Squirming around in my seat for the entirety of its 220 pages, Roche’s Wetlands tells the unashamedly gratuitous account of an oversexed teenage girl with a vomit-inducing interest in sexual health, genital infections and avocados. If that hasn’t put you off… read on.
An unexpectedly feminist read, Roche explores the notion of female sexual health and the taboo-like slot society immediately places it in. It also challenges the way society approaches female sexuality compared with male sexuality, all from the point of view of an 18 year-old who is hospitalised for almost the entirety of the novel (thanks to a haemorrhoid shaving accident).
Erotic without allure, I’ve never read a book that’s disgusted me as much as it has enthralled and equally charmed me. I implore you not to read this novel while eating your lunch, but read it nonetheless- it’s quite simply fabulous.