*Forgive my usage of explicit language.
Trigger Warning: Physical abuse, verbal abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, severe gaslighting, domestic violence, and an apathetic disregard for the spouse.

A debut novel formatted as a loosely strung collection of short stories, Anthology of Disillusionment by Alessandra De Blasi packs a trigger punch. The unique writing style lifts the mundane plot. The devil is in its violent details.

Berenice is your model wife, in beauty and the brain. Her husband however is an manipulative stingy asshole with wealth and high social standing. Veiled cleverly behind the facade of a doting husband, a beautiful apartment, and fancy is an unhappy, suffocating, manipulative, and abusive relationship.
It opens with a wedding with fairytale aesthetics and a funeral mood, introducing a foreboding tension. Her escape is a relief, a catharsis of sorts. A hopeless romantic caught in a nightmare, Bernice slowly discovers the horrors of her marriage.

A poignant commentary on toxic relationships. From off-handed remarks aimed at relentlessly undermining a person’s self-esteem to body shaming to victim blaming to the denial of the victim's agency. Bernice is so vehemently ignored, that she is losing her voice - literally and figuratively. The non-linear stories smoke out the inconspicuous escalation of abusive behaviors in a relationship.

While the book creates a lasting impression, the stories individually are meh! The events of the story build a powerful repulsion for the husband but that has little to do with amazing writing and more to do with textbook asshole behavior. It was mostly tell rather than show. Between the heavy themes and the unique writing style, this book had potential that went unexplored.
A plausible possibility could be that its beauty was lost in translation.

This book made me want to rinse my brain with detergent to get rid of the male protagonist’s skin-crawling behavior, disgusting doesn’t even begin to cover it. How pathetic and insensitive do you have to be to make your partner pay for luxuries you want even when they can't afford them? The insensitivity portrayed by the male protagonist is skin crawling, it gave me murderous urges. For a while there I wished she’d skin him alive.

Thanks, NetGalley and Alessandra De Blasi for the temporary e-ARC of this book. It was a gut-punch experience. Readers be warned.

This book offers a poignant exploration of the complexities of abusive relationships through seven interconnected short stories. Alessandra De Blasi's debut novel-collection delves into heavy themes with sensitivity and precision, crafting a captivating narrative that unravels the illusions masking the reality of abuse. Through Berenice's journey, the reader is invited to confront the psychological prison of expectations and discover the truth beneath the surface of seemingly perfect relationships.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Not every romance is about love. Seven short stories that compose a fragmented novel.
In each chapter, a memory, a piece of the puzzle.

In her debut novel-collection of short stories, Alessandra De Blasi explores heavy themes with sensitivity and precision. Based on stories she has experienced and heard from other women, the author constructs a captivating narrative in which the reader discovers, alongside the protagonist, the illusions created to disguise an abusive relationship.

This is a short story that features the life of a young woman named Berenice as she comes to terms with the true nature of the romantic relationship she is currently in.

There was so much melancholy and angst found in this story.

Wealth, status, and traditions are burdens to so many who rely on living up to the expectations of others. A disruption or change in any one of these things can leave you with a sense of lacking or ineptitude if most of your self-worth is dependent on their consistency.

Combine that with a life partner who only criticizes you and doesn't provide you with any support? You are left feeling like Berenice - full of self-doubt, adrift, and depressed.

Alessandra De Blasi took a short but sad tale of loss - loss of image, loss of love, loss of self - and left me with a redemptive ending. Much like the affect the musical in this story provided for our protagonist, De Blasi "subverted my idea of a happy ending" and ended with Berenice's much needed breakthrough.

Here is to hoping that Berenice and other women like her, find their loss voices and reach the level of calmness that comes from their well-established self-love.

"... humans are capable of creating something as remarkable as the material that came before them."

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review.

2 stars!

I was really interested in getting to read this, the summary, and reviews really got my attention and I went for it. Sadly, it didn't seem to be for me as it was for others.

For me, it's how it's written, the subject matter is one I love exploring, reading about complex, difficult relationships and how people deal with them etc. But something felt just lost in translation sadly that didn't really keep my interest within the story.

A very shot read in different memories, we explore toxic and abusive relationships, gaslighting, dreaming for better/the perfect.

