This is a contemporary retelling of Lolita, from the pov of the schoolgirl. Told in the first person, Vanessa tries to come to terms with the ongoing relationship that she had with her literature teacher, which started when she was 15 years old, and he was 42. Although Vanessa refuses to see herself as a victim, Jacob Strane was clearly a predator. From the moment she introduces herself as "Vanessa from nowhere", he knows she is the one..and outsider... and grooms her relentlessly. He convinces her, using literature and emotional manipulation, that their tragic romance was predestined and inevitable. He tells her he is special, so willing, not like any other woman he's ever known. Years later, as an adult, she laments "it's strange to know that whenever I remember myself at fifteen I'll think of this". She struggles to "see more of the world without him behind my eyes" and asks herself "who is to blame?"
It is a difficult read, but a brilliant look into the mind of a person truly brainwashed into believing that the blame for the transgression of ephebophilia was the fault of an alluring teen, just trying to go to school, not understanding that his experience allowed him to use his words and her emotions to get her permission to abuse her. I had to put it down and ruminate on the disturbing realization that this does happen all to often. ( )

A heart-breaking, haunting, exceptional novel. As one of the most poignant and memorable books of the 21st century, this gnawing response to Nabokov's Lolita gives readers another perspective of the ugly reality of child sexual abuse. Vanessa does not believer herself to be a victim, a survivor, or a hero. She can only cling to what her life is as defined by her high school English teacher. This book is hard to read. It's hard, it's sad, it's revolting at times. But it is real. The un-reality that Vanessa is so desperate to keep is our reality, it is, no matter how badly you want her to understand, her reality.
To say that her epiphany at the end of the book feels like taking a hit straight to the heart is an understatement. The work that Russell has put in to get us to this ultimate moment of catharsis is indescribably overwhelming.


Do NOT read this book if you will be triggered by the subject matter. It is explicit and painful, and it is never-ending. It is unrelenting, and if you think you will be triggered by this book then do not read it. If you think this will help you in any way, and I am sympathetic to the belief that this content is helpful for people with trauma, I urge you to be fully aware of your body and mind, ask yourself if you feel ready, and put the book down if you do not wish to continue. To anyone reading this, I wish you well post-reading, or pre-reading if you're reading through reviews to decide if this is for you. ( )

[Trigger warning]
With more and more survivors coming forward with experiences like Vanessa's, this story is an unsettling but important read for those who can stomach the subject matter. The author's unveiled a layer of complexity that allowed this story to make a long lasting impact on the way I think about abusive relationships, sexual consent and protecting children and/or survivors.

What was good:
- The slow and steady progression of Vanessa's relationship with her abuser, Strane, communicated how insidious his grooming efforts were. This man was nothing if not patient. His character struck a perfect balance of condescending (without being blatantly cruel) but affectionate and validating enough to keep kid Vanessa (who is friendless, what a coincidence) coming back for more. This was so profound that adult Vanessa's self-image continues to revolve around how this man saw her at 15. The way these exchanges were portrayed showed how easy it is for anyone, teenage or otherwise, to fall into the clutches of one of these people.
- Stane's impact on adult Vanessa's psyche and behaviour. Throughout the story, she excuses his actions by reassuring herself (and others) that what had happened was not was as it seemed and that she had been a willing party. And that she was just one of those teenagers just matured faster. Or that he was the only person to see how extraordinary she was. As nauseating as these thoughts were to read, it made it so much clearer how ruinous and significant Strane's abuse continues to have on adult Vanessa. She would rather sooner continue a lifelong devotion to the man who ruined her life and romanticize their relationship because she couldn't bear to come to terms with the effect he had had on her entire life. When that rationalization became clear, I was devastated. Because of course - accepting a less excruciating truth may be something everyone does to one degree or another. ( )

I feel so relieved to be done with this book. To be honest, I had little expectation when I started listening to the audiobook. If it was a kindle or paperback, there's a big chance I would have dropped reading this book out of anger. Even if I liked the writing, the story made me depressed and frustrated. Not because it involves teacher and student or the big age gap or any other moralistic views. In fact, I read this because of everything I mentioned.

