Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

Suicide Blonde

darcey steinke

... Show More
Vanity Fair called this intensely erotic story of a young woman's sexual and psychological odyssey "a provocative tour through the dark side." Jesse, a beautiful twenty-nine-year-old, is adrift in San Francisco's demimonde of sexually ambiguous, bourbon-drinking, drug-taking outsiders. While desperately trying to sustain a connection with her bisexual boyfriend in a world of confused and forbidden desire, she becomes the caretaker of and confidante to Madame Pig, a besotted, grotesque recluse. Jesse also falls into a dangerous relationship with Madison, Pig's daughter or lover or both, who uses others' desires for her own purposes, hurtling herself and Jesse beyond all boundaries. With Suicide Blonde, Darcey Steinke delves into themes of identity and time, as well as the common — and now tainted — language of sexuality.

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 1,1992

This edition

Format
200 pages, Paperback
Published
March 1, 2000 by Grove Press
ISBN
9780802136640
ASIN
0802136648
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for darcey steinke

darcey steinke

... Show More
Darcey Steinke is the daughter of a Lutheran minister. She grew up in upstate New York; Connecticut; Philadelphia; and Roanoke, Virginia. She is a graduate of Cave Spring High School, Goucher College, and the University of Virginia, where she received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. She also completed a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University.

Steinke teaches creative writing at Princeton University, the American University of Paris, and in the graduate programs at New School University and Columbia University. She previously taught at the University of Mississippi, where she was a writer-in-residence, and at Barnard College. Steinke lives in Brooklyn with her husband, the investigative journalist Michael Hudson, and her daughter Abbie.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
31(31%)
4 stars
38(38%)
3 stars
31(31%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
clust3rfuck
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
finished this one in about two weeks. I bought it at a second hand bookstore in my town the day I turned 18 because of the naked lady on the cover, and I wanted to be a little naughty lol. I didn't expect to fall in love with it. I love the way Darcey writes, I've always loved when books are written in an abnormal way. I would say she jumps around a lot, and sometimes I wished that she would have stayed with some plot lines a lot longer, rather than jumping to the next so fast.
I feel like this could have been a much longer, or at least a pilot book of a series. I feel like the ending was more of a climax rather than an ending. I want to know more about Jesse and how Bell's death might effect her future and what she decides to do about Pig's situation. I also think she skipped all of that way too fast! We are left not knowing what actually happened between Pig and her "daughter." We were told so many different versions. Who is to know which was true? I would have also liked to know how Jesse met Pig to begin with and what Pig's life was like.
I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential with 'Suicide Blonde.' I know that it was supposed to be an edgy book that doesn't go into much detail, and is left feeling like a mystery, but I feel like that wasn't the right approach. Darcey did a great job with characterization, but there was no character development with anyone. Everyone just stayed the same. It was a terribly unsatisfying ending. I saw it coming, not in a bad way, just a looming way, which did keep me hooked. Finally meeting Kevin was satisfactory, but that was the only part that left me feeling okay.
All in all, i loved 'Suicide Blonde' and will be reading more Darcey Steinke books in the future. I think she is a lovely writer. I just wish we got more of Jesse's story. I fell in love with her, and wanted to watch her become successful and happy. But, oh
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Iba0
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
This is the type of book to read along side some depressing music when you really feel like wallowing. There isn't a whole lot of depth. I didn't find it particularly scandalous, just overtly vulgar. I began to get irritated because imagery began to get redundant which is disappointing in a book under 200 pages.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
cyyborgggg
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
Read it so you can say you did and then we'll talk about it. It's the only way to read Darcey Steinke's novel that makes you see "wine drunk" and young adulthood in a new way.

What's the point of it? I don't know, you tell me.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
CharlesMarlow
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
3.5
VERY nineties - grimy, grungy, heroine-y - and also in the style of the writing, a slight remove? a coolness? great writing, but sometimes felt like a little bit of a slog to get through. would read more by Steinke though.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Paperluwu
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
A book full of similes; all ambience, and very little substance. For the most part, I thought this book was about nothing and was just a collection of descriptions. After a while, I realized that the descriptions were stories of the various and bizarre encounters that many confused and unhappy young women experience during their "misspent youth" phase (roughly, their 20s), and that the descriptions were meant to seem 'edgy'. I think the label 'sexual odyssey' is ill-suited for this book, because it implies some sort of empowerment. The protagonist is thoroughly an archetypal maiden - vulnerable and unawakened, and later irresponsible and drawn to dangerous situations and abusive men. She has very few original thoughts and seems to be swept along with the current of what happens around her. The descriptions of San Francisco are negative and cliched yet somehow accurate. I think one's reception of this book probably greatly depends on the stage in life at which they read it. There may have been a point where I would've received this book with awe or identification. Right now, however, my response is along the lines of "been there, bought the t-shirt, don't wear it", or "I can relate, but don't necessarily want to admit it, and you could've said it better".
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
ChrissyKay
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
I don’t often leave reviews, but this book was so astonishingly bad that I need to air my thoughts. It’s written in a way that in my post-read stupor I can only describe as pretentious nonsense. Like if a caricature of Morrissey decided to write a book.

I bought this on the basis that it had a big sticker on it that said “the feminist cult classic”. Now, I’m not sure what about this book is supposed to lean into or anywhere near feminism at all. There is homophobia and biphobia spread thinly throughout nearly every chapter of this book, incredibly grossly written “sex scenes” if that’s what you want to call them (I don’t) and not one likeable character throughout.

I’ve seen so many people describe this book as erotic and I’m genuinely concerned for those people, because unless you find the idea of your friend setting you up to be raped by a stranger or watching your friend violently fist a man until he howls in pain erotic then you must be reading a different book.

All in all, this book was… bullshit. It was bullshit.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
n1ckelpickel
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
... Show More
At times I thought the protagonist concieted. But I think this was the point. The way she drifts through other's lives, has a taste, and ultimately leaves, to me emphasises that she will never be those people. Be it a privilege or a curse; as one of the characters says at the end, she does not know where others end and she begins.

The author writes beautifully. But the read remains melancholic and nihilistic. Despite this this I enjoyed the musings of the protagonist and psychoanalysis of those around her. The character development really centers on her realising the root of others insecurities and thus her own.

I don't think the author ever intended for the protagonist to be good. But she also seems to have a lot of trauma. Similarly to those around her. Hence the abrupt passages detailing experiences, triggered by seemingly inconsequential acts ie. Vacuuming. All the characters are flawed and dislikable.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.