In this book, we follow Berenice's story through a collection of short stories told in a non-linear fashion. Berenice is in her mid-twenties and growing up, she had always dreamt of the kind of marriages she saw in romantic movies. But her own marriage is not like that, despite the illusion that its image gives to the external observer. Much to the opposite, she finds herself in an unhappy, manipulative and abusive one, struggling to have her voice heard - literally and figuratively.

Anthology of Disillusionment is a very beautifully written book and the author found a lovely way to use the writing style itself to convey a message, something I found quite original and clever. The idea of telling a story about an abusive relationship through a collection of non-linear stories was definitely an interesting choice because in a way, it really shows the sometimes unnoticeable escalation of abusive behaviors in a relationship.

However, while I do appreciate the fact that this book is very straight to the point, I'm not too sure that Berenice's story being as important as it is, is one that fits in a format of short stories. I found myself wishing that the story were given more room to really explore the main character's journey to finding her voice again. Nonetheless, the topics of domestic abuse, sexual assault and gaslighting were still handled fairly well despite the book being only a few pages long but the format definitely does impede on how much can be told so I truly wish this book was longer.

Put in the right hands, I think this book could be quite impactful and will resonate with readers who are or have been in Berenice's situation.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy, all opinions are my own.

This one is not for me! I didn't really like the way it was written. It can also be a case of right book, wrong time

Really great book with amazing characters and a great plot. Was easy to get into and it was very engaging. This is a book that I can see a lot of people who like lit fic enjoy.

'Anthology of Disillusionment' intrigued me because of its subject matter and the idea of exploring a big topic through a series of vignettes. Each of the seven stories focuses on a different point in Berenice's relationship with her unnamed male partner - a manipulating, gaslighting bully.
One paper, it all sounds like an interesting character study and there are parts that work well - little moments where we see Berenice's defiance, be it self-destructive or healthy. I did feel that we could have seen more direct interactions between the couple - there was an awful lot of telling rather than showing.
Unfortunately, and a few people have mentioned it already in reviews, too much of this book gets lost in translation - using ChatGPT for translation purposes has slightly backfired on the author here as what I'm sure was, originally, very lyrical prose comes across very stodgy and overwritten. It also doesn't help to follow the plot in places like the second story where a number of characters are referred to simply by the colour of their eyes.
It's a pity because I think there are probably some good insights in here, and I appreciate that the writer was self-publishing and probably doing so on a small budget, but unfortunately, this English translation has not served her source material well at all.
2.5 stars for some interesting ideas.
Thank you to the author for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

conceptually, i liked the point that this novella was trying to get across--telling the tale of a toxic, abusive relationship through short snippets. showing instead of telling. unfortunately, the execution fell short, especially in the final chapter of the book where far too much was explained and defined. having the protagonist explain the definition of gaslighting detracted from the experience, especially when the male lead's behavior was already over the top in terms of acting like a textbook example of a gaslighter. there were also a few grammatical errors/typos in the version i reviewed, which will hopefully be cleaned up before publication.

overall, it was alright for a short read, but i would advise caution for several triggering topics.

Anthology of disillusionment is an interesting novel that explores the true reality behind the “perfect couple“. Through a series of seven vignettes of memories this book breaks down the relationship between Bernice and her partner, including how issues such as classism money and power can lead to disenfranchisement and abuse. While the concept of the novel was interesting, I am not fully sure if the execution of this novel truly brought out the theme is the author sought to explore. It is a short read, so therefore I don’t necessarily feel like I wasted my time however, I do wonder if some of the richness of the language was lost given that this novel was translated from Brazilian Portuguese to English using chat GPT.

I read this collection of interrelated short stories in one sitting, late at night, unable to fall asleep.

What I loved:
- The structural concept of the book. It tells a single story by gathering sparse, interwoven short stories together in a kind of jumbled up order. I found the fragmentary, disorienting feel of this arrangement helped to convey the bewildering experience of an abusive marriage and the ways we try to cope with it.
- The quality of writing. Simple yet eloquent sentences, metaphors that manage to not sound cliche.

