Review: Disturbance by Jenna Clake
Shortlisted for the 2024 Nota Bene Prize, Disturbance is a razor-sharp debut is perfect for fans of Boy Parts and My Year of Rest and Relaxation that explores all the ways that relationships and trauma can haunt our lives.
As the sun sets on a feverishly hot July evening, a young woman spies on her teenage neighbour, transfixed by what looks like an occult ritual to banish an ex-boyfriend. Desperate to expel the claustrophobic memories of her own ex that have followed, the narrator decides to try to hex herself free from her past.
She falls in with the neighbour and her witchy friend, exploring nascent supernatural powers as the boundaries of reality shift in and out of focus. But when the creaks and hums of her apartment escalate into something more violent, she realizes that she may have brought her boyfriend's presence - whether psychological or paranormal - back to haunt her.
REVIEWED BY SOPHIE PERCIVAL
A hypnotic and thought-provoking debut novel, Jenna Clake’s Disturbance charts the devastating effects of an abusive relationship, following the narrator as she learns to trust her own judgement again and rediscovers her power.
It's a hot July evening. After recently leaving an abusive ex-boyfriend, our 26-year-old female narrator is in a new flat. She struggles with her everyday existence, questioning who she is now, what her interests even are and how she’ll ever move forward. But fascinated by her teenage neighbour’s attempt to hex her ex-boyfriend, the unnamed protagonist sets about on her own revenge plot with the help of black magic.
In the midst of this, strange things begin happening in her apartment. Are apartments supposed to be this loud? Are the lights flickering due to a supernatural menace or is the bulb simply burning out?
Clake deftly navigates the trauma left by abusive relationships and how that can reconfigure our perceptions of reality and make a person wary of almost anything. Poetic prose weaves together an exploration of paranoia, PTSD, the loss of self-confidence, and the healing and rediscovery of so much that was lost.
Clake’s experience as a poet is evident and when reading I was struck by how she infuses such emotion and fluidity into her novel that, at times, it feels so visceral that it’s hard to look, but even harder to look away. Emotional and poignant, Disturbance is a pacy read to haunt the mind.