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A review by madreadings
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“He was a grown man and you were fifteen.”
“Vanessa, you didn’t ask for that. You were just trying to go to school.”
Absolutely dark and sad reading, one that will stick with you far long after you put the book down. Vanessa still cannot fully accept the abuse she faced for years, still wrapped in the web that Strane had spun for her. Even as the novel flashes back to the present, Vanessa never sees what happened to her as “rape-rape.”
She is perhaps one of the most realistic victims I’ve read — one still refusing to see herself as one, unable to see anything that happened to her as beyond a love story. She even admits this, saying if it wasn’t a love story what else could it have been.
Stories like this are important when it was published and even more so as time goes on
“Vanessa, you didn’t ask for that. You were just trying to go to school.”
Absolutely dark and sad reading, one that will stick with you far long after you put the book down. Vanessa still cannot fully accept the abuse she faced for years, still wrapped in the web that Strane had spun for her. Even as the novel flashes back to the present, Vanessa never sees what happened to her as “rape-rape.”
She is perhaps one of the most realistic victims I’ve read — one still refusing to see herself as one, unable to see anything that happened to her as beyond a love story. She even admits this, saying if it wasn’t a love story what else could it have been.
Stories like this are important when it was published and even more so as time goes on
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism