Forgot to List: "Taming the Beast" by Emily Maguire

Forgot to List: Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire, 2006, 9780061122163.

Decided to try this out. I cannot remember why because I had no real intention of reading it when it came in and sat on the shelf. It was okay. The first three pages were a very tough read as the two protagonists, Sarah and Scuzzy teacher, begin their sexual relationship.

Set in Sydney, Australia. 15-year-old Sarah has sexual relationship with a manipulative and abusive 38-year-old English teacher. Sarah loves him and the sex. Teacher's wife catches on to affair and guy quits job and moves up to Queensland. Sarah goes into nosedive and becomes mega-slut in attempt to replace her teenage idea of the Love of Her Life. Eight years later Sarah nails most any dude she feels like. She tries every dude out on the theory that any one of them may, while in bed, make her feel the connection she had with Scuzzy Teacher. Sarah's best friend Jaime loves her and wants to rescue her from her crap apartment and self-destructive boozing and screwing. Scuzzy Teacher returns and Sarah and him start up again. Jaime kills himself.


When I spoke to Maguire I asked her what she would change about the novel if the she had the time and inclination. Since Taming Maguire has written three other books, plus other writing projects, and with that experience in mind said she would change quite a bit. I agree with her that the core idea is a really interesting idea for a story. The idea of a young student and older teacher having a sexual relationship and then meeting up again in several years later is intriguing.

Here are my critiques. 1- Sarah is too over the top in her promiscuity. Her self-destructive habits were too extreme for her to remain the pretty, but thin, gal she was. 2- Too much time is spent on the middle portion of the novel where 22 year old Sarah and Jaime are introduced and expanded on. 3- Scuzzy Teacher did not re-appear soon enough. 4- The second relationship between Sarah and Scuzzy Teacher was odd and unclear. The obsessiveness between the two for each other was creepy and sort-of believable but ultimately unclear to me. 5- I wonder if Maguire was stuck on where to have the story end and how to plot the way there. 6- Jaime's suicide at the end did not fit. Jaime was obsessed with Sarah but, even after, emotionally hurting her by having sex with her I don't think he would have done himself in. His actions fit with Maguire's tale of the character but I still found it unbelievable and could argue that he would not have done that.