This was a really gripping thriller that kept me guessing. I loved the intensity of the author's writing style and it really added to the pressing nature of the narrative. I did have to stop reading it at some points to catch my breath but was desperate to dive back in again at the same time. A fab piece of intense gripping literature.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for opportunity to read this ARC.

Having read and enjoyed Lullaby, when I saw this was available for selection I was really keen to read it as well and I wasn't disappointed. I found it well written and readable. I was intrigued as to her motivations and this book read as an interesting character study. As the book is centered around the character who is addicted to sex with anyone, anywhere, there are references to sex but I didn't find it especially explicit, but rather, part of the overall story line.

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

This novel is a literary Pandora's box, exploring female sexuality, and how women continue to be judged against a different score card.
The stark prose and limited description of the protagonist leave the reader with the silhouette of a character, who could be any woman. Every woman.

The begining of the novel reads predictably, with the protagonist struggling with her three year old son. Invisible to her husband, a changed perception from society, that loss of self.
But when her recklessness and self destruction increases, she really pushes the boundaries, which the author likens to a bird tapping against glass in a frenzy, desperate to escape.

This novel is not erotic, and I would argue that it's not sex the narrator is addicted to, but the rush brought on by the power held in being desired. It's the men who become obsessive who last the longest.
I read a comment asking the question 'do women need that male gaze to feel alive' which stopped me in my tracks.

The narrator becomes obsessed by a passage in THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING as a child, a significant moment in her transition to adult, the synopsis of which eerily mirrors this novel. The only difference appears to be that it's from the male perspective, where the Dr is a womaniser.
Goodreads interestingly reflects a far more accepting and positive reader response than Adèle, further supporting the authors point.

An incredibly powerful accomplished debut.

I'm not sure if it's the translation or the source text that's at fault but I really struggled to finish Adele. It was repetitive, fizzled out and did not live up to the hype.

This unfortunately did not work for me!

I'm not sure if it just got "lost in translation" but the story is disjointed, the characters unlikeable and I wasn't able to feel any emotion, sympathy or understanding of Adele and her behaviour.

It's a really short book and only took 2.5 hours to read, but it just wasn't a book I was able to enjoy and whilst the author has written a story about a women's sex addiction, I just didn't "get" the book at all.

Sorry - but it's probably me and not the book as other readers have really enjoyed it.

Only a 3 from me i'm afraid, I find the style of writing (translation?) confusing and the storyline mediocre at best, this is the 2nd book by this author I've tried, I don't think i'll read a 3rd. Sorry :(

I am pretty certain I saw this on Insta before I saw it appear on netgalley- I know it seemed familiar and I definitely wanted to read it so when I was approved I was quite excited.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digitial ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Adele is the story of a middle aged woman who seemingly has the perfect life- husband who wants to provide for her, a child, sounds ideal right? well not according to Adele, something is missing, and that something is essentially a reckless sex life.

Throughout the novel we see Adele participate in various scandalous activities, there is a mention of a drug fuelled night that she remembers very little of.

I am all for a bit of erotica every now and then, but Adele isn’t the type of novel that makes you shiver in excitement, you may however find yourself shivering in disgust at some of the things she does.

Leila did a fantastic job of showing the dark side of sex addictions, I have to say, it was very bold of her to introduce this addiction into Adele’s life at such a young age as well, but somehow it managed to work without seeming too out there.

Adele is not a likeable character at all, in fact I spent the majority of the time rolling my eyes at the type of comments she would make and her inner thoughts about other women.

While I did not like Adele, I also did not like her husband either, he was quite controlling over her, even before the move which lead to Adele living in almost isolation.

I can’t help but feel that it would be much better for them all (including their son) if they had separated.

Despite my dislike of Adele and her husband I did find this to be a very captivating read.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher

This book did not keep me interested, it dragged and I put it down a few times, it was difficult to pick it back up.

Having read Lullaby previously I was looking forward to reading this. I was disappointed, there didn’t seem to be any point to the story, and I didn’t buy the explanation of how she seemed to be in the situation she was in. Could have been an interesting subject but missed the mark with me.

