“We Don’t Eat Cannibals,” by Stéphanie Artarit: a thriller that awakens the beast within us
Review An infamous family and a series of disappearances in a zoo make this surprising thriller a crazy love story of revenge ★★★★☆
Author Stéphanie Artarit. CHANTAL FORMIZZI
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This dark novel is a jewel, or rather: a baroque pearl, a blend of mother-of-pearl and brutality. It all begins with an enchanting encounter, amidst the scents of the savannah and resting beasts, between Noël Rivière, a bear, the owner of a family zoo in the Southwest in 1976, and Bambi, a girl frailer than a gazelle, extracted from an infamous shell: her family. The father is buried under the cherry tree, the mother is quadriplegic, the twins are retarded, and Bambi lets himself be tortured by a violent brother. Even the dog is named Carnage… What follows is a story of love and carnivorous revenge. A crazy sequel, beyond time and the codes of what we expect to read. It is suddenly no longer a thriller, even if a police investigation comes to solve the enigma – which is no longer one for us – of a series of disappearances in this family.
In this second novel, author Stéphanie Artarit, a former journalist, roars justice. Her bestiary goes beyond the confines of the zoo and calls upon what remains of our humanity, when we awaken the beast that lies dormant within each of us.
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