Jenna Clake

Happy Publication Day!
July 4, 2023


3.5⭐️

Jenna Clake’s Disturbance revolves around a twenty-six-year-old woman as she struggles to cope in the aftermath of an abusive relationship. Our unnamed narrator has recently moved into a new apartment after ending an abusive relationship that lasted for over four years. She is haunted by her experiences, traumatized to the point that she feels like she is always being watched, almost as if her former boyfriend is still a presence in her life. She also believes the strange occurrences in her new home are indicative of sinister forces at play. She does not socialize with her neighbors much (though she does keep her eyes and ears open), is wary of seeking professional help and works from home, limiting her interactions with the outside world. One day she observes her teenage neighbor Chelsea and Chelsea’s friend Jess performing an occult ritual of sorts and gathers that they are casting spells to “banish” Chelsea’s boyfriend with whom she is having problems. Our narrator befriends the girls and gets embroiled In their lives and their problems all the while hoping that not only would she be able to make sense of her own life and deal with her trauma but also protect another young girl from a toxic relationship. She befriends a young man by the name of Eddie, who encourages her to seek professional help. As the narrative progresses we follow our unnamed narrator as she deals with the consequences of choices she makes.

The author is unflinching in how she dissects the relationship between our unnamed narrator and her former boyfriend – the emotional and physical abuse and gaslighting and what that does to our narrator’s sense of self – her denial, self –doubt and how she is unable to emerge from her feeling of suffocation, self-blame and fear even after ending the relationship. The narrative is presented from the limited first-person POV of our narrator and we are given an intimate look into her psyche as she experiences traumatic memories, paranoia, and fixation with her neighbor’s relationship problems (projecting her own experiences onto what she believes is a toxic relationship in the making) and her obsession with spells and the occult as an outlet for her frustrations.

Touching upon themes of toxic relationships, domestic abuse and mental health this is an intense (bordering on claustrophobic) and atmospheric read. However, the ending might prove a tad less than satisfying for many readers with too many threads unresolved and much of what transpires left to the reader's interpretation. Needless to say, this is not an easy read but it is a thought-provoking one.

I paired my reading with the audio narration by Catrin Walker-Booth, who does an exceptional job of conveying the narrator's state of mind and setting the tone for this atmospheric read.

Many thanks to W.W. Norton and Company, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the digital review copy and the ALC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.… (plus d'informations)