The thing that made me angry about the book is one, Stain, S-T-A-I-N, yes, I'm writing his name as a stain. I wonder if the author chose his surname for this reason. At first, I was neutral and felt giddy about their forbidden relationship like Vanessa was, but the moment it becomes clear that he was nothing but a manipulative coward, I wanted to claw his face. He used Vanessa and tossed her aside when his position and honor were at stake when he's the one who seduced her first.

The second character I hate is Vanessa. Yeah, I'm not on her side either. Although I hate stain more, she doesn't make it easy to like her either, scratch that, every character annoys me, especially the stupid journalist.

Vanessa was fifteen, yes, but FIFTEEN YEARS OLD have minds of their own! They may lack experience, but they are not mentally undeveloped. They're not stupid.

She let stain used her, then later made stories about herself instead of outright saying she was manipulated. I get it, I feel to murder stain too, but Vanessa disguised her disgust for him as "love." It got under my skin how she keeps describing everyone's aging body. What's wrong with aging? The problem with these men isn't their age. What makes them ugly is the way they behaved. PTSD? Please, I suffered PTSD which took more than 15 years to get better, and what I "see" while listening is a whiny woman who never matured from her fifteen years old self. Sometimes she even gives off victim playing vibe.

To end this "review" I'd say that what I like the most in the book is the part where she didn't let that journalist use her too.

Would I recommend the book? Ah, it's complicated. I didn't hate the book; I like it even? I think. But it annoyed and depressed me. It's dark and... it's complicated. So I'd say, if you're curious, try it reading it. ( )

Blood brilliant! I was engrossed in this tale of abuse and the inner world of the protagonist. Devastatingly honest with a beautiful twist re: the "victim" of the story and the relationship between both parties. Russell's balancing of the subject matter was psychologically masterful; she gets right into the mind of those involved and pulls us in so many directions we are left reeling. Ideally be an adult if you are reading this - and I don't just mean chronological age. If you can't handle such a deep, often disturbing, topic I'd say steer clear. This isn't for those that simply can't separate their own beliefs about a situation with the artistic portrayal of said situation. ( )

This book was a difficult read, but a worthwhile one. ( )

I couldn't stop reading this book and will think about it for a long time. Those thoughts are somewhat unwelcome and complicated. This book made me think differently about the agency of girls and women, including my own.

I was struck by the way that the novel Lolita was described by so many of the characters. The narrator needed it to be a love story. I was horrified by her interpretation. Now I can't stop thinking about what my interpretation of the novel would be if I'd read it for the first time at 15 instead of 54. ( )

This is one of those books that will stick in your head for a long, long time. Well written, well developed, and engaging. It's the kind you want to throw across the room in frustration, but you just have to find out what happens next. Jacob is a narcissistic, manipulative pig. The saddest part - this happens, it happens all the time. Brilliant young women from supportive families fall into the pit of manipulation and can't scratch or crawl their way out. ( )

This is a difficult, painful, disturbing book. It is also a book you cannot walk away from. It turned me inside out more times than I can count. A predator chooses his victim. The grooming, the manipulation, the abuse. The story of how a young girl’s perception of reality can be warped, twisted, destroyed. This novel is almost like an encyclopedia of trauma – it is seen from every angle, every possible consequence explored.

There is a dialogue with Nabokov (naturally). “Lolita” was written in a different world, yet it IS disturbing that the novel called “Lolita” is not about Dolores Haze, it is about Humbert Humbert. I applaud Kate Elizabeth Russell for letting Vanessa Wye tell her own story.
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As you can see from the “dates read” I swallowed this book in one mad gallop. It is compelling. It is unsettling. As someone who experienced sexual abuse as a child and again as an adult, and who still wrestles with it in my relationships with others, this story gripped me tight.

Told in alternate flashback and current day, Russell links the story of Vanessa intensely to the damage done, the damage she is only beginning to realize and understand.

Often people who have been abused tell themselves comforting stories about how “it wasn’t really abuse”, and “it wasn’t anything”, and worst of all, “I wanted it, too”, while long damaging rifts crack open across their lives and minds. It’s hard to estimate the damage done by sexual assault, even if it seems gentle, if it seems like something you wanted at the time. Grooming is real. For those who abuse and yet think it really wasn’t anything, this book should be mandatory reading.

