BASED ON A TRUE STORY by Delphine de ViganBOOK REVIEW
Hi everyone. I'm Catriona and today I'm going to be reviewing Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan. This book was originally written in French so it has been translated into English and it will be published with Bloomsbury, which is the publishing house that I work for. And Based on a True Story follows an author named Delphine who meets a woman named L, and it follows this really unhealthy friendship that develops.
Essentially L weaves herself into Delphine's world and tries to steal her life. This was such an interesting and just fascinating book to read. As you can kind of tell by the title, Based on a True Story this book does play with the relationship between fiction and reality. So this distinction or lack thereof of reality and fiction is woven throughout the story in several layers and in some very subtle and more obvious ways as well.
It's also done in such a way that you're constantly questioning how much of this story is based on truth if any of it is based on truth at all. The main character Delphine shares a lot of the same features and experiences as the author of the book. The two share the same name. They share the same career, and in addition to that more specifically the main character and Delphine have both written a memoir.
Aside from that I'm not sure how far those similarities go because I'm obviously not familiar with the author's personal life but it's the important things that are at the forefront that I. Know are shared. Despite the main character of this book being Delphine and it being from her perspective, to me almost felt like L was the central character. We're just seeing it through somebody else's eyes.
I just found that her character was the strongest part of this book and she was essentially all that this book was about, and she had the most agency. It was just so eerie seeing how she inserted herself into Delphine's life and slowly, very gradually made Delphine dependent on her. You just notice all of these really small things that she does and when it all comes together they all add up. You realize how obsessive and how toxic that friendship is.
Speaking of this unhealthy friendship as well I. Found it quite refreshing because I find that in fiction at least from what I've personally read, it's more common to see you know, the unhealthy romantic relationships as well as the strong friendships but seeing that unhealthy friendship is not something that I've come across very often. So the pacing of this is quite leisurely and towards the beginning it is a little bit slower as well. So with this one I found that it was the mystery that kept me going.
I wanted to know how L wormed her way into Delphine's life so deeply and most of all I wanted to know how things ended. Especially since from the beginning you're told that this doesn't end well. You're told that L is essentially a wrecking ball that crashes through Delphine's life. I was also expecting a little more of a punch from the finale.
At least to me the stakes didn't feel too high but in saying that I'm not sure if that was really the point of the climax. The fact that I still have questions about this book and I still think about it even after finishing reading it, that might be more of what this book aims to do. So that's why I. Think this book is so clever because even those things that I didn't find to be necessarily the strongest points of the story, I suspect that they're done intentionally, but at the same time I can't be one hundred percent sure of the author's intentions.
So again I find myself constantly questioning. I just have so many questions. This book has just really wormed its way into my brain like L did in Delphine's life, and I can't stop thinking about it. The last thing that I wanted to mention as well was something that I.
Found really interesting and that was how there was a lack of other characters aside from Delphine and L. The other people in Delphine's life that are mentioned especially those that are important to her and her family, they're mentioned kind of in passing. You hear about them but we don't really see them. They aren't active characters in the book.
This was something that I picked up on kind of early in the book but as things progressed I realized that this was probably also done intentionally and I'm not gonna say any more, but I found that to be another really interesting and really really clever thing about this book. Those are my thoughts on Based on a True Story. I hope it made some sort of sense because there's so much mystery in this book I don't want to go into too much detail, but overall I was just so fascinated by the story, by the characters. It was quite a creepy story in a really unassuming way.
I just think it was really intelligently crafted. I think it was very very clever in what it was saying. It was just so complex and so layered in that distinction between reality and fiction. Overall I ended up giving this one a 4 out of 5 stars.
Really enjoyed it. It was something like I've never really read before and I would definitely recommend picking it up. If any of you do end up reading this book I would definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on it and I guess I will see you tomorrow with a new video. So until then I'll see you guys in the comments.
Bye!.
Essentially L weaves herself into Delphine's world and tries to steal her life. This was such an interesting and just fascinating book to read. As you can kind of tell by the title, Based on a True Story this book does play with the relationship between fiction and reality. So this distinction or lack thereof of reality and fiction is woven throughout the story in several layers and in some very subtle and more obvious ways as well.
It's also done in such a way that you're constantly questioning how much of this story is based on truth if any of it is based on truth at all. The main character Delphine shares a lot of the same features and experiences as the author of the book. The two share the same name. They share the same career, and in addition to that more specifically the main character and Delphine have both written a memoir.
Aside from that I'm not sure how far those similarities go because I'm obviously not familiar with the author's personal life but it's the important things that are at the forefront that I. Know are shared. Despite the main character of this book being Delphine and it being from her perspective, to me almost felt like L was the central character. We're just seeing it through somebody else's eyes.
I just found that her character was the strongest part of this book and she was essentially all that this book was about, and she had the most agency. It was just so eerie seeing how she inserted herself into Delphine's life and slowly, very gradually made Delphine dependent on her. You just notice all of these really small things that she does and when it all comes together they all add up. You realize how obsessive and how toxic that friendship is.
Speaking of this unhealthy friendship as well I. Found it quite refreshing because I find that in fiction at least from what I've personally read, it's more common to see you know, the unhealthy romantic relationships as well as the strong friendships but seeing that unhealthy friendship is not something that I've come across very often. So the pacing of this is quite leisurely and towards the beginning it is a little bit slower as well. So with this one I found that it was the mystery that kept me going.
I wanted to know how L wormed her way into Delphine's life so deeply and most of all I wanted to know how things ended. Especially since from the beginning you're told that this doesn't end well. You're told that L is essentially a wrecking ball that crashes through Delphine's life. I was also expecting a little more of a punch from the finale.
At least to me the stakes didn't feel too high but in saying that I'm not sure if that was really the point of the climax. The fact that I still have questions about this book and I still think about it even after finishing reading it, that might be more of what this book aims to do. So that's why I. Think this book is so clever because even those things that I didn't find to be necessarily the strongest points of the story, I suspect that they're done intentionally, but at the same time I can't be one hundred percent sure of the author's intentions.
So again I find myself constantly questioning. I just have so many questions. This book has just really wormed its way into my brain like L did in Delphine's life, and I can't stop thinking about it. The last thing that I wanted to mention as well was something that I.
Found really interesting and that was how there was a lack of other characters aside from Delphine and L. The other people in Delphine's life that are mentioned especially those that are important to her and her family, they're mentioned kind of in passing. You hear about them but we don't really see them. They aren't active characters in the book.
This was something that I picked up on kind of early in the book but as things progressed I realized that this was probably also done intentionally and I'm not gonna say any more, but I found that to be another really interesting and really really clever thing about this book. Those are my thoughts on Based on a True Story. I hope it made some sort of sense because there's so much mystery in this book I don't want to go into too much detail, but overall I was just so fascinated by the story, by the characters. It was quite a creepy story in a really unassuming way.
I just think it was really intelligently crafted. I think it was very very clever in what it was saying. It was just so complex and so layered in that distinction between reality and fiction. Overall I ended up giving this one a 4 out of 5 stars.
Really enjoyed it. It was something like I've never really read before and I would definitely recommend picking it up. If any of you do end up reading this book I would definitely be interested in hearing your thoughts on it and I guess I will see you tomorrow with a new video. So until then I'll see you guys in the comments.
Bye!.
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