📖 3/27/2026 10:59 a.m. finished ★★★★★ five stars the greatness about Leïla Slimani is that everything she portrays about whatever life statuses of their characters’ life look like makes u fully believe that they are all true and however the ways that they are going through with their minds only come naturally. the bluntness and vividness puts the stories together like presenting u a special showcase that speaks, listens and has the ability to allow u to become the silent yet engaging witness of those different protagonists’ lives. as for “Dans le jardin de l'ogre”, it went from where i thought it is almost impossible for me to resonate with her to i gradually felt sympathetic for her during the process of reading then i wanted to learn that how many traumas she had endured all by herself, how sex became an outlet for her to release the pain, the anxiety and the fear inside her and how she feels seen, present and wanted through sexual intercourse. her loneliness and emptiness are immense. she wants to be wanted and she is good at it. the point of having sex is not sex itself, is the close scenario which sexual intercourse creates. it provides a space for her to escape from the mundane life that we all have. it became possible for her to shy away from the reality even only temporarily. she flows with the ideation that she has lived so many different lives through all those men’s lust. she keeps the possibility of “a new life” open. she does not feel strong enough to face the real life that everybody else seems to navigate wholeheartedly. she wanted to be caught by her husband so she could finally be stopped from having sex with random strangers. she felt relieved and even neurotically thrilled when it actually did. she wants to stop wandering. she wants to dive into life itself without hesitation. she wants to love and to be loved and stop fearing everything. she needs to believe that everything beautiful is possible. but she is never going to be satisfied and the restlessness never stop running in her vein that she rather be a rag-doll in the ogre garden. she is on the way to surrender towards the vertigo and allow herself to faint within it. she is her own prisoner for she could not control her sex addiction meanwhile having her rooted desire to search for exit from life and she is her own saint for her innocence speaks to me. love is patiently even hopelessly waiting for something to heal and refuse to be told that it is too late. / written by Dolores