Open Me

A young American’s exploration of what it means to be desired and her near-constant quest for sex are the focus of Locascio’s raunchy yet flat debut. Eighteen-year-old Roxana is scheduled to embark on a summer study abroad program to Paris with her best friend. When Roxana gets bumped to Copenhagen instead, she lies to her parents about her travel plans and decides to make the best of her experience on her own in Denmark—especially after she meets her attractive 28-year-old guide, Søren. But then, Søren suggests she ditch the program and follow him to Farsø, a small town in the north of Denmark, for the summer while he works on his graduate thesis. The romance starts out delightfully domestic but becomes progressively claustrophobic as Roxana beings spending her days indoors without a key, cleaning, masturbating, and waiting for Søren to return so they can have sex. In turn, increasingly whiny Søren has trouble writing his thesis and resents Roxana for her lusty behavior. The novel’s focus on Roxana’s obsession with discovering the power of her body (“The space between my legs became the center of everything”) comes off as navel-gazing rather than titillating or erotic. Readers will find themselves wishing for more from Roxana and her awakening. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Aug.)