Not that they WILL read it, of course. They haven’t done anything wrong, have they?

A wonderfully written book but be aware it WILL mess with your head. In a good way, actually.

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Such a difficult subject to write about and Kate Elizabeth Russell did it exceedingly well!

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Giving it 4 stars as it is written well... but hard to read due to the content. Compelling and horrible rolled into one. ( )

Hard to read & hard to put down. ( )

My Dark Vanessa is a haunting story. Alternating between the two timelines of past and present it tells the story of Vanessa and her English teacher - their sexual/emotional relationship and its affect on Vanessa throughout her life.

I do not know what to say about this book other than it was a HARD read but also SO good. I closed this book having shed tears and with a bit of an ache in my soul because it is easy for me to relate in some ways to Vanessa. Chilling and heartbreaking...managing to be hopeful at the end. I loved this book. It was tough...I found myself compelled to read it and yet I needed to put it down every so often and just...feel...comprehend...take a deep breath.

If you are a sexual abuse survivor this may be triggering so it is hard to recommend this book to everyone. If you think you will be okay reading descriptions of abuse and a victim's struggle with their grooming and abuse, then I do recommend this book. Though difficult, it was a good book. An important story and one that highlights the importance of giving victim's the power over their own stories in their own time and not victim blaming. 5 stars. ( )

This is an example of a book I avoided since it came out. Then it was also rather well-received, written about extensively in sources of note, and was devastatingly timely in the era of the awakening "Me Too" movement. With all that in my head, I decided to take it easy and stay off the tormented tale, thinking I wouldn't read it at all.

But no. I'm not that simple, and I'm happy to report I picked this up at last, putting aside reservations and vowing to give it an honest shot. And what can I say except that I'm very happy I did.

Now, the subject matter. A girl, fifteen, and her teacher, forty-two, involved in a sexual liasion. Yuck! one screams. Instinctively the desire is to turn away. But the beginning, the part where the writer was skating on the thinnest ice, was so skilfully done that it made me breathe a sigh of relief and carry on.

Our Vanessa is at a boarding school in Maine when she meets her English Lit. teacher, Jacob Strane. Vanessa is a bit of a loner, the kind of person who would be termed a 'crank' if she were older. Her introversion, her writerly talents, her prickliness, that teenage angst are limned expertly; when the teacher refers to the essential 'darkness' within his teenage student, yes, you see it too.

And so through the means of various literary explorations including the inevitable 'Lolita', the adult manipulates this malleable bit of adolescent spirit and flesh. Praising her writing. Making breath-taking observations. Coming closer, ever so closer, inch by careful inch, until. Vanessa doesn't stand a chance. Things begin to happen between them. All the while, the man asks, asks, asks, for 'permission.' Nothing, he avers, will happen without HER wanting it to happen. And yet, what of that first encounter, you want to scream. Yes, indeed.

The unavoidable fisasco follows: in a master stroke of more manipulation and deceit, upon discovery, the teacher gets off with the lighter sentence. Vanessa is banished to another school.

Cut to years later. Another former student, Taylor Birch, has come forward to accuse Strane of abuse. And this is where I was caught up in admiration of our author. For here, it would have been easy to go down the 'all or nothing' route. Bash Strane, make Vanessa join the increasing number of voices against him. But no. All along, Vanessa states, with truth, that she was never abused. Mind she's going to a therapist and here we're given clues as to why this might be: "It was love. I need it to be. Because if it wasn't, what was it? This is my whole life." (I'm paraphrasing here, not an exact quote.)

Sigh. What tangled webs we weave! Next come the after-effects of that experience marring Vanessa's adult life. Here too, while she's definitely exasperating, she never veers into idiot territory; yet another example of skilled writing.

We stumble our way to the ending, being constantly repelled, aghast, sympathetic, empathetic, disheartened, enraged, and so on. Exhausted, too. In the end, we are offered a small possibility of redemption. No real resolution, but can there ever be with these circumstances?

I would recommed My Dark Vanessa. It's pitch-perfect, immersive, even haunting. A stellar example of a storyteller at her height (even if astoundingly, this is a debut novel!). I am still thinking about all of it days after reading, and that tells it all. ( )

Fascinating but super disturbing. You might need a palate cleanser after reading this one. ( )

I had to "DNF" at around 50%, but I went to the back of the book and read the last 3 chapters. Afterwards, I went online and searched for a summary.

