Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

101 reviews

sages_shelf's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

leigh_47's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

emml1604's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-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

4.75

I don’t think I read this book. I think I inhaled it and let it run through my bloodstream before it pushed its way back out of me. 

(Full review on good reads)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

alicibisi's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, and Child abuse

schellymelly's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, and Death of parent

cr_valentine's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Incest, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Toxic friendship

m_moon's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• 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, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

mbzoller's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Devistatingly relatable. More to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Vomit, 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

lemonsyellow's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

This book. THIS. BOOK. I imagine that each person who reads it will have a different perspective. Kate Elizabeth Russell takes extremely difficult subject matter and does a really job taking the reader through what goes through a young victim’s mind. Vanessa doesn’t see her illicit affair with her high school teacher as abuse. But all of the signs are there. The manipulation is there. The gaslighting is there. Her own disgust is there but she simply ignores it and why? Because she never got to see what love is supposed to be like. So this is love for her. 

This book is a slippery slope for Vanessa and the entire time I wanted to help her up, protect her, yell at her for not seeing how horrible it was. It’s tragic at every turn but I could not stop reading. 

Take care of yourself first before reading this book. If you are triggered by sexual assault, grooming, or anything having to do with this subject matter have some support to help you through if you choose to read on. 

The narrator (Grace Gummer) was the heart and soul of this story for me. She brought this character to life for me in such vivid ways. I would listen to anything else she narrates. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, and Suicide