Wow. This one was a grower FOR sure. For the first few chapters I was absolutely positive that I despised it... and then, out of nowhere, it filtered under my skin & I couldn’t get enough. I’ve put off & put off writing this review because I’m honestly really struggling to find the words so please already know - its essence is SO hard to capture in a short Instagram review & really you should just pick up a copy ASAP & soak it up yourself! Maybe YOUR review will be more enlightening than mine!

Julia May Jonas pulls some serious punches with this debut & I liked that she wasn’t afraid to explore taboo topics in a way that could be divisive to the reader. We are very much within the cavernous - & often dark - mind of our narrator as she explores themes such as ageing, sexuality, male privilege, abuse, fetishisation & victim blaming (to name just a few!) Some parts made me wince, some parts made me chuckle & some parts made me feel plain grubby for reading & considering them!

This book is very much a character study. When I look back on it, I remember how it made me feel, more than I remember the specific plot points but I very much recommend it for those who enjoy a deep mind spiral, a fast paced narrative with a slow burn plot & cutting, close up analysis of controversial & emotive topics.

Absolutely loved this razor sharp take on the traditional professor sleeps with student trope. Horrifying and enthralling, the power play between all 3 main characters, the power that is wielded by those above us and what that means for men and women, this novel is brilliant.

It's not the easiest read and the main character's behaviour and her abuse of power and manipulation is shocking - but no one in this book is good, in any way at all.

Another of my favourite reads of 2022

I went into this book thinking I was gonna get a 'me too' story. I ended up getting something different but I was not disappointed.

Vladimir tells the story of a 50 something professor who finds herself obsessed with new arrival Vladimir.
Going on at the same time are accusations of her husband allegedly sleeping with his students.

I don't want to spoil too much but the ending was WILD and unexpected.

I first gravitated towards Vladimir (yes, yet another Netgalley read…I have an addiction okay?) because of the name. I love books about older predators manipulating younger kids, for example Tampa by Alissa Nutting, My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and of course, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. There’s something just so disgustingly thrilling about illicit, perverted relationships.

Vladimir is a book about everything and nothing. Predominantly it’s about a shamed professor who has a string of sexual assault charges by his past students. His popular professor wife stands by him, knowing he had engaged in numerous extra marital pursuits due to a prior mutual agreement. Amidst this scandal comes the arrival of a younger male professor called Vladimir. Our narrator becomes infatuated by him, an obsession which spirals out of control.

This is certainly a beautiful book. In the same way that ‘Lolita’ is cutting yet morbidly funny, whilst indicative of various affectations in our society, we become witnesses to a different predatory perspective. My only qualms was that I thought this was a book with a plot when I first started this, however instead it’s wholly character driven, with a total focus on emotions and what drives the characters. The only place these characters are driven to are precisely nowhere. It’s not until the ending of the book that anything even mildly exciting happens (I mean, it’s more than mildly exciting, it’s very exciting).

It wasn’t until I finished the book that I was able to appreciate it’s brilliance. It feels like a book that I need to re-read, and I hope that some time I will.

For lovers of deranged characters, pick this one up

A very interesting take on how a husband and wife react when the husband is accused of having sexual liaisons with several of his former pupils.
It is narrated beautifully throughout and takes on the debate on whether a crime has been committed.
The ending is just superb.

Vladimir is about relationships and sexual obsession. The story is narrated by a 58 years old female professor who is in an open marriage. She has her side of life and relationships, and so does her husband John. At the time of narration, we get to know that her husband who is also working in the same school is being investigated for his relationships with the young students.

This is a very strange and difficult book to review. I have sat and thought and I still have not reached a way to describe this book other than strange. A worthy read but strange.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I devoured this deeply interesting book in one sitting. Absolutely compelled by the narrator's voice, a fifty-something woman, married but loosely, to a college prof accused of predatory sexual misconduct spanning several years. Our narrator has no real sympathy for the women, who she believes were fully consenting adults, drawn to a man in a position of relative power. This book is not afraid to raise questions of sexual politics and I was so relieved to read a book that discusses nuance, and one that challenges the binary nature of any discussion in the current climate.

Our narrator is intelligent and successful in her own right, and maddened by her own insecurity about her looks, especially as she ages and feels more invisible.

She finds herself irrevocably drawn to a new faculty member, Vladimir and finds herself imagining them as lovers.

I did feel the last 20% took a slightly abrupt and random turn, but at the same time, I quite like randomness.

For anyone who likes to read a book that makes you think, reflect and nod in agreement at uncomfortable truths, this is one for you.

I absolutely loved this book and I hate to say it but I feel like the marketing has done this book a disservice. The front cover design does not suit the content whatsoever as it seems to depict a young woman (whereas the narrator is middle aged) and the focus on the opening line about loving older men brings to mind a My Dark Vanessa-style novel. In reality, Vladimir is a lot more than yet another Lolita-inspired #MeToo tale (I guess the title doesn’t dissuade that comparison either). The narrator is wonderfully acerbic, the writing is excellent, the skewering of academia is on point. One not to miss.

Having read other reviews and seen Vladimir mentioned in lots of books to read lists I was expecting to love this book, but being honest I struggled with it slightly. It is brilliantly written but I found the characters all a bit too self focused and hard to warm to. The unnamed narrator is a very intelligent, educated woman but it felt to me like her life was sadly based on her doing whatever or being whoever she felt she needed in order to be liked / loved and not what made her happy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Vladimir.

The narrator of Vladimir is an unnamed English Literature professor, the wife of John, with whom she has an open relationship. However, when John is suspended and accused of having extra-marital affairs with his students, the marriage comes under the spotlight, especially as she is seen to have condoned John's behaviour. While waiting for John's trial our narrator admits to lusting after a young professor, Vladimir, in the belief he lusts after her as well. And so she plots his seduction ...

An unusual narrative of a common theme. Is the wife committed to behaving the same as her husband in order to hurt him? Is this just a middle-aged fantasy on her behalf? I'm not sure this is ever revealed although the ending comes as a surprise. I enjoyed reading Vladimir although I felt it was slow in some places. Many thanks to NetGalley and Picador for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When you struggle to review a novel because you know its narrator would look scathingly on any of the comments that you make about it, that's when you know you've just read an excellent character study. The unnamed narrator of Julia May Jonas's debut novel, Vladimir, is an English professor in her late fifties at a small liberal arts college who's popular with her Gen Z students despite the fact that she stereotypes them all as a woke mass. She's frustrated with the group of former students who had sexual relationships with her husband, John, also a professor at the college, and now claim this was inappropriate: 'I wish they could see themselves not as little leaves swirled around by the wind of a world that does not belong to them, but as powerful, sexual women interested in engaging in a little bit of danger, a little bit of taboo, a little bit of fun.' She's also frustrated with her current students whom, she believes, are unable to engage with literature because they're too concerned about whether it has the right credentials. When she teaches a class on Rebecca, she complains:

'They could critique only based on representation, they missed the formal elements of a story. Of course Rebecca is, in many ways, a story that is erected in misogyny, demonising other women, demonising the other, but I was not interested in that for them. I wanted them to see how suspense was created, how symbols were utilised, how repetition made the ghost of Rebecca rise from the page.' (as an aside, YES! This is exactly how I feel about Rebecca.)

Our narrator's sexual obsession with Vladimir, a tenure-track new hire in his early forties, feels at least partially manufactured by her to 'prove' that women, especially ageing women, are as capable of objectifying and using others as men are. She claims that, having published two novels, that she had 'many years of peace' writing only for herself, but now her literary ambition is rising again. Vladimir is hugely engaging until its final pages, where I felt Jonas lost her nerve a bit. The ending feels like everyone got their just deserts, which doesn't suit this amoral novel or its narrator at all. Nevertheless, the narrative voice is so strong and accomplished that I'm excited to see what Jonas writes next.

Vladimir is a book of three parts. The first, introduces John and his unnamed wife, literary academics, and the writing is gorgeous. The wife's wit and intelligence shine - she discusses the #MeToo movement, her husbands need for sexual attention from the younger students, and what it means to grow old and how that shapes her interactions. This section was 5*s for me. Sadly, the plot sharply turned, and I found her character less relatable and definitely less likeable, until the final section which too neatly wrapped everything up. I did enjoy it, but I feel it could've been more.

As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I was going to love this book. The story follows a married couple in their fifties who have an open relationship. The husband has been accused of having relations with his students, leading to his suspension from teaching. His wife, a professor at the same college, is having a sexual reawakening after meeting a new, younger colleague Vladimir. She's also having to battle the ire of her female students, angry at her for staying with her husband and seeing it as her condoning his behaviour. Their adult daughter, unaware of the open nature of her parents' relationship, is also going through her own relationship struggles.

The book certainly took turns I wasn't expecting, and there was definitely allusions to Lolita in here. Disturbing at times, with a not particularly likeable main character (although I found her hilariously snarky at times) - both things I tend to enjoy!

A unique storyline in an academic setting with older main characters getting themselves into trouble. I had a great time reading this!

I really wasn't sure on this book, at the time of reading I was a bit despondent. Yet now that it has a been a few weeks from reading it has really stayed with me. It is a story of courage, hope and loss; of what a woman really wants but doesn't allow herself to have. How women put themselves last on their list.

Complex and clever but ultimately enjoyable and humorous in parts. This book really delves into sexual politics in a way other novels simply have not. I struggled to like the characters yet couldn’t stop reading, I found myself fascinated in the story

Initially, I wasn’t sure about it - the somewhat introspective first-person narrator irritated me, and I found it self-indulgent. However, as the novel progressed, it grew on me, so much so that I actually really liked it.

