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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
edited, 16/2/24: i cannot give this book 5 stars for the problematic issues it represents.
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[reread] i read this book two years back and instantly fell in love with it, because i loved maise o’malley (god, i love protagonists who don’t stick to the norms and maise is one of them. bitch is sarcastic, screwed-up, and cynical. she likes fucking older men and she doesn’t care what you think), hiyam (the queen bitch, the cokehead, and the persian tycoon’s daughter <3), cinema references, pretentious lyrical prose, “euphoria” vibe, and shoegaze atmosphere of it. this book managed to twist familiar tropes into something refreshing. characters felt authentic and i cannot get over how every description was atmospheric and enticing.
according to the author, maise is an old soul who knows what she wants in life, and evan is young at heart and still searching. they meet somewhere in the middle. i have no comments on the romance aspect. but, yes, maise is eighteen and their relationship is legal. i was impressed by the lack of power imbalance between them, because maise is headstrong and unafraid to live for the moment. staying in or leaving the relationship, she’s the one who makes the choice and she won’t risk her future for a man.
if only i can ignore some issues: maise calling skinny girls bulimic, repetitive sex scenes, and evan’s past relationship (it was a bit creepy if you ask me). anyway, the basic idea of this book is fucked-up and i appreciate that it didn’t try to prove us the other way around. it rather explored the forbidden nature of their relationship logically, which made the book appear sophisticated. all in all, unteachable felt like an art-house erotic movie, and i love how the book ended in ambiguity.
playlist
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[reread] i read this book two years back and instantly fell in love with it, because i loved maise o’malley (god, i love protagonists who don’t stick to the norms and maise is one of them. bitch is sarcastic, screwed-up, and cynical. she likes fucking older men and she doesn’t care what you think), hiyam (the queen bitch, the cokehead, and the persian tycoon’s daughter <3), cinema references, pretentious lyrical prose, “euphoria” vibe, and shoegaze atmosphere of it. this book managed to twist familiar tropes into something refreshing. characters felt authentic and i cannot get over how every description was atmospheric and enticing.
”storm clouds obscured the real stars, but the city came alive, a horoscope of earthbound constellations spreading below us: meteoric tail lights, neon pulsars, twinkling and shimmering all the way to the horizon. it made my heart ache. the city at night gave me the same melancholy twinge i’d felt as a kid watching mom plug in the christmas tree. something beautiful and full of promise, but something you knew you could never touch”
“we spent two days straight having sex and watching movies and talking and laughing and kissing in a hazy, dreamy montage, until finally, we stumbled out into the indigo twilight, delirious and exhausted, blinking at the lights and cars and the speed of life as if we’d just come out of a hundred-year sleep”
according to the author, maise is an old soul who knows what she wants in life, and evan is young at heart and still searching. they meet somewhere in the middle. i have no comments on the romance aspect. but, yes, maise is eighteen and their relationship is legal. i was impressed by the lack of power imbalance between them, because maise is headstrong and unafraid to live for the moment. staying in or leaving the relationship, she’s the one who makes the choice and she won’t risk her future for a man.
if only i can ignore some issues: maise calling skinny girls bulimic, repetitive sex scenes, and evan’s past relationship (it was a bit creepy if you ask me). anyway, the basic idea of this book is fucked-up and i appreciate that it didn’t try to prove us the other way around. it rather explored the forbidden nature of their relationship logically, which made the book appear sophisticated. all in all, unteachable felt like an art-house erotic movie, and i love how the book ended in ambiguity.
”we were part of this place, the blood thrashing inside the steel heart of this city, the crimson in its stone veins. we were the cells burning like stars. people like us. passion like ours.”
playlist
Here's why this book is quite brilliant: It's both disturbing and beautiful at the same time. Since this is the exact situation for the entire relationship between Maise and Evan it kind of puts the reader in the same position as its characters. That's brilliant.
Reasons why this book is disturbing:
1. it's about a high school teacher being in a relationship with his student (and yes, even though Maise is 18, I was almost ready to give up on this book).
2. It realistically portrays the shocking life of broken children. Either battling with addiction or being the victim of a family member suffering from it.
3. It's about a 33-year-old man, dating an 18-year-old (yes, that goes hand-in-hand with the teacher-student thing but I think it deserves a separate mentioning because trying to make a romance with a 15 year age gap seems disturbing)
Reasons why this is beautiful:
1. the characters are fucked up, but together they make sense
2. Their love is pure and unfiltered, they hide nothing and everything from each other. They hide from the world while not giving a damn. They're contradictory, confusing, and yet, they make sense.
