Consent by Annabel Lyon
“Sara had refused the sherry her mother had offered her – though she wanted it – because it was sherry, and because it implied permission. The tiny glass of blood in her mother's hand looked good now, though.”
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, Consent is the fourth novel from Canadian writer Anabel Lyon, released in March this year in Australia. It’s a surprising and dark domestic drama with a thriller touch and a final twist that asks more questions than it answers.
Set in Vancouver, Canada, Consent focuses on two sets of sisters: Sara is the older sister to Mattie, born with an unnamed intellectual disability. Saskia and Jenny are identical twins, with only their looks in common. Despite the differences between them, the sisters feel a strong attachment to and protectiveness over each other.
Studious Saskia is living the stereotypical student life as she attains her graduate degree, while her glamorous twin, Jenny, lives a life of excess as a successful interior designer. We learn through snippets of conversation there is another side to Jenny. She is ‘not allowed’ to drink or take drugs, was repeatedly taken to psychologists as a child and may have spent time in a psychiatric hospital - but this is never fully explored. Jenny is also irrational, distracted easily and prone to making bad decisions:
“Saskia felt a flash of weariness. She has spent her entire life being told how close she and Jenny were. How much they loved each other, how she was Jenny’s rock. The truth was so much more complicated than that. That closeness didn’t shield her from Jenny’s manipulations, her cruelty.”
A shift occurs when Jenny is involved in a tragic accident that leaves her with ‘locked in’ syndrome. She is paralysed all over, except for her eyelids and she learns to communicate through blinking. As Saskia comes to terms with her sister's accident, and the impact on her family, she begins to uncover details about Jenny’s life she never knew. Details she’s not sure she wants to know.
There is a similarity between Jenny and Sara, although the two never meet. Equally drawn to excess and finer things in life, Sara blows through an inheritance she receives on a luxury life in France where she is supposed to be studying but ends up spending all her money on designer clothing, expensive perfumes and fine wine.
Sara returns home and goes on to become an ethicist academic, working for a university. Her sister, Mattie, requires full-time care and lives with their mother. When their mother passes away, Sara learns that Mattie has become close with Robert, a local handyman who has been assisting with odd jobs around the house. Not long after their mother’s funeral, Mattie calls Sara to inform her that she and Robert have gotten married.
Immediately suspicious of Robert’s intentions, she files with the court to have Mattie legally declared incompetent and the marriage annulled:
“Mattie couldn’t drive a car or concentrate on a book, and she needed help with bigger sums of money, but in a short interaction with her you would not necessarily know these things. She was sweet and friendly and wore expensive nice clothes chosen by Sara and their mother. Robert, though, she told the lawyer, would have known.”
When Mattie, like Jenny, also falls victim to a tragic accident, Sara and Saskia’s worlds collide unexpectedly. The story sets out in a new thriller-esque direction, as more details come to light (not least the classic of a missing mobile phone) and it becomes apparent that both of the sisters' accidents are not quite as they appear. Saskia and Jenny slowly learn that at the heart of their sisters’ tragedies is the same man - and he needs to be held accountable.
Consent begins to unpack some complex ethical questions about how much a person can and should be allowed to say what happens to them when governing bodies might deem them incapable. The scope of forms of consent the book explores is wide, covering sexual consent for Mattie, who is intellectually disabled but makes it clear she has needs, and for Jenny, who can’t physically comply but can communicate in some form. Lyon also touches on BDSM dynamics, the consent of marital affairs, consent in academic/intellectual property, consent in suicide pacts, and addiction. It’s a lot to digest in just over 200 pages.
Amongst all of this, Lyon also dives deep into high-end fashion and perfumery. There are many scenes going into detail on these topics, and although interesting, I failed to see how they aided the overall narrative. I would have preferred a deeper exploration of the ethical and moral ideas around consent that the book only begins to touch on.
That said, I enjoyed Lyon’s writing style, especially in describing high-fashion shopping, and her lucid lyricality when capturing the experience:
“Sara knew without knowing that there was champagne in that back room also, only not for her. Probably caviar too and cheese veined with edible gold and pâté of brandy and prune and human baby, to be nibbled on water crackers. Not for her, even though she was buying the dress today, and they were celebrating.”
This was an excellent page-turner that kept me guessing and intrigued until the ominous closing scenes. Lyon doesn’t leave us with an easy answer, and I think the ending will surprise many.
Offering a breadth of ideas around sexual consent, in particular, Lyon does an excellent job of highlighting just how nuanced these conversations can be, alongside the unrelenting determination of a devoted sister when seeking revenge.
Elaine Mead is a freelance writer and book reviewer, currently residing in Hobart, Tasmania. She is passionate about the ways we can use literature to learn from our experiences to become more authentic versions of ourselves and obsessed with showing you photos of her Dachshund puppy. You can find her online under www.wordswithelaine.com.
