Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Mia inquieta Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

34 reviews

diegolopez's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A great novel that explores themes of abuse, victimhood, and power-dynamic relationships.l  read again. It's well paced with characters you grow to care for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

allidone's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've seen a lot of places have this listed as a "dark romance" and that is definitely NOT what this is.  It's not romantic. It's heartwrenching and sickening and devastating.  There is no actual love in these pages.  There's nothing redeeming in the 'love story' told because it's between a 42 year old man and a 15 year old girl that continues until she is 22 years old (and he's 49) and the havoc that has wreacked on her life up until she's a 32 adult woman (and he's 59) and he's suddenly being called out for his pedophilia.  This is a man that groomed a 15 year old child by touching her in class and giving her a copy of Lolita to read like a manual. 
Most of this novel is the adult woman looking back on what happened to her and trying to reframe it in her mind.  Most of what I read made me feel physically ill.  My stomach hurt and I had to take frequent breaks from the book while also wanting to 'get it over with'.  It's a beautifully written novel that takes a real look at all those "age gap" tropes and the ongoing fantasy that having an affair with a teacher is in anyway sexy.  This takes a look at what that power imbalance, what that breaking of a young soul actually does to a person.
Vanessa isn't a loveable victim.  In fact, she insists through most of the novel that she's not a victim at all.  She wanted it and it was love and she knew what she was doing and he wasn't a monster.  All things to cope with what actually happened to her and what kept happening to her all through her youth.  The gaslighting and grooming that took place, the fact that while he initiated it all he turned it around and placed it on her.  The fact that he was always covering his bases, telling coworkers she had a crush and it might end up being a problem.  She coped the only way she knew how and that was to reclaim some of the agency she lost to him. Each sexual encounter reads as a loss of agency, that she didn't want to take all those steps but the secondary coping mechanism of continuing with it creates a sort of retroactive consent.  It doesn't.
It's incredibly triggering as a woman and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that has any experience of losing their agency, with rape or with assault.  This novel, while beautifully written, created a physical response that I battled throught the novel.  Ultimately I am glad I finished it, but it was a struggle and there were many moments that I considered DNFing the book entirely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Bullying, Self harm, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death

koriw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This book was graphic, tragic, & deeply triggering. I’m not sure it paid off enough in the end to make the first 75% worth enduring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

camigz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

En cierto contexto este libro puede ser difícil de atravesar, y tomar cierto tiempo para procesar, aunque muy bien propuesto el cómo aborda e hila los temas. Aprecié mucho este libro para mirar ciertas cosas desde un punto de vista fuera de la realidad personal, ver donde se entrelazan y sostener sobre eso mi opinión con amabilidad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Abandonment

emlunaml's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Abandonment, and Alcohol

reddeddy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

nineinchnails's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i feel weird reviewing and even rating this book considering the subject matter because even though it's technically fiction it feels horribly invasive, like reading someone's diary. it is very well written with beautiful prose and a protagonist who is extremely real and raw. the book did run a little long, especially considering there was little character development outside of vanessa but overall it was an extremely gripping read.

i would not recommend reading this as a survivor of rape and especially of child sexual abuse, more because of how adamant vanessa is that she was not abused than how graphic the abuse is written. it can be very hard to stomach her constant romanticisation and denial of strane's abuse, despite how obvious it us to us as readers that he manipulated her. 'manipulate' does not feel like anywhere near as strong of a word to portray how he controlled and exploited her.

vanessa is not a 'perfect victim' and she struggles with this well into adulthood; the idea that a woman must be perfectly chaste, perfectly humble, perfectly innocent, and perfectly untouched by the world to be believed or taken seriously as a victim is one that permeates our society to this day. what was she wearing?, she lead him on, she was asking for it, she wanted it. this novel does an incredible job at giving a voice to the many survivors who (unsurprisingly) don't fit that mould and showing a different perspective. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Vomit, and Mass/school shootings

Grooming, Dissociation, Post traumatic stress disorder, Child sexual abuse, and Student/teacher relationship

withreveling's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Grief, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

shakattxck's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

sierrabowers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was amazing. It tells a unique and sad story of a girl who is conflicted and broken. As I read it reminded me of Perks of Being a Wallflower and Looking for Alaska. It was melancholic and sad but also hopeful and brought forth a lot of thoughts regarding current society and how we treat victims of abuse, rather than how they need to be treated. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment