Nothing Can Hurt You is based on a true story and Nicola Maye Goldberg’s debut novel follows the 1997 murder of college student Sara Morgan and her boyfriend Blake Campbell who confessed to killing her. Instead of the traditional novel which may follow a couple of characters throughout the plot, every chapter is a vignette of a different person who is somehow involved in or influenced by Sara’s death. Each new character that is introduced in Goldberg’s novel is unique with details, friends, and family who are only part of their world, and the reader only has the opportunity to meet most of these characters once. References to various characters are found throughout the vignettes so there is a connection to the plot throughout the entire novel.
The novel can be best described as a deconstructed psychological thriller. Goldberg deconstructs the traditional novel by using the plot to connect each of the characters with little to no communication between each other. She forces the reader to rethink what they know and to learn a fresh new way of reading and comprehending a novel.
Each chapter in Goldberg’s novel changes not only the focus character but also the voice of each character, the setting, minor characters, and even the tense. It is clearly apparent that the author took the time and put in the effort to make each character and their life unique, which are all then linked without making any of them sound like the character before. The characters throughout Nothing Can Hurt You are all connected to Sara or the murder of Sara in some way. There are 12 very different and unique characters to tell Sara’s story through their own eyes and it is evident throughout that Goldberg uses her characters to make it clear that society in general views gendered related murders as a normal part of society. Goldberg also uses her characters to discuss how male killers are viewed as celebrities and how the female victims are more likely to be forgotten.
The writing style is incredibly unique and Goldberg is able to create scenery and characters using stunning prose that is as fluid as a rushing stream. Not once throughout her novel does something feel out of place; everything that Goldberg writes is meant to be there. It leaves the reader thinking, and after letting the entire novel sink in, the reader will understand what it is that Goldberg wants to across in her novel.
It is difficult to compare Goldberg’s debut novel to anything else out there because of how unique it is, but if you are a fan of psychological thrillers and feminist writings, then you need to get a copy of Nothing Can Hurt You. After finishing the novel I had to take a couple of days to process everything that happened because it is so out of the ordinary. I am not saying that this is a difficult read, but the reader needs to go into this novel with an open mind and trust that Goldberg knows what she is doing, because she does. She essentially has reinvented what a novel is and how it’s meant to be comprehended. This was a bold move for a debut novel and Goldberg has written Nothing Can Hurt You brilliantly.
Nothing Can Hurt You is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of June 23rd 2020.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Inspired by a true story, this haunting debut novel pieces together a chorus of voices to explore the aftermath of a college student’s death.
On a cold day in 1997, student Sara Morgan was killed in the woods surrounding her liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, confessed, his plea of temporary insanity raising more questions than it answered.
In the wake of his acquittal, the case comes to haunt a strange and surprising network of community members, from the young woman who discovers Sara’s body to the junior reporter who senses its connection to convicted local serial killer John Logan. Others are looking for retribution or explanation: Sara’s half sister, stifled by her family’s bereft silence about Blake, poses as a babysitter and seeks out her own form of justice, while the teenager Sara used to babysit starts writing to Logan in prison.
A propulsive, taut tale of voyeurism and obsession, Nothing Can Hurt You dares to examine gendered violence not as an anomaly, but as the very core of everyday life. Tracing the concentric circles of violence rippling out from Sara’s murder, Nicola Maye Goldberg masterfully conducts an unforgettable chorus of disparate voices.
