Book: Berlin Syndrome by Melanie Joosten
Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack
“Berlin Syndrome” is a challenging book. It’s an uncomfortable read, and yet still I felt it wasn’t quite dark enough for the subject matter. Not that I’m sure I would have wanted to read something much darker than this…
Clare is backpacking around Europe, and in Berlin she has a one night stand with Andi. At least, she initially thinks it’s a one night stand; but Andi invites her to stay and she finds herself tempted. And then she finds herself trapped as Andi keeps her locked in his apartment. A little isolated from friends and family in Australia as a result of her travel, there is no-one to immediately notice her absence. Andi becomes increasingly obsessed and borderline violent, and Clare slowly succumbs to Stockholm Syndrome – if she doesn’t exactly sympathise with her captor, she certainly begins to cooperate.
A strength of the novel is that Joosten makes this seem entirely real and possible – as though it could happen to almost anyone with no warning at all. This is frightening, and helps to engage the reader strongly with Clare’s plight. And we need that reason to engage, because Clare isn’t the most sympathetic of characters. She seems somewhat disassociated from her life, family and friends even before Andi locks her away. She’s a little remote, and not a character you’ll take to immediately. But her problem is involving, and most readers will want to know what happens to her.
I did find it a little hard to go along with how easily Clare gives up in the early stages of her captivity. I wanted her to fight harder to get away, and it did seem that there were strategies she simply failed to try (whacking Andi over the head with a frypan, for example). However, beyond that point, Joosten does a convincing job of showing us Clare’s collapse into apathy, and then a kind of cooperation with Andi.