3. There's no sappy romance, no hero moment, no damsel in distress moment. It's love that is open and vulnerable and far from perfect and still, it pulls you in and doesn't let go.
So really, I thought this was amazing. I understand why people might be uncomfortable reading about this sort of relationship and I'm hypocritically admitting that I'd have a problem with a relationship like this in real life. But still, it's just beautifully executed.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, but up until that point I was on my toes, grossed out and enamored at the same time, unable to put the book down.
Reasons why this book is disturbing:
1. it's about a high school teacher being in a relationship with his student (and yes, even though Maise is 18, I was almost ready to give up on this book).
2. It realistically portrays the shocking life of broken children. Either battling with addiction or being the victim of a family member suffering from it.
3. It's about a 33-year-old man, dating an 18-year-old (yes, that goes hand-in-hand with the teacher-student thing but I think it deserves a separate mentioning because trying to make a romance with a 15 year age gap seems disturbing)
Reasons why this is beautiful:
1. the characters are fucked up, but together they make sense
2. Their love is pure and unfiltered, they hide nothing and everything from each other. They hide from the world while not giving a damn. They're contradictory, confusing, and yet, they make sense.
3. There's no sappy romance, no hero moment, no damsel in distress moment. It's love that is open and vulnerable and far from perfect and still, it pulls you in and doesn't let go.
So really, I thought this was amazing. I understand why people might be uncomfortable reading about this sort of relationship and I'm hypocritically admitting that I'd have a problem with a relationship like this in real life. But still, it's just beautifully executed.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the ending, but up until that point I was on my toes, grossed out and enamored at the same time, unable to put the book down.
So many other people think this is a superb book. I thought it would be. It just really wasn't for me. I found some aspects extremely problematic, and I didn't care for the writing style.
So why did I dislike it?
1. I hated the characters. Maise irritated me from the start with her flowery words, her overly inflated opinion of herself and her appeal to men, her name, her actions. Everything annoyed me. When the family issues were thrown in to give her a reason for being so promiscuous I was rolling my eyes in disbelief. Seriously? Can a woman not sleep around without having mother/father issues? I found most other characters to be quite annoying as well, especially Evan. But I won't go into that just yet.
2. The plot. I was expecting it to be thought-provoking. There was a case in the news not too long ago where a girl in the UK ran off with her teacher to France. They got caught, and eventually the relationship broke down. I thought it would be something similar to that in this book, but it wasn't. The plot wasn't terrible. I found it interesting enough that I kept reading. But essentially, it's just girl meets boy, girl has sex with boy, girl finds out boy is her teacher, they keep on having sex... And then it goes on and on. Sex, sex sex. This book is just completely about what supposedly great sex the two have. Everything else doesn't matter in the end.
3. Which brings me to the ending. Here are spoilers. But basically the ending frustrated me enough that if I'd been reading a paperback I would have thrown it in the bin in disgust. I wanted her to get on that plane without him, for him not to follow her, for her to make a choice that didn't involve him, live her life without the disgusting creature who had LIED TO HER THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE RELATIONSHIP but she took him back while practically swooning away. I wanted to shake her and make her see what a stupid choice she was making. I understand it's just love, but really! HE LIED TO HER!!! If a guy treats you like this, it is not okay, and please stop believing that this is romantic, because it's not.
4. The poetic writing. I really don't like this style of writing - sorry if this your thing, it's just not for me.
So why did I dislike it?
1. I hated the characters. Maise irritated me from the start with her flowery words, her overly inflated opinion of herself and her appeal to men, her name, her actions. Everything annoyed me. When the family issues were thrown in to give her a reason for being so promiscuous I was rolling my eyes in disbelief. Seriously? Can a woman not sleep around without having mother/father issues? I found most other characters to be quite annoying as well, especially Evan. But I won't go into that just yet.
2. The plot. I was expecting it to be thought-provoking. There was a case in the news not too long ago where a girl in the UK ran off with her teacher to France. They got caught, and eventually the relationship broke down. I thought it would be something similar to that in this book, but it wasn't. The plot wasn't terrible. I found it interesting enough that I kept reading. But essentially, it's just girl meets boy, girl has sex with boy, girl finds out boy is her teacher, they keep on having sex... And then it goes on and on. Sex, sex sex. This book is just completely about what supposedly great sex the two have. Everything else doesn't matter in the end.
