The second book I decided to review is Kate Elizabeth Russell’s My Dark Vanessa, a psychological fiction novel portraying a 15 year old girl’s illicit affair with her professor.

I think the way the novel is quite well written – however, there is lot of controversy surrounding the novel. I’ll start with the negatives, or downfalls, of this book. My Dark Vanessa is criticized as romanticizing the abusive and pedophilic relationship that the main character had. A bit of history, too – this novel was published at the height of the me too movement – Russell was worried that her choosing to come out with a novel carrying these themes would come off as opportunistic or tone deaf.

However, I disagree that this novel is romanticizing abuse and pedophilia. Instead, I think that this is the reality that some victims live in – they don’t realize that what they’ve experienced is/was abuse, and may still be under the illusion. I think this novel sheds light on the fact that abuse isn’t always obvious – this character development is the perfect definition of grooming a person into believing that this is ok, and it sheds light to the fact that it isn’t. This novel is awareness for people who need it.

In addition, I have to commend how well written this novel is and the themes the author chose. This is a tough subject but I think the author did it very well.