Ok, so, I actually didn’t enjoy this as much as I’d hoped. Sorry. I know I’m supposed to think it’s amazeballs because it’s a classic and whatever, but I didn’t think it was all that great. I think the way it really let me down was in the characters. I thought Therese was really immature and quickly became weirdo-obsessed with Carol and I couldn’t really see why because I didn’t think Carol was all that nice. She was frequently kind of mean to Therese and patronising towards her. I thought when Richard accused Therese of having a schoolgirl crush on Carol he actually hit the nail on the head as her feelings never seemed to be fully formed.
Having said this, this book was actually quite ahead of its time in that although Carol has some personal tragedy the two women in it didn’t end up (a) going mad and being committed to an asylum, (b) dying, or (c) remembering that they liked dudes all along (how silly - must have forgotten!). Because this was the ending to the vast majority of lesbian pulp books at the time and the only way publishers could put these books out onto the market and not fall foul of indecency laws.
Although I didn’t really love this book as much as I’d hoped, I can still recognise it for its importance and the hope it gave to its readers.
3 stars