3. Which brings me to the ending. Here are spoilers. But basically the ending frustrated me enough that if I'd been reading a paperback I would have thrown it in the bin in disgust. I wanted her to get on that plane without him, for him not to follow her, for her to make a choice that didn't involve him, live her life without the disgusting creature who had LIED TO HER THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE RELATIONSHIP but she took him back while practically swooning away. I wanted to shake her and make her see what a stupid choice she was making. I understand it's just love, but really! HE LIED TO HER!!! If a guy treats you like this, it is not okay, and please stop believing that this is romantic, because it's not.
4. The poetic writing. I really don't like this style of writing - sorry if this your thing, it's just not for me.
The book wasn’t bad, but there were so many times I got lost while reading, which almost never happens to me. I am not a fan of the writing. In fact, I almost DNFed around 40% in, but I pushed through because I wanted to see how it ended. Glad I did because it got a little more interesting towards the end.
This was recommended as a better version of Priest by Sierra Simone with a stronger forbidden love plot, but I disagree so hard. Priest is way better. This was manageable at best.
Evan was not a responsible adult, and as much as this was painted as love, Maise carried the entire relationship. She took on way too much responsibility, and I didn’t like that.
This was recommended as a better version of Priest by Sierra Simone with a stronger forbidden love plot, but I disagree so hard. Priest is way better. This was manageable at best.
Evan was not a responsible adult, and as much as this was painted as love, Maise carried the entire relationship. She took on way too much responsibility, and I didn’t like that.
I guess I'm trying to say what i couldn't say that night. You can call it love, or you can call it freefall. They're pretty much the same thing. And I love you.
I'm not sure how to put into words my feelings for this book.
Unteachable was an intense, touching and shattering read. On paper, it might look like just another student-teacher romance, but it's much more than that, and it's the most well-done and well-written novel I've ever read about this subject. It's raw, and passionate, and it doesn't tell you lies.
I can't hold on to you. You're like that shooting star. Just a trail of fire in my hands."
Maise O'Malley is an 18-year-old girl, who lives with her drug-addicted mother and has always had a troubled life. At the beginning of the book she is a cynical and cocky girl, who is well aware of her good looks and uses them to seduce older men. She is uninhibited and runs from any kind of emotional connection with other people, but her bravado is just her way to face the world, after all the shit she's been put through. She doesn't want people to abandon her, so she is the one who leaves them before they can. And while she tells us her story we learn about her insecurities and fears and we see how she tries to open her heart to someone for the first time.
I see the lights every night. It seems like the whole world has figured out how to be happy, but no one's letting me in on the secret.
Evan Wilke is a man with many dreams that he can't or doesn't have the courage to chase because of the mistakes he committed in his past. He has his own insecurities and ghosts and although he is the teacher, I feel like he was the one who learned the most from his relationship with Maise.
If I hadn't gone to the carnival, you would've looked at me like any other student when I walked into your class. And that made my heart ache, too - the thought of how much happiness lay scattered across the universe, unrealized, in fragments, waiting for the right twist of fate to bring it together.
I'm not gonna lie, there are some clichés, but this is not the typical corny romance. Maise and Evan don't fall in love at first sight. They instantly feel a physical attraction and for a long time their relationship is purely sexual, but it slowly develops into something more intimate and, eventually, into love. And it's not a love full of sweet words and rainbows; it's fucked up, exactly like they are.
They don't lie to themselves, and they know that a big part of what they're feeling for each other has to do with the fact that what they're doing is forbidden, and they're afraid of what will happen to them once it won't be anymore. Is there more to their relationship than the thrill of being discovered?
Maise learns how to face her fears and what she wants in life even if it means saying goodbye to the man she loves, and at the sime time she teaches Evan how to be brave and have the courage to restart his life.
This is what being in love feels like, Wesley. Gratitude. Gratitude that you exist in this fucked up, beautiful universe.
Leah Raeder has a beautiful writing style, poetic and engaging, and I wish I could quote the whole book; there are many sex scenes, but they never feel gratuitous or excessive, because everytime Evan and Maise touch, they learn something more about the other, and about themselves.
Unteachable is a powerful book, who portrays the teacher-student relationship in a realistic, honest way.