Here, we are told the story from the [unnamed] narrator’s p.o.v. about her relationship with her husband, John, and how they’ve had a less than conventional marriage. He has had a lot of extra-marital affairs and she has never been too bothered. When she is perceived as someone who has condoned his behaviour, we see a character who wants to do something different - and so begins her lusting after Vladimir, a much younger junior professor.

Most of the novel focuses on building up to John’s trial, and the way some of the narrator’s colleagues believe she should step down to show solidarity with those affected. When a situation arises which allows her to have quality time with her conquest, things take a different turn.

Without spoiling the story, what happens towards the end is quite unexpected - in more ways than one. In some ways, it feels rushed, and slightly clunky, which is why I’m not awarding 5*. Despite this, the story is timely and in a similar vein to other books, such as Lisa Taddeo’s ‘Three Women’.

I was in two minds about whether to request a copy of Vladimir - it felt like I kept seeing it everywhere online pre-publication, and given how much I've struggled with some of the most hyped reads of the last few years (or perhaps that my expectations have not quite matched up with the reality of said books) I am often leery of buying in to the hype.

But I'm so glad I took a chance on this novel. Roxane Gay's description of it as "smart and cynical" feels apt, and whilst the protagonist's behaviour and views were often problematic I felt fully immersed into her world and couldn't wait to find out where things were going to go next. Highly recommended!

Our unnamed protagonist is a 58 year old College Professor in the US, teaching English Literature. Her husband, John, stands accused of inappropriate sexual relationships with several students, albeit in the times before the College explicitly banned such relationships.

The couple have always had an open marriage and we know this because this story is told by John’s wife throughout. It’s a fascinating and debate raising novel. The timing gleefully encompasses both the immense sexual revolution of the 60’s and 70’s and today’s #MeToo movement. Two occurrences which are in direct contradiction of each other.

Our narrator has a good conceit of herself. She prides herself on her ability to connect with her students and at the same time she feels scorn for those who have brought their accusations against her husband for his abuse of power, because, after all, was it not that very power that attracted them in the first place? Yet she finds that both her status and her own feminism are now challenged by the very students who used to hang on her every word.

Her relationship with her own daughter, Sid, a lawyer and a lesbian is less successful. Indeed, her family life is all but dead, as she and her husband barely converse and Sid and she clash over pretty much everything. Now she is not enjoying the knowledge that her students are looking on her and pitying her; feeling the need to offer their advice that she should not be standing by her cheating partner.

She is also increasingly drawn to a newly arrived married colleague, Vladimir Vladinski, whose debut novel is remarkable. She is a writer of small success and she sees in Vladimir a younger version of herself. Now she is getting older and her body less beautiful, she finds herself drawn in a provocative, sexual way to this man with a beautiful body and a beautiful mind. The fact that Vladimir is both a husband and a father and that his wife is fragile as a result of depression is dismissed in her mind, or at least serves only to make him more attractive.

Her sexual fantasies in relation to Vladimir grow and with her newly re-engaged longing, she finds again the desire to write, alongside the emergence of a plan for deliberate seduction.

Vladimir beautifully portrays the sexual politics of today in the rarified world of academia. Touching on cancel culture, confronting ageing and challenging the idea of the non-sexual post-menopausal woman, Julia Jonas creates a thoughtful contribution to the current debate on ideas and freedom of expression in literature.

The comparisons with Nabokov are interesting and there’s a lot to think about in this detailed and multi-layered character study. I greatly enjoyed the journey and my thoughts keep returning to some of the book’s themes – and that in itself makes it a winner for me.

What a read this is!
Our terrible, spikey female narrator is an English professor whose awful husband, also a professor at the same college, has been suspended amid allegations of sexual misconduct from former students.
It’s dark, unruly and messy with perplexing unlikeable characters - but it’s smart and wryly funny.
It delves into the complexities of power and gender, consent and coercion, victim and agency. And explores our vulnerabilities, obsessions and shame.
There is a surreal gear shift two-thirds of the way in - but go with it! This is a cunning, compelling read!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

I’ve been excited to read this book ever since I first saw the extremely aesthetically pleasing cover and now I have, I can confirm it is every bit as incredible as I’d hoped! Our narrator is a phenomenal main character to follow. Her thought patterns and incisive social commentary is endlessly fascinating and deeply compelling. Vladimir is also written with a remarkable deftness and surety that is even more impressive considering this is a debut. It is a sharply intelligent book which manages to achieve moments of true poignancy intermixed with a caustic provocative humour that I just adored. Every single piercing page of Vladimir had me in awe and it has gone straight on my list of all time favourite books. Seductive, smart and stunningly assured.