[b:Magma|56233831|Magma|Þóra Hjörleifsdóttir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1607543557l/56233831._SX50_.jpg|68250282]started out with a funny chapter on chlamydia and a tough attitude in the narrator until she falls for a manipulative guy and sinks into suicidal despair. Her voice is so strong and well suited to the brief vignettes that make up the story, the thread is universal to too many, but I was relieved to have it end. ( )

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This is a short novel but it’s an intense read. It describes how easily an abusive partner can take advantage of a vulnerable victim.

Lilja is a 20-year-old university student in Reykjavík. She becomes involved with a slightly older graduate student, and eventually the two move in together. Theirs is an unhealthy relationship as the unnamed man slowly but repeatedly challenges and then violates her boundaries. Gradually she increasingly substitutes her abuser’s opinions for her own so she disappears: “He’s peeled me like an onion. Surrounded by the leavings of my own sallow skin, I’ve dwindled to nothing, and my eyes smart.”

The book consists of brief vignettes; few chapters are longer than a page. Lilja is the narrator and what she writes reads like diary entries.

Lilja is young and romantically inexperienced. Her first sexual relationship was traumatic, an experience that left her terribly insecure and therefore makes her susceptible to the attentions of a handsome, intelligent charmer.

Though he may be handsome and intelligent, he has few positive traits. He is a total narcissist who believes others should fulfill his desires and he should never have to do anything he doesn’t want to do. Lilja has poor self-esteem whereas her abuser has a superiority complex, believing he is better than everyone else. His upbringing may have something to do with his attitude: his mother comes to clean and do his laundry.

He is also a master manipulator; he works slowly and quietly but persuasively. He is attentive at times but will also belittle her to diminish further her feelings of self-worth. He always compares her to a previous girlfriend and makes comments like, “’You’re really fine, but if you were a bit more of a fighter and bothered to exercise, you’d be a perfect ten.’” He often treats her with indifference so she tries harder to please him. He gets upset when he hears she had previous sexual relationships but he sleeps with multiple women, thereby implying that she must do as he wishes or he’ll leave her. He coerces her to stop smoking by threatening “for every cigarette [she smokes] . . . he’s going to fuck eight women.” He isolates her from her family and friends, who could serve as a support system for her, by complaining that she doesn’t spend enough time with him.

Because Lilja desperately wants love, she becomes emotionally dependent on him. She believes women must make sacrifices for love so she does, though her mental and physical distress when she agrees to some of his demands is obvious. She makes excuses for him and even blames herself: for instance, if she’d been with him one evening, he’d not have slept with another woman. The reader keeps hoping that she’ll leave him. Lilja admits, “The very best thing for me would be to end it with him” but her willpower lasts “For about fifteen minutes.”

The ending can be interpreted as hopeful and I’d like to see it as such, but I fear that she is not strong enough to see her way out of the darkness.

This book can be read in one sitting, but it is an uncomfortable, unsettling read. Nonetheless, I recommend it for its authentic portrayal of a toxic relationship.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

Magma. There could hardly be a better title for this incandescent book. Barely the length of a novella, it can be read in an hour or two. Yet, this account of an abusive relationship hits home and hits hard.

Lilya, a 20-year old university student, falls in love with a young man who seems to have all the attributes of a perfect partner – he is good-looking and intelligent and exudes a relaxed sophistication with his Derrida quotes, Latin studies and committed vegetarianism. Lilya moves in with him, and gradually but increasingly perceptibly, is sucked into a daily pattern of abuse and cruelty – sexual, verbal, emotional – which breaks down Lilya’s boundaries of consent and ultimately, her sanity.

By having Lilya as her narrator, Hjörleifsdóttir puts us in her protagonist’s skin. She makes us feel Lilya’s pain and that sense of insecurity and eagerness to please which is exploited by her so-called lover for his ends. In a brilliant use of the “unreliable narrator” narrative, the author makes us realise the toxicity of the relationship even before Lilja does.

This is not a comfortable read. It is certainly not for the faint-hearted, especially those who are disturbed by depiction of abuse. Despite its subject however, there is a cool beauty to the prose, ably conveyed in Meg Matich’s translation, which seems to contrast with the subject matter. Magma is Hjörleifsdóttir’s debut novel, but she has published three poetry collections with her poetry collective Imposter Poets. It shows in the restrained style she adopts – brief chapters with no word wasted, sudden eruptions of striking imagery.

This is a remarkable book and if it serves, as mentioned in the opening author’s note, to break the silence in which “shame and isolation thrive”, it will have an impact beyond the literary.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/05/magma-by-thora-hjorleifsdottir.html ( )

Short book. Didn’t like the language. Not really my taste. Not exactly an enjoyable book. Ending just leaves you hanging. ( )