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!