Did you know that Belgium has three official languages? Dutch (or Flemish) in the North, French in the South and a little piece in the East speaking German. Brussels is its capital and we are known for chocolate, beer and waffles. But now you can also read something Belgian! You can even choose the language! Choose between German, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, French, or English (although I haven’t been able to find the book in English on Amazon).
This book ‘It melts’, and its author, Lize Spit, born in 1988, was the Flemish Belgian revelation of 2016. At the time, she got so much media attention I was annoyed by it. She was everywhere. You could not open a newspaper or a magazine without finding an interview with her in it. It was too much. And the reviews did not convince me. One of the reviewers described the book as a thunderstorm slowly but dangerously overcasting a village, dooming all its inhabitants. Because of the compelling story, the reviewer forgave its spelling mistakes and hasty editing and length – over 500 pages. I decided to wait and see if the hype would last. But over the summer this year, I needed a new Kindle book and read it. At the speed of light.
The story is told from the perspective of a young girl – now in her twenties – describing the suffocating village and the dysfunctional family she grows up in. (One cannot help but wonder if the story is autobiographical.) She goes back and forth between her life now and the dreadful summer of 2002, in which her childhood dramatically comes to an end (even though it wasn’t so great to begin with).
Spit’s storytelling is outstanding, she builds up the tension like a pro. It is like watching a psychothriller. It clearly shows that she holds a master’s degree in scriptwriting. (The movie rights have already been sold, btw.) Her way of phrasing is cleaver and her grim sense of humor is the cherry on top. It also makes clear from the start that there are no happy endings in this dark and desolate world.
Growing up in a similar village made it very recognizable for me. But it also led to my biggest problem with the book: sex! I have a hard time believing that kids at that age growing up in that village are so involved with sex already. I certainly wasn’t even though my village was very similar. Maybe times and teens have changed, a lot, since my childhood. Also, without spoiling the plot: the end is disturbing and, to me, somehow disappointing. But other than that: great read! So, if you are looking for a good thriller, quickly paced but dark, look no further and read something Belgian for once.