Why did I DNF? For two reasons: One, this book was simply too triggering for me and brought up many negative past experiences - and I just don't think I'm at a place in my life right now where I can safely bring those emotions back up to the surface... just yet. Two, I was getting very, very tired of the repetitiveness. Sometimes it really just felt like the same plot was going on over and over again.

The ending itself was difficult for me to grasp. Did I like it? Did I hate it? I honestly wasn't sure. For one, I thought it was realistic (not to mention, relatable). And I like that. I think it's great that there are books coming out touching on this topic and telling it in the most realistic way possible, because not every SA survivor ends up with a grand HEA where their abusers end up persecuted to the highest degree and in jail. Sometimes, we just have to deal with reality and that reality can be... disappointing.

I did like how Vanessa's ending was more relatable, more realistic... but that doesn't mean I wasn't sad about it. When I read books, I normally want a HEA. Probably because my life kind of sucks in the grand sceme of things and I want my fictional worlds to end up happy. I wanted Vanessa to get her revenge, I wanted her to get her strength and voice back. I wanted her to feel empowered in every way imaginable. And it kind of sucked that that didn't really happen, and although I was thankful for the realism, I was kind of sad that not only do I have to deal with these sucky things in the real world, I now have to deal with it in the fictional world.

I don't think that this book was written poorly, and I do think that it shed light on a lot of topics surrounding SA, abuse, grooming, etc. I guess I'm just kind of salty that it didn't end the way I wanted it to, and that's OK. Not every book has to do that for me.

This review was all over the place, and I apologise for that. I just think it's a really hard book for me to summarise my thoughts on. Anyways, on to the next book I go. ( )

This isn't the kind of book you read for entertainment. We dive deep into 15 yr old Vanessa's sexual relationship with her 40ish yr old high school teacher. Vanessa is awkward, a loner and smart. Her innocence excites him. He knows how to make her feel good and he exploits her. Over the next 15ish yrs we see how this bright young woman can never realize her potential. All her other relationships are corrupted by HIM.

Did I like this book? Not really but yet I was intrigued by how he controls her. She is smart, she knows it is wrong for him to be with her so then why does she continue? ( )

Just finished and it has left me stunned and breathless! I would completely recommend but I need to wrap my head around this one for a more complete review. Book hangover! ( )

Holy S*** this book. Need to let it settle but I tackle a review!

This was such a powerful, heart-breaking, complicated and challenging story that offers no easy answers to the reader. It’s real.. Vanessa feels real, she is messy and we may not be able to understand why she does the things she does, because she doesn’t really either.

As young teen Vanessa is something of an outsider, she’s a bit odd and the intense attachment she formed to her previous best friend, and subsequent jealousy over her boyfriend, lead to a fall out and now she is alone at her boarding school. Her English teacher starts paying her special attention and soon she believes herself to be in love … and an intense “affair” begins.

There are so, so many classic grooming techniques in this story. Of course, OF COURSE.. she is given a copy of classic Lolita early on (I will have to finally read this one day to see how misread it really is!) and the line “My Dark Vanessa” is a poem by Nabokov.

Vanessa isn’t what we’d like in a “perfect victim” which is where the challenge lies. She is completely stuck in the past, she still loves Stane even after everything he does to her.. when other victims come forward she denies the truth and even tries to protect him. Often she comes close to understanding the truth but she always backs away from it. In her recollections, if you read between the lines, it is clear she never enjoyed the sex (she finds him physically repulsive), yet she still somehow pursues it.

I wanted to hug her and shakes her at the same time. She’s a frustrating but incredibly damaged character.

You can tell that the author put a work into this story, in the afterword she explains that this is the result of decades of work and how the story changed as the way the world viewed stories like Vanessa’s changed. You can feel it, I’m blown away by this book and I will not soon forget it. ( )

This was such a difficult read. At times I found myself very annoyed with how coy and naive Vanessa was, along with how awful and irritating she was PB (post-browick (idk how you spell it)) It made me so angry to see how absolutely wrong and relentlessly pitiful she was. But it really isn't her fault. It's what she went through that made her this way.

