Review: Like A Thorn by: Clara Vidal

       As a young child Mélie is unsure of how to cope with her mothers moods and is unable to communicate with her oblivious father.  In turn Mélie performs "rituals," obsessive compulsive tendencies, in order to protect herself.  She develops this magical thinking in order to keep "Dark Mother" (bad moods) away and "Rosy Mother" (good moods) by her side.  From the first few pages we begin to see these seemingly small disturbing elements.  As the book continues and Mélie grows they quickly escalate into severe ocd and depression (among other things).

       In terms of who the reader is meant to sympathize with the narrator is definitely on Mélie's side.  But as the story progresses and we read about Mélie mother I had a tough time determining whether Mélie's mental disturbances were truly the result of "bad parenting," which seems to be heavily implied throughout the novel.  Mélie's mother is definitely a woman with selfish tenancies, she is the type of mother who constantly makes her child feel like an burden (err or like a thorn)...but I asked myself...is that enough?  Enough to push this child over the edge?  Or is there something more, are we as the reader supposed to take Mélie's mental disturbance as the product of her mothers behavior and her genetics as well?  Is her mothers behavior consistently mean and catty, or are we getting a few carefully selected incidents?  Or are we simply reading about a mentally disturbed girl who perceieves her mothers behavior differently than the rest of us would?  I would have loved to read more about Mélie's mother and  read both sides of the story.   

      The ending of the novel left me wanting more, more, more.  Which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  Good because I was interested in Mélie, I was invested in her story and I wanted to read more about her.  Bad because the ending was rushed and left me unconvinced and wanting more.

      All in all, this is a strange and lovely little book.  Vidal's writing is faerie tale like and poetic.  I couldn't help but feel as if there was a strong Snow White-esque influence to Mélie story (but with a suburban housewife instead of a wicked queen!)  There were some interesting bits about jealousy between mother and daughter, jealousies of youth and beauty.  Resentment for a life that has been lived and the freshness of Mélie's youth.  Like A Thorn is an interesting look at mental illness and child abuse, which at its whopping 119 pages, was surprisingly effective!  

      As far a I know this if Clara Vidal's first and only novel (translated from French).  But I will eagerly await her next book to see what other disturbing modern faerie tales she can create! :)