(book review)

‘My Dark Vanessa’ is the story of 15-year-old Vanessa’s molestation by her 42-year-old teacher, Jacob Strain. To be honest, this sentence is enough to describe it briefly. The whole book is one big story about how this “relationship” ruined the girl’s life and how she cannot find herself at 32, when she was no longer a teenager.

I liked the style of writing: a lot of dialogues, descriptions of Vanessa’s emotions, her thoughts. It’s easy to immerse yourself in it and start to empathize with a girl. Sometimes, Vanessa annoyed me, especially the adult version of her, but soon enough I realized that she was really very traumatized. This is exactly the kind of behavior that a person who has experienced something like this can have.

As for the ending, it did not disappoint, although I almost completely predicted it. Another plot twist in the middle of the book surprised me.

The story sounds realistic and it makes it creepy. Among the minuses are millions and billions of mentions of ‘Lolita.’

I give a special point to the cover, because it’s a sin not to praise it. I give this book 8 out of 10, because it’s very specific.