I think it's safe to say I didn't like Strane, duh. Who did? At the beginning, imagining yourself as a young high school student with a super hot teacher, it's like scandalous and fun, until moves are made and then it's scandalous, terrifying, and incredibly illegal.

I think it's the fact that I cannot relate to almost any of this that makes me so irritated at nearly every point in this story. I am seeing it all from an outsider perspective, and it makes me want to pick up the entire story and throw it out a window. I wanted to scream, "How could you be so stupid?!" or "She's fucking 15! What do you mean!?" or "Yes that's fucking rape! Are you blind?" but she was. She was blind, in a way. Life and mind completely altered. Seeing everything through Strane-colored lenses, something I have the privilege of not dealing with.

I also hated every cliche younger Vanessa portrayed. It made me want to gouge my eyes out with a barbecue skewer.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. It deals with very important topics, and a very important perspective to things a lot of people slide under the rug.

This book is difficult to stomach, and could be triggering to some. Proceed with caution. 4/5 ( )

Book Title: My dark Vanessa
Author: Kate Elizabeth
Format: Kindle

Book Title:
The title of the book ' My Dark Vanessa ' is humane and emotional.

Book Cover:
The cover image of the book is the face of a young woman with closed eyes who is in distress. One of the eyes is covered with a butterfly outwardly depicting the story oscillates in different timelines that can be related to a butterfly's life.

About the author:
Kate Elizabeth Russell is originally from eastern Maine. She holds a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Kansas and an MFA from Indiana University. My Dark Vanessa is her first novel

About the book:
The book everyone will be talking about' Louise O'Neill 'a package of dynamite' Stephen king a stylist best book of 2020 An era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacher all he did was fall in love with me and the world turned him into a monster Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher. She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, The teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student. Vanessa is horrified by this news because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn't the abuse. It was love. She's sure of that. Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim and just one of many. Nuanced, uncomfortable, bold, and powerful, My dark Vanessa goes straight to the heart of some of the most complex issues our age.

My review:

The story is about a 15-year-old girl Vanessa who gets into a relationship with her manipulative teacher. The book talks about the psychological aspects and dynamics between the two.
The story dates back to the year 2000 when a young, naive, ambitious, and beautiful girl Vanessa Wye becomes a bait unknowingly and is in an affair with Jacob Strane, a 5-year-old English teacher. The author explains in detail which some of the readers might find the narration too raw and unacceptable, the incidents and the encounters between Vanessa and Strane.

Now, in the present, i.e. in the year 201, when the #metoo movement occurred, Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student and he reaches out to Vanessa to help him from being charged. This is when Vanessa starts thinking and digs into her past. The story is narrated in the first person, and thus as a reader, everyone travels with Vanessa and feels her every emotion. At this moment, Strane calls her and insists her to think that what happened between them many years ago was on her will and consent. Just after hearing this, Vanessa falls into the confusion trap.

As she starts digging her past, the readers are given information about every activity in detail.
How did she start an affair with Strane, what made her like him, how did he handle her, etc., are explained in a very detailed manner. There are some pages where personally I wanted to skip as they were causing discomfort.
There are many things that the author has focused on while penning down this book. With so much pressure in life handled by a naive teenager, there is every possibility for a reader to breakdown and the same happened with me. While reading I was in parallel thinking about my friend's sister who was a victim of physical abuse by her brother. This had more effect on me while reading the book. I had to take two breaks in completing the book. For a first time author, this story is a Herculean task and as a woman, I cannot resist myself in applauding the author's audacity.
Oscillating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa showcases a memory and trauma with the pain and innocence of a teenage girl discovering her true power through her femme. The book is a thought-provoking and a perfect page-turner. The book also indirectly talks about a teenager's problems, the victimhood of sexual predators unknowingly, the haunting memories and how it affects her overall personality as she grows up, her muted feelings, her scary thoughts about her partner, difficulty in maintaining healthy relationships, becoming prey to depression and many such more socio-psychological aspects.
Characters:
There are books where you either fall in love with the characters or completely hate for their demeanor. But here, in this book, it is really hard to judge whether a character is lovable or likable or to be hated. Such is the complexity of characters and this situation arises because of the previous and subsequent actions of the characters. The character of Vanessa sometimes is likable as a bubbly 15 -year-old and stupid as a 32-year-old whereas, Strane, the professor is demonic but instills a thin line of apologetic personality. The other characters in the story that are introduced have their own stamp in the story.
Narration:
This book is a memoir of the protagonist Vanessa that swipes between the years 2000 and 2017. The story is narrated in the first person and the protagonist directly talks to the reader. She explains how as a fifteen-year-old she was, how she was trapped or rather viciously captured into her English Professor's hands who is a 45-year-old man. In the context of the #metoo movement in 2017, another woman claims her professor a sexual predator. This is when Vanessa is caught into confusion if her relationship was real love or was she given an illusion of love to satiate his animal hunger. This kind of different storytelling is found in the book and the narration in a few scenes is just top-notch. Kudos to the author for such a bold, raw, and rustic narration.