I would have welcomed just a bit more clarity around the order of events. The structure of the book gives you an overall impression of the course of the plot, but I still was not sure of how the particularities hung together. I also did not find the character of the husband, and his abuse, to be completely believable. As someone intimate with the patterns of abusive men, there were many points at which the husband's behaviour simply didn't have the ring of authenticity--almost like a caricature of an abusive husband.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of Anthology of Disillusionment by Alessandra De Blasi. #anthologyofdisillusionment #NetGalley
Check out the trigger warnings for this book before reading!

The concept of interconnected short stories is an intriguing one. It helps shine a light on specific circumstances and events that build and complexify the characters' personalities and backstories. In Anthology of Disillusionment, it allows us to follow the protagonist Berenice as she navigates her conturbed relationship with her partner and herself.
The execution of it, however, fell a bit short of my expectations. Too much was explained not shown, particularly in the main character's self-explorations. There was not much space to infer and to question what was happening and the small size of each story limited their potential.
Nonetheless, it is still an interesting work to help better understand the various pieces that may produce an abusive and violent imbalance in a relationship, which contribute to the denial of the victim's agency.

Thanks to NetGalley, the Publisher, and the Author for an ARC of this book.

This is a quick read. A novella that pulls you right into a story of toxic relaxationship, disillusionment and societal expectations. I enjoyed the pacing and prose in such a short book.

The harm toxicity can cause, the abuse/gaslighting, even subtle, emphasizes the physiological damage done bringing about a sense of powerlessness to change.

I felt this quite powerfully and thought on it for hours.

I love the cover art!

This took me by surprise and in a good way because of the author's way of weaving the story depicts most abusive relationships, where Berenice on the outside seems to have it all, yet she truly doesn't and her partner chips away at her discernment and sanity, stealing her joy, gaining control inch by inch over her observations, opinions, thoughts and voice- it's as traumatic and hurtful as it is for anyone who is on the receiving end of a manipulator.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

Berenice is a woman who seems to have it all; a doting husband, beautiful apartment, fancy dinners. You quickly learn that is is all an illusion hiding a darker underbelly. Little snippets of the truth are exposed to show you the truth and the disillusionment Berenice feels every day.

This is a book that heavily depends on you reading between the lines, but it absolutely packs a punch considering how short it is. It gives an insight as to why someone may stay in an abusive relationship and the prison it feels like.

I didn't think it was translated the best. There were a lot of parts where you could tell it didn't say what it probably should have. It was very curious to see in the beginning "Translated to English by Alessandra De Blasi with the assistance of Chat GPT." I've never seen something like this before, but I suppose its the future of writing and editing. As this is self-published, I commend the author for finding a way to translate her work. Unfortunately, it took away some of the beauty. I'd love to read this again if it were translated properly.

A novella or a collection of short stories (they aren’t in chronological order) about Berenice and her relationship with her fiancé/husband, a selfish, gaslighting jerk but the right class and wealth. It’s a quick read and the stories show the effects of this sort of a relationship on Berenice and also how she has always tried to conform to society’s expectations even if it didn’t make her happy. Starting the book with her mixed feelings on her wedding day was a good place to start the book.

Anthology of Disillusionment is comprised of seven short stories following the same woman at different points of her abusive relationship, and detailing the illusions she puts up as mental walls against the abuse.

Translation is an art that cannot (currently) be replicated by AI, as evidenced in this edition. I see that this is self-published and self-translated (with Chat GPT) and I commend the effort and vision clearly shown by the author/publisher. Unfortunately what may have been literary prose is lost in stiff AI translation. I cannot properly review this book as the prose could be either overwritten or beautifully impactful in its original form. I appreciate the representation of gaslighting, especially for seemingly small acts. There is ambition in both the subject matter and structure, as well as self-publishing a translated work. I would be interested in reading a properly translated edition in the future, but I believe this translation will hinder its appeal in English-speaking markets.

I received a copy of this e-book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This quick novel pulls you into a story of gaslighting and abuse. Through fragments, we follow Bernice from her wedding day to everyday instances of her toxic relationship. I think this book did a good job at showing how these situations can slowly build up and cause psychological damage as well as make it hard for someone to escape. I found this book impactful and I’m glad that it left on a lighter note at the end.