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Genres linked with this book
  1. Contemporary

My Dark Vanessa

"Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer. 2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed? Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood.
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Jaya Shravan Reviewed on: 20-03-2021
Disturbing yet important to read

#bookreview #nospoilers #metoo . My dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell . It’s a kind of weird coincidence that I ended up binge watching “Bombay Begums” on Netflix & picking up “My dark Vanessa” at the same time. However, while the series focused on the kind of compromises that women make every day on the professional front, the book really hit some dark places with its story of child sexual abuse. . The book is just over 350 pages. It was a page turner for the first half. It captures the mindset of a child predator. It shows exactly how these kind of men are grooming youngsters at the school level. And it also showed us the other side - the child’s damaged thinking of everything. As it progressed, it became more and more disturbing. The descriptions of what can only be called rape kept repeating. And I had to put down the book at many times and take a breather. . Personally, what disturbed me the most was how pieces of characters from both Vanessa and her abuser, Strane are present among us. Most of us at some point or the other has played victim for whatever reason, and many others we know are manipulative in such a way that they always tend to turn shift blame rather than accept their role in things. The combination of two such people is deadly as we see it play out through the entire book. Vanessa, subjected to abuse ever since the tender age of 15, grows into a troubled adult - an enabler, who isn’t quite able to separate what has happened to her as abuse. Instead she thinks it’s love. Her constant need for validation, to be told that she’s wanted, loved, desired makes her a very complex and damaged individual. . It was very hard to read, but just as important to see just how actual grooming plays out. The adult is often considered to be caring, attention-giving, or being nice, & making the child feel like they want “this” too. This very important segregation happens between statutory rape and consent. Ultimately, the child is warned to keep this secret, shamed to accepting that they have a role in this, and damaging a big part of their lives. . Truly disturbing. But just as significant. . As always, thanks to @bookelphia for the book. . Rating - 4/5