Seeking Clarity

In the early pages of Lolita, the pedophile Humbert Humbert infamously designates girls between the ages of nine and fourteen as “nymphets,” or those whose “true nature” is “not human, but nymphic (that is, demoniac).” There are many depictions in literature, often written by men, of adolescent girls as otherworldly, half-grown bodies without knowledge of womanhood—possessing such inexplicable allure that it must be witchcraft or demonic possession. But where Lolita has tricked many into believing that it’s a love story, Emily Temple’s debut novel, The Lightness, creates no such illusions. Instead, Temple cleaves open the darker underbelly of girlhood, from the allure of all-absorbing female friendships to the misinterpretation of adult intentions, examining the way storytelling and memory can collide to disastrous effect. In doing so, she unspools the canonical narrative that manufactures “demoniac” girls.

From the first page, we know that a death has occurred. The now-adult