Innocence (Mendelsohn novel)

Innocence is a 2000 bestselling horror novel by Jane Mendelsohn. It was first released on 28 August, 2000 through Riverhead Books and follows a teen girl as she discovers that a pack of Lamias are out to use her blood in an attempt to retain their immortality and beauty. A film adaptation of the book was released in 2013.

Innocence
First edition hardbook cover
AuthorJane Mendelsohn
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
Published2000, Riverhead
Media typePrint, e-book, audiobook
Pages208 pages
ISBN1573221643

Synopsis

Beckett is a teenage girl that has moved to Manhattan with her father after the tragic death of her mother. She's enrolled in an exclusive prep school where she is systematically ignored by the popular students, something that Beckett had expected to happen. What she didn't expect is to discover the bloody bodies of three of the school's most popular students beneath her apartment window, apparently as an act of suicide. Beckett is already unnerved by the strangeness of her new school and environment, but things begin to grow even more bizarre after the school nurse begins dating her father and moves in with them.

Reception

Critical reception for Innocence was mixed,[1] and Publisher Weekly's Stephanie Feldman has listed the book as one of her "10 Creepiest Books" while Book Magazine criticized it as being "by turns, bloody, tedious, tortuous, confusing, disturbing and overwritten".[2][3] The Boston Globe and Library Journal both praised Innocence,[4] with The Boston Globe writing "Like Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides and Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City, Mendelsohn's story muffles its death and sorrow in terminal irony, though the trait is less irritating than it might be because Innocence doesn't try to be more than it is."[5] In contrast, the Los Angeles Times and New York Times both panned Innocence overall,[6] and the Los Angeles Times criticized Mendelsohn as "[creating] little here to hold the reader's interest, let alone imagination."[7]

Film
Main article: Innocence (2013 film)

A film adaptation starring Sophie Curtis as Beckett and Kelly Reilly as Pamela was screened at the Austin Film Festival in 2013 and received a limited theatrical release on 5 September, 2014.[8] The movie, which was directed by Hilary Brougher, was poorly received by critics.[9][10]

gollark: This is another maybe technically accurate (at an even greater stretch) but ridiculous interpretation. If people don't exist, it is not in fact possible to remove them.
gollark: This sort of thing makes natural languages quite annoying, but you can help by, well, not picking the most emotionally charged word which "technically matches".
gollark: If I say "that person is a criminal" you might very well have a worsened opinion of them, even if I know that all they actually did was jaywalking or something. It's technically not *false* to call them that but misleads.
gollark: Using a word which is technically right by a dictionary definition can be misleading because it has connotations which possible alternate choices of word don't.
gollark: They are important. Words aren't clear cut definitions like, say, mathematical objects, and the dictionary just points to some common uses.

References
  1. "Innocence (review)". Booklist. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  2. Feldman, Stephanie. "10 Creepiest Books". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  3. Hammer, Ethel (November 1, 2000). "Innocence.(Review)". Book Magazine (subscription required). Archived from the original on September 21, 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  4. "Innocence (review)". Library Journal. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  5. Caldwell, Gail. "Gothic Pop, With A Sly Smile". The Boston Glove (via Sun Sentinel). Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  6. Bayard, Louis. "Serial Mom". New York Times. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  7. DIMASSA, CARA MIA. "Modern 'Gothic' Tale Takes Confusing Turns". LAT. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  8. Goodykoontz, Bill. "Sophie Curtis talks about 'Innocence' and fear". AZ Central. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  9. "Innocence". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  10. "Innocence". Metacritic. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
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