So read it, and enjoy this amazing roller coaster ride.
mediocre book, not really sure why i stuck around bc there wasnt many things i actually enjoyed about it. the most mildly entertaining thing was probably the moments of semi drama
the book makes maise seem so cynical and so "not like other girls" yet captures her naivety and vulnerability at the same time, while making evan seem gentle yet borderline can come off as creepy. and i can’t tell if that’s good or not
i feel like his name and past felt so unnecessary tho
idk how to rate this one 2.75-3 stars? it was more like i continued bc it wasn't tooo bad and i was bored so i listened along and didnt want another dnf but it didnt make me FEEL
the book makes maise seem so cynical and so "not like other girls" yet captures her naivety and vulnerability at the same time, while making evan seem gentle yet borderline can come off as creepy. and i can’t tell if that’s good or not
i feel like his name and past felt so unnecessary tho
idk how to rate this one 2.75-3 stars? it was more like i continued bc it wasn't tooo bad and i was bored so i listened along and didnt want another dnf but it didnt make me FEEL
i absolutely loved this book! there were of course some faults in the story, but the writing and characters made up for it.
first of all, leah's writing style. it is magical! i flew through the book and did not want to put it down. the chapters were long, which is something i normally don't like, but with her writing and the storyline i didn't even notice the pages flying by.
the characters were also amazing. they were so well made and very realistic. as for the secondary characters i loved reading about maise's friendship with wesley, her relationship with her mom, but most of all i loved reading about her relationship with wesley's mom, siobhan.
my favorite was the main character, maise, and her story. it was so intriguing, amazing and horrible to read about her life. her personality was awesome and i loved how blunt and sarcastic she was. raeder captured how messed up maise was from living without her father and with a no-good, drug-dealing mom in a really good way. she didn't make maise an amazingly strong character that wasn't affected from her situation at all (like so many books does), but she made maise's struggles real and they didn't just roll off her shoulders the minute chapter one started.
now, for the main plot of the story: maise and evan's relationship. they meet at a carnival the day before maise starts her senior year of high school, she knows he's older - he knows she's old enough.
the day after, maise goes to school and meets her new teacher, mr. wilke... also known as evan. and the plot just thickens from there. even though maise is 18, there's still something wrong about a student-teacher relationship, but maise and evan makes it so good. they have a connection and it's just... right. evan always puts maise first and he isn't that annoying and controlling love interest. of course, there are some struggles and plot twists (that i did not see coming) throughout the book.
as for the ending, i'm content with it and it tied the book together nicely.
i see the lights every night. it seems like the whole world has figured out how to be happy, but no one's letting me in on the secret.
first of all, leah's writing style. it is magical! i flew through the book and did not want to put it down. the chapters were long, which is something i normally don't like, but with her writing and the storyline i didn't even notice the pages flying by.
the characters were also amazing. they were so well made and very realistic. as for the secondary characters i loved reading about maise's friendship with wesley, her relationship with her mom, but most of all i loved reading about her relationship with wesley's mom, siobhan.
don't put your life on hold for someone, or you'll wake up at 42 with an empty house and a terrifying sense of freedom and no energy or innocence left to enjoy it.
my favorite was the main character, maise, and her story. it was so intriguing, amazing and horrible to read about her life. her personality was awesome and i loved how blunt and sarcastic she was. raeder captured how messed up maise was from living without her father and with a no-good, drug-dealing mom in a really good way. she didn't make maise an amazingly strong character that wasn't affected from her situation at all (like so many books does), but she made maise's struggles real and they didn't just roll off her shoulders the minute chapter one started.
now, for the main plot of the story: maise and evan's relationship. they meet at a carnival the day before maise starts her senior year of high school, she knows he's older - he knows she's old enough.
i love what that does to their faces. old enough to... fill in the blank.
the day after, maise goes to school and meets her new teacher, mr. wilke... also known as evan. and the plot just thickens from there. even though maise is 18, there's still something wrong about a student-teacher relationship, but maise and evan makes it so good. they have a connection and it's just... right. evan always puts maise first and he isn't that annoying and controlling love interest. of course, there are some struggles and plot twists (that i did not see coming) throughout the book.
as for the ending, i'm content with it and it tied the book together nicely.
The Accidental Reader: Book Reviews and More
This book is beautiful..simply and amazingly beautiful. It starts with the main protagonist Maise, being in a carnival during a summer night doing nothing but wander around. Since the first sentence, we know that we have nothing to do with the classic heroine that falls easily in love, that gets excited with boys, we have a cynical, sarcastic, wild and no- fucks- given- girl that the author crafted so carefully I thought Maise was real.Apart from that, the whole plot falls under the category of contemporary and it is a cliche love story but seriously the first two pages of the book did it for me and I couldn't stop reading until the book was finished.
The writing is so so so mesmerising and the words blend together in a way that makes you want to jump out of your bed ,chair whatever and run the world until you find real love. It's so intoxicating sometimes it hurt. While reading this book I remembered how I acted as a teenager in love , when you fear nothing and no one, you are your true self with no restraints and want nothing more that one person in your life. That's what I consider an amazing book, the ability of the author to make you relate with the characters and the story.
