[usr 2]

Kate Scott’s debut novel COMPULSION captures the drug taking, nihilistic, too-good-for-the-mainstream youth hipster music scene of the 2000 in the worst way possible. I remember this scene well, being an insufferable hipster teen myself, skipping classes with my friends to see indie bands and dreaming of when we would graduate, get our licenses, and turn into groupies.  We talked big, we thought we were “smart” (we could name drop Sartre while sitting on our faux Le Corbusiers listening to Bob Dylan) – meanwhile anyone with an actual brain rolled their eyes at us, wondering when we’d grow up and face reality.

COMPULSION captures this perfectly, and not in a good way.  The book follows the life of Lucy, the annoying, pretentious hipster who talks as if she is in a noir film for every sentence she utters.  The other characters are unfortunately carbon copies of each other, with different life circumstances.  Initially I wondered if the book was self aware, that it starts with Lucy, all talk and no substance, who over time realises she’s just straight up annoying. Then I noticed the book’s omnipresent, third person narrator also talks this way, and I realised self awareness would be lacking in this book. 

The book is filled with self-indulgent, artificially showy sentences, beautiful with zero substance.  For example, sex is described as ‘…a javelin thrown a great distance and landing without sound.”  Beautiful, but what does it mean? Perhaps it is a throwback to the indie bands of the 2000s who produced wonderful music to nonsensical lyrics. Without the music the lyrics were laughably awful. One famous indie band of the 2000s, Interpol, infamously had their lyrics pilloried for comedic value. Scott’s book reads much the same, but without the beautiful music to accompany the empty, overblown words.  

It is no easy feat to write a novel, and I hate to be so negative, but I found this book difficult to enjoy but easy to hate, which feels unduly harsh.  But it reads like the equivalent of being stuck at a party with the guy who only talks about mundane stuff as if he’s the only one who ever experiences it and understands and really gets it.  It’s frustrating and infuriating, and the undiluted experience of how it feels to read this book. 

Featured image : Author Kate Scott with her debut novel COMPULSION. pic Sylvia Liber

• Published: 10 January 2023
• ISBN: 9781761046551
• Imprint: Hamish Hamilton
• Format: Trade Paperback
• Pages: 288
• RRP: $32.99