Adele does not want to be a mother or a wife. She wants to have sex, to be touched, to feel the hands of another on her skin. The labels that she dons so uneasily are simply barriers to this goal; inconvenient things that she has to deal with before her mind can dedicate itself to what really matters - sex. It is a controversial topic for Leïla Slimani to undertake, not unlike the one in her previous novel Lullaby, and she seems to be making a name spending time within the heads of women who must make most men feel ill at ease.
Women who are narcissistic, difficult, outside of the realm of any boxes people may try to put them in.
It is a worthy cause and one that needs to be championed, no matter how uncomfortable that it might make people feel. But unlike within the pages of Lullaby, I can not help but feel as though Leïla Slimani has made some missteps in this one.
Adele does not care about her husband, or her child, or her job. That can not be denied, contested or refuted - she really does not give a single damn. Hell, even the men she sleeps with barely get a footnote in her mind. Her addiction to sex is all-consuming, funnelling the love and affection that she may have previously felt for other people or things, into sex and sex alone.
But, unfortunately, there is something about this that fails to translate onto the page. And yes, I know that the book itself was translated, so maybe my word choice might eventually be proven to be especially apt.
I say this because, the protagonist who so clearly was to supposed to have a singular desire, had no desire at all. She was cold, both to the outside world and the depths of the desire itself. There was no addiction here, no desperation, no fire in her loins. Only a protagonist who one could instead be mistaken for thinking had a personality disorder akin to psychopathy.
At least, that is what I kept referring to good ol’Mr Google to check.

Lullaby was such an unexpected hit, and everything I liked about that book - the quiet, contemplative character explorations, so honest and intimate and human - were here too.

The book feels cold and at times, empty. Perhaps that is intentional; the eponymous Adèle herself feels that way as a character, and the story is not exactly a happy one. I am not someone who demands a likeable heroine; it wasn't Adèle's 'bad' behaviour or her lack of love for her life and her family that turned me off this book by the end. It was more that the sex addiction which characterises Adèle seemed to be her only real personality trait, so it was hard to either truly hate her or to understand her.

The writing style was interesting, for sure, and I could feel the book trying to get at a deeper truth, of how women are conditioned to seek male approval over everything. The second half of the book was bleaker, and, I felt, better, as it turned more sinister, but there was just something missing underneath it all for me.

This book couldn't draw me in and it didn't resonate with me. It was a bit of a drag for me and not much more.

I'm not sure at all about this story, its told as though you are hearing the narrators thoughts, hopping from one thing to the next. Of Adele's struggles with sex addiction and how it rules her life and relationships . A quite depressing story.

I was a huge fan of Lullaby by Leïla Slimani and so was intrigued to read Adèle, which is Leïla Slimani’s debut novel but was published after Lullaby in the UK. Some of the things that I loved most about Lullaby, the detachment, the casual observations and the brutal and difficult subject matter are all there in spades in Adèle. This is a very different book though with our protagonist, the titular Adèle taking us on a dark journey through sex addiction.

She is a journalist, is married to Richard who is a successful surgeon, and they have a young son, Lucien but she jeapordises everything with her obsession for sex. She has a secret mobile phone where she can arrange assignations, she meets men in bars taking them down alleyways and into public bathrooms. She seduces the husbands of friends, entices fellow journalists when she is working on reporting the Arab Uprising in Egypt and yet, despite all of this sex, there is a distinct lack of intimacy.

Leïla Slimani writes these passages in sparse, frank language which feel almost mechanical. The dark, heady rabbit hole of addiction is laid bare to us. She is a woman possessed. She thinks about it constantly and puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations and the line between living and existing becomes dangerously blurred. For a book filled with sex it is possibly the least erotic thing I have read (that isn’t a criticism). Sex is like drugs, or alcohol for our protagonist – something to consume and something which consumes her. It is a transaction rather than something to be shared.

It is a difficult read at times and there is one scene in particular which made be both cry and be terrified. There is a rawness to the writing which makes the reader feel unsettled and on edge and yet unable to turn away. There is nobody quite like Lïela Slimani, she is an astonishing talent who can write a woman who does unthinkable, awful things and make her compelling and sympathetic. I’ll leave you with a passage that I thought summed the character of Adèle up perfectly. She is somebody that I will think about for a long time.

"Sometimes she is like a frightened bird, banging its beak against the bay windows, breaking its wings on the door handles."

Adele is the debut novel of Leila Slimani. It is a dark thriller that tells the story of Adele, a women with a seemingly perfect life. Adele is very different book from the normal books I like to read. The story line is very dark and I'm not sure if I really liked the characters but I was also unable to put the book down. It's not a book I would be in a rush to pick up again but I'm sure there are many people that will enjoy this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Adele is Leila Slimani’s debut novel but is her second novel to be translated from the original French into English following the success of Lullaby last year. The subject matter is undoubtedly provocative and won't have as wide appeal as Lullaby, but Slimani manages the psychological tension well and doesn't seek to "explain" Adele's compulsive behaviour. The prose is stark and frank and often indifferent - and sometimes reminiscent of L'etranger by Albert Camus in tone. In other words, it's very French.

Adele had me gripped from the first page. Beautifully written and translated, Slimani does not shy away from female desire nor dreams. Reminiscent of Haus Frau, this novel was short but powerful, and has left me thinking (and worrying) about the characters. There are few novels with a protagonist like Adele, and the honesty with which it was written was refreshing.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book in return for my honest review.