 First edition hardbook cover | |
| Author | Jane Mendelsohn |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Published | 2000, Riverhead |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 208 pages |
| ISBN | 1573221643 |
Innocence is a bestselling horror novel by Jane Mendelsohn, first released on August 28, 2000, through Riverhead Books. It tells the coming-of-age story of a teenage girl named Beckett, and addresses themes of innocence, loss, mental illness, sexuality, and femininity.
Beckett is a teenage girl who moves to Manhattan with her father after the tragic death of her mother; at her new school, she is fascinated by three popular girls and the beautiful school nurse. Soon thereafter, the bloody bodies of the three girls are discovered near Beckett's apartment—seemingly the latest in their school's dark history of suicides. The school nurse begins dating Beckett's father, and Beckett is plagued by disturbing dreams featuring the three dead girls. As she grapples with the death of her mother, the tragedies at her school, and the incipience of her menstruation, she finds herself wrapped up in a media-saturated world of mixed messages, in which beauty is everything and the arrival of womanhood is equated to the loss of innocence. Mendelsohn employs the literary device of the unreliable narrator, leaving the reader uncertain of what's real and what's imagined as Beckett travels deeper and deeper into a world in which mysterious women drink the menstrual blood of virgins to maintain their youth and beauty—and Beckett becomes certain that they're coming for her.
Critical reception for Innocence was mixed. Publishers Weekly's Stephanie Feldman has listed the book as one of her "10 Creepiest Books." [1] The Boston Globe and Library Journal both praised Innocence, with The Boston Sunday Globe writing, "Borrowing classic ingredients from the genres of horror films and popular literature, Mendelsohn has concocted a coming-of-age tale about a Manhattan girl’s adolescence; this is a story of innocence, all right, but that nebulous concept today means finding your way in a media-saturated, sometimes dangerous culture…. Like Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides and Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City , Mendelsohn’s story muffles its death and sorrow in terminal irony." [2]
Kirkus Reviews also praised the book: “Invoking a battery of analogues favoring the pop-culture heroines of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Lolita, and Halloween, Mendelsohn isolates her plucky heroine so fearfully via sparse paragraphs and an underpeopled world that even the most preposterous threats leap out of the move frame to fuel a shriek of pure paranoia. Must reading for anybody who thinks teenagers today have gotten bloated with entitlement: a scarlet will-o’-the-wisp fantasy in which adults and adulthood aren't stupid stiffs but agents of unimaginable evil.” [3] The Village Voice wrote, “Innocence is a kind of Rosemary’s Baby channeled through J.D. Salinger….It’s a graceful, delusionary teenage thriller unusually in touch with young character’s emotional workings, and, at the same time, a book by someone who clearly understands the tricks that make Stephen King’s pages turn.”
The Baltimore Sun called Innocence “A brilliant gothic tale…a harrowing cry of anguish, the siren song of a generation that believes continuing to live beyond one’s teens is a matter of ambiguous choice." [4] Newsday said, “This dark and gothically twisted novel gives us the city as a wicked stepmother’s poisonous fruit, its beauty baneful, its sweetness deadly…. Mendelsohn’s genius lies in her ability to keep both the fantastical and the ordinary in focus at the same time...a brilliant balancing act, a truly thrilling read.” [5]
Innocence grapples with themes of female adolescence, and addresses the fraught nature of menarche in a culture filled with mixed messages about beauty, sexuality, and innocence. Its critical reception reflects the culture and time in which it was released; its messages surrounding menstruation can be considered prescient, reflecting more recent movements of menstrual reclamation and female empowerment. The book continues to receive online attention and praise from readers discovering it years after its publication.
A film adaptation was screened at the Austin Film Festival in 2013 and received a limited theatrical release on 5 September 2014. [6] The movie was written and directed by Hilary Brougher, and starred Sophie Curtis as Beckett and Kelly Reilly as Pamela.
The film diverged significantly from the plot and themes of the novel: most notably, it does not include the book's central focus on menarche and menstruation.
Menstruation is the regular discharge of blood and mucosal tissue from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized by the rise and fall of hormones. Menstruation is triggered by falling progesterone levels and is a sign that pregnancy has not occurred.
Teen magazines are magazines aimed at teenage readers. They usually consist of gossip, news, fashion tips and interviews and may include posters, stickers, small samples of cosmetics or other products and inserts.
Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood. Adolescence is usually associated with the teenage years, but its physical, psychological or cultural expressions may begin earlier or end later. Puberty typically begins during preadolescence, particularly in females. Physical growth and cognitive development can extend past the teens. Age provides only a rough marker of adolescence, and scholars have not agreed upon a precise definition. Some definitions start as early as 10 and end as late as 30. The World Health Organization definition officially designates an adolescent as someone between the ages of 10 and 19.
The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs and the cyclic release of estrogen and progesterone. The uterine cycle governs the preparation and maintenance of the lining of the uterus (womb) to receive an embryo. These cycles are concurrent and coordinated, normally last between 21 and 35 days, with a median length of 28 days, and continue for about 30–45 years.
Menarche is the first menstrual cycle, or first menstrual bleeding, in female humans. From both social and medical perspectives, it is often considered the central event of female puberty, as it signals the possibility of fertility.
Chhaupadi is a form of menstrual taboo which prohibits women and girls from participating in normal family activities while menstruating, as they are considered "impure". Chhaupadi is said to be practiced primarily in the western part of Nepal, but the same is true for city dwellers also. It is practiced all over the country with different names and practiced in different ways.
A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first novel in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. It is told from the perspective of Gemma Doyle, a girl in the year 1895.
There are many cultural aspects surrounding how societies view menstruation. Different cultures view menstruation in different ways. The basis of many conduct norms and communication about menstruation in western industrial societies is the belief that menstruation should remain hidden. By contrast, in some indigenous hunter-gatherer societies, menstrual observances are viewed in a positive light, without any connotation of uncleanness. In most of India, menarche is celebrated as a right of passage.
Jane Simone Mendelsohn is an American writer. Her novels are known for their mythic themes, poetic imagery, and allegorical content, as well as themes of female and personal empowerment. Mendelsohn's novel I Was Amelia Earhart was an international bestseller in 1996 and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
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The Yanomami people are an indigenous group who live in the Amazon Rainforest along the borders of Venezuela and Brazil. There are estimated to be only approximately 35,000 indigenous people remaining. They are interfluvial Indians who live in small villages along the Mavaca and Orinoco Rivers, with each village consisting of a single shabono, or communal dwelling. Largely uncontacted by the outside world, the Yanomami have been affected by illnesses introduced by gold miners since the 1980s. Anthropological studies have emphasized that the Yanomami are a violent people, and although this can be true, the women of the Yanomami culture generally abstain from violence and warfare. Although males dominate the Yanomami culture, Yanomami women play an important role in sustaining their lifestyle.
The Lake of Dead Languages is the 2002 mystery debut novel of writer Carol Goodman, who won the Hammett Prize for her 2004 book The Seduction of Water.
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The Girl from the Well is a young adult series of novels by Rin Chupeco. The first book, The Girl from the Well, was published through Sourcebooks Fire on August 5, 2014, and was followed by The Suffering, which released on September 8, 2015.
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A menstruation hut is a place of seclusion or isolation used by certain cultures with strong menstrual taboos. The same or a similar structure may be used for childbirth and postpartum confinement, based on beliefs around ritual impurity. These huts are usually built near the family home, have small doors, and are often dilapidated, with poor sanitation and ventilation, and no windows. The Nepali version, the Chhaupadi, is probably the best-known example, but cultural attitudes towards menstruation around the world mean that these huts exist, or existed until recently, in other places as well. The use of menstrual huts continues to be a cause of death, from exposure, dehydration, snake bite, smoke inhalation, and so on. The use of these huts is illegal in some places.
Menstrual hygiene management (MHM) or menstrual health and hygiene (MHH) refers to access to menstrual hygiene products to absorb or collect the flow of blood during menstruation, privacy to change the materials, and access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials. It can also include the "broader systemic factors that link menstruation with health, well-being, gender equality, education, equity, empowerment, and rights". Menstrual hygiene management can be particularly challenging for girls and women in developing countries, where clean water and toilet facilities are often inadequate. Menstrual waste is largely ignored in schools in developing countries, despite it being a significant problem. Menstruation can be a barrier to education for many girls, as a lack of effective sanitary products restricts girls' involvement in educational and social activities.
A menstruation celebration, first moon party, or period party, celebrates menstruation. Different cultures and communities across the globe celebrate Menarche. This practice is followed by Apache, Ojibwe and Hupa tribal communities from different parts of North America, Ulithi tribe from South Pacific region, Japan, Africa, and India among others.
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The Care and Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls by Valorie Lee Schaefer is an educational children's book about puberty, female health and hygiene. It was written for readers aged eight years and older, and does not mention sex or sexuality. The book was first published in 1998 by American Girl, a U.S. doll company, under its Advice Library imprint.