Chloe Adams

This was tough and infuriating to read. Incredibly well written and totally captures the ignorance, asshole-ness, and full out stupidity of current politicians that discuss such bunk as "legitmate rape."

My heart broke for Mia, over and over and over again. Having money doesn't mean you have a good life. Not only is she a victim of rape to two fucking assholes who should have their penises chopped off, but then she's victimized again and again by her father, her father's lackeys, her uncle, show more her shrink, everyone. Why? Because daddy is a politician and running a campaign.

What makes me sick is that this story happens EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and you have fucktarded women like Shea who writes shit that makes the VICTIM claim responsibility for her own rape. This rape culture in the United States needs to stop. IT NEEDS TO STOP. I'm disgusted. My stomach is twisting. My heart is breaking for this young teenage girl whose father is seemingly going to force her to carry her rapist's baby because he fed her some bunk about legitimate rape...how a woman's body will not allow a pregnancy if raped. Are you kidding me?!

For every single politician who said anything REMOTELY like this (I'm looking at you Todd Akin of Missouri, you dumb fuck), I suggest you go back to school and think about how you would feel if any of those victims were your wives, your sisters, your daugthers, your mothers. Oh, unless you're like Mia's dad. Then I guess you just don't give a shit and will use the experience to bolster your ratings, huh? Assholes.

Shit. This book is raw and powerful and was really really hard to read. And it isn't even over yet. This was just scratching the surface. *sigh*

This is a far cry from my normal reviews, isn't it? This book will piss you off though. You will be so mad at the people surrounding Mia. Maybe it will be an eyeopener to you to our current culture. It even happens here on goodreads where authors and reviewers are being told to "go get raped" or "should be sodomized". show less

This book cut me to shreds, it chewed me up and is still chewing on my emotions. It is a strong, powerful and intense novella, part of a series, about Mia and how one night has changed her life forever. Be warned that it deals with the sensitive issue of rape and how it affects the victim and it does end on a cliffhanger. Mia’s story will be told in 6 instalments over the next 12 months.

I can only imagine what it must be like to be in that situation and I felt that this book gave me a show more disturbing insight into that shocking experience and the aftermath. To me it was so beautifully written that it made me feel like I was reading an incredibly detailed account of a deeply personal story. As if the rape is not tragic enough, Mia lives in a very public world as her father is a senator. She is stifled by her fathers ‘team’ from telling the whole story, and this just tore my heart in two, to read the sort of upbringing she has had and family life she leads. I really felt Mia’s emotions as she processes what has happened to her and her utter helplessness and anger over what has happened since. Through it all she is a really strong young woman and I am fully invested in her story.

Although this novella is only 78 pages long, the author really packed a lot of emotion and storyline into it, making it feel longer. I was rung out by the last page but I want to know more. I want to know how Mia survives this, I want to know more about Dom, I want to know if her father has a heart, I want to know that victims in this situation obtain the justice they so deserve. In short, I want the next novella to be released soon.

copy kindly provided by Netgalley and the publisher show less

Winner of the 2024 Penguin Literary Prize, Chloe Adam's first novel The Occupation is historical fiction set in the aftermath of WW2 during the Occupation of Japan. My response to reading it is a bit conflicted.

Firstly, I think it's a very good thing that Australian novelists are looking to our own history for inspiration, and that they are at last recognising that this history includes people and events from our own geographical region. Chloe Adams has chosen to interrogate Australia's show more history as part of the US-led occupation force that operated in Japan from 1946 to 1952. Australian men and women served during the occupation of the Hiroshima Prefecture at Kure, on a military base very near the site of the first atomic bomb attack. Presumably unaware of the dangers of lingering radiation, dependent families with children joined their spouses and set up an expat community. This is a situation ripe for exploration in an historical novel.

And for author Chloe Adams, this setting enabled her to include family history involving an illegitimate baby conceived during that Occupation. And this is where I wish Penguin's editors had served her better, because this is why the novel goes awry. A prize-winning MS does not necessarily become a successful book if it has flaws. The balance between the romance in Japan and its consequences in Australia needed editorial intervention, IMO.

Mary, the central character, is a dental nurse unexpectedly assigned to work instead at the 'Dew Drop Inn, YWCA'. She is not like the other young women who shake off the restraints of wartime Australia and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of dancing, dating and Having A Great Time with the 'boys', all without thinking too much about the terrible circumstances that have put this playground at their disposal. Mary is melancholy, aloof, moody and solitary. She does a lot of silent introspection which includes unkind but unexpressed critical thoughts about the people around her, especially Mrs Richards, Secretary of the Y. It is Mrs Richards who has asked for someone reliable to replace the volunteers — plenty of them from the dependents group — who come and go on a whim, constantly off touring the country, and I dare say half of them couldn't do a sum to save a life.'

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/09/24/the-occupation-2025-by-chloe-adams/ show less

I loved everything about this novella, my only complaint was that it was too short and ended on one heck of a cliff hanger!

Mia is the daughter of a politician who is raped while at a party. And while she knows that she should turn in the people that raped her, she can't for fear of the people and what a trial could do to her family.
The story is one heck of a ride and Mia is a character that you just want to reach out and hold.
Her father on the other hand is not someone I would ever want show more to be left alone in a room with, as I would end up in jail. The fact that he never even showed up at the hospital is bad enough, add in that he honestly believes that no woman can get pregnant if she is raped and refuses to let Mia get the morning after pill and you just learn to hate him that much more.
Dom, one of the two officers that found Mia that night, seems to have become Mia's anchor. He is only in a few parts, but those seem to be pivotal moments for Mia.
I can't wait to get my hands on the other 6 parts, and find out more of Mia's story and recovery.

*EARC provided for honest review* show less