The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer

Gosh, I haven't been on Goodreads in forever. (I get these occasional emails saying things like, "Nathan, you've been reading Swiftly Tilting Planet for 9,999,999 days -- what else are you reading these days?") Well, lots, I swear! I just kind of fell off the Goodreads bandwagon through no fault of theirs. In any case, someone recently commented on there that they liked my review of Jennifer Lynch's The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer. Perfect timing, too, since Gus is watching it with me and we're thick in the middle of the Donna Hayward-Harold Smith plot-line, arguably my favorite in the show.

Here's my review from a couple years ago (yes, I was in e.e. cummings' mode and wrote this all in lowercase):

Recommended for: fans of Go Ask Alice and/or The Perks of Being a Wallflower

the secret diary of laura palmer, written by jennifer lynch (david lynch's daughter), follows the life of a young girl from the ages of 12 until 17 as she experiments with sex, drugs, and giving into our most base -- and sometimes worst -- impulses. laura transforms from a curious seeker of truths who loves cats and bakes cookies with her mom to a cocaine-using pet-killer who has sex with strangers. laura's relationships with her family and friends either disintegrate or get transformed into surface conversations and superficial interactions. laura can't find a way to pull herself out of the darkness.

the most upsetting & disturbing part of the book is laura's nightly encounters with BOB, a scraggly-haired and wicked man who crawls in her bedroom window and molests her, taunts her, cuts her, makes her see her worst thoughts.

this "diary" is a companion to the tv series, twin peaks, about a young town's unraveling as their local homecoming queen, laura palmer, washes up on the shore, dead and wrapped in plastic, filled with secrets, filled with seedy connections to too many of twin peaks' residents. david lynch, co-creator of twin peaks, whispered the name of laura's killer in his daughter's ear so that she could write the book with that knowledge guiding her. the killer's name, naturally, is never revealed (the last entry is written just days before her death) so there are no worries, Dear Readers, that this would give anything away from watching the brilliant, sad, spiritual, quirkily funny cult favorite. if you haven't seen it, the gold box set is just waiting for your indulgence. (just make sure you don't ruin anything by watching the extras before the show, and choose the "regular tv version" for the pilot, not the "international version," because you don't want to spoil any secrets before their time.)