elize finds the strength to leave him. But she has still to meet the many challenges that lie ahead.

This powerful well written novel clearly depicts how trauma and haunting memories can alter the course of someone’s life completely and take full control of it. Elize can run, but never hide. She is forced to look trauma right in the face, which is paralyzing but eventually rewarding. The reader is left feeling uplifted. Elize meets the challenge to fight her demons and obtains a business degree. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but your past moulds you. It is a part of who you are. Clandestine Confessions is a book I highly recommend.

E-mail this page

Printer-friendly page