Language & Grammar:
A very fine language with rich vocabulary is found in the story. t times when the language used in the story emoted the feelings very strongly, it felt hard to believe that this is the author's first novel.

My Final Verdict:
Disturbing yet an honest story!

Book Title: 4/5
Book Cover: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Narration: 4/5
Language & Grammar: 4/5
Final Rating: 4/5

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I think this novel is incredibly important and I wish I had read it sooner. It is a message to anyone who scorned victims of SA/Abuse, saying "why don't they speak up?" and an insight into how pervasive and deep trauma can run. This book was hard to read at points and Vanessa's character was painfully relatable at times. The #MeToo movement brought so much to light and My Dark Vanessa shows just how complicated human emotions are in times of strife.

Lots and lots of trigger warnings for this book, but I couldn't recommend it enough. ( )

You can really tell how much time was put into crafting every sentence of this novel. ( )

The #MeToo movement has led to the fall of many high and mighty men (less high and mighty ones too) and belated justice for many wronged women. More importantly, however, this movement has highlighted that the issue of abuse on women goes deeper than just the immoral and illegal actions of individual men. Often, the abuse could not have been perpetrated without the complicity, the connivance or, at the very least, the lack of concern, of wider society.

The stories which we have seen in the media in the past years have also shown how complex the matter of “consent” can become. We have heard abusers defending themselves by saying that their victims “consented” to or even encouraged their advances. And, at a very superficial level, in some cases there could be some truth in this ‘defence’. But what exactly counts as “consent”? Where one of the parties is a minor, or in a vulnerable position, can it ever be present?

My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell’s debut novel, is unafraid to face these thorny questions head on. Its protagonist and narrator is the “Vanessa” of the title. As a wide-eyed, fifteen-year-old outsider at college, she is flattered by the attention she receives from her English tutor, Jacob Strane, thirty years her senior. This attention, however, soon changes into something far creepier, developing into a sexual liaison which will mark and traumatize Vanessa well into adulthood. As Strane is accused by other ex-students in the wake of #MeToo, Vanessa has to face past horrors head on, and to admit to herself that what she considers the “love affair of her life” is, in reality, a sordid case of manipulation and abuse.

Russell’s novel is intelligent and nuanced. Whilst it is clear throughout that Strane is an abuser and Vanessa his victim, this is neither a black-and-white account nor a one-sided manifesto. And the novel is so much the better for this. It helps, for instance, that Vanessa is not a particularly likeable character and that her negative traits cannot all be blamed on Strane. This in no way lessens the gravity of the abuse she suffers – on the contrary, the novel shows how the weaknesses of a potential victim can be worked upon by an abuser. Russell also points to the factors which have allowed abusive practices to take place unchecked – from a reluctance of the authorities and family members to admit to inconvenient truths in the hope that they will just “go away”, to the subtle glorification of abusive relationships whether in “high” or popular culture (from literature to pop songs). At the same time, Russell hints at some ambivalence about #MeToo as a "movement", in the sense that she emphasizes that the history of each victim is different and there is no exclusively "valid" response to trauma. Trigger warning - some descriptions are explicit and revolting but, then again, the novels subject is not for the squeamish.

Is My Dark Vanessa the great book it is being touted to be? Admittedly, it is neither formally adventurous nor particularly striking in style and language. But it tells a timely and important story and does so effectively, leaving the reader with much food for thought. ( )