We dive into a real dysfanctional family with a long gone father and a mother who does nothing more than drink all day and according to Maise *suck her clients dicks in her van for more money* , while Maise has to fend for herself on her own. Her whole personality kind of reminds me of a slut or that is until she meets Evan at the carnival and then in his...classroom.
The forbidden love makes the whole relationship a lot more interesting and anticipating. Maise starts to change her view of the world and the people around her , Evan is just as cute and broken as her. Although, they both are in love they deal with their problems on their own, they box them up and put them in the back of their heads and those boxes are starting to make a wall so tall and crammed up until everything comes down. I loved the fact that they were understanding of each other no matter their age gap and made their mistakes as a couple and then learned and moved on after forgiving each other.
While they try to be careful with what they do and when there are slip ups and a dark figure obsessed with Maise documents her everyday life. Sneaking in classrooms and making out with your teachers must be a huge dose of adrenaline and recklessness and you lose track of time and place until someone sees you.
The narrating was in past tense giving the sense that Maise was in a different place and time when she was telling the story and that had an extra bit of biterness and sadness in it, I felt like I could hear the rise and fall of her voice while she was telling me the story. It was so alive.
The 75% of the book is fast and intimate...like really really intimate. Although, I would like a little more talking between them than raw (sometimes) masochistic sex I liked the sex scenes a lot.
This is a book about growing up and learning from your mistakes, whether you are 18 or 33 you still make mistakes and you still learn. How a person can change her whole life in just a few months and how she sees things after she finds trust and love to the most forbidden person - her teacher.
Unteachable is the kind of book that I will read again some time soon...really soon. Hope you like it too.
This book is beautiful..simply and amazingly beautiful. It starts with the main protagonist Maise, being in a carnival during a summer night doing nothing but wander around. Since the first sentence, we know that we have nothing to do with the classic heroine that falls easily in love, that gets excited with boys, we have a cynical, sarcastic, wild and no- fucks- given- girl that the author crafted so carefully I thought Maise was real.Apart from that, the whole plot falls under the category of contemporary and it is a cliche love story but seriously the first two pages of the book did it for me and I couldn't stop reading until the book was finished.
The writing is so so so mesmerising and the words blend together in a way that makes you want to jump out of your bed ,chair whatever and run the world until you find real love. It's so intoxicating sometimes it hurt. While reading this book I remembered how I acted as a teenager in love , when you fear nothing and no one, you are your true self with no restraints and want nothing more that one person in your life. That's what I consider an amazing book, the ability of the author to make you relate with the characters and the story.
We dive into a real dysfanctional family with a long gone father and a mother who does nothing more than drink all day and according to Maise *suck her clients dicks in her van for more money* , while Maise has to fend for herself on her own. Her whole personality kind of reminds me of a slut or that is until she meets Evan at the carnival and then in his...classroom.
The forbidden love makes the whole relationship a lot more interesting and anticipating. Maise starts to change her view of the world and the people around her , Evan is just as cute and broken as her. Although, they both are in love they deal with their problems on their own, they box them up and put them in the back of their heads and those boxes are starting to make a wall so tall and crammed up until everything comes down. I loved the fact that they were understanding of each other no matter their age gap and made their mistakes as a couple and then learned and moved on after forgiving each other.
While they try to be careful with what they do and when there are slip ups and a dark figure obsessed with Maise documents her everyday life. Sneaking in classrooms and making out with your teachers must be a huge dose of adrenaline and recklessness and you lose track of time and place until someone sees you.
The narrating was in past tense giving the sense that Maise was in a different place and time when she was telling the story and that had an extra bit of biterness and sadness in it, I felt like I could hear the rise and fall of her voice while she was telling me the story. It was so alive.
The 75% of the book is fast and intimate...like really really intimate. Although, I would like a little more talking between them than raw (sometimes) masochistic sex I liked the sex scenes a lot.
This is a book about growing up and learning from your mistakes, whether you are 18 or 33 you still make mistakes and you still learn. How a person can change her whole life in just a few months and how she sees things after she finds trust and love to the most forbidden person - her teacher.
Unteachable is the kind of book that I will read again some time soon...really soon. Hope you like it too.
“That is all life is. Breathing in, breathing out. The space between two breaths.”
My feelings are so conflicted on this book! It felt like basically just an entire fever dream (in a good way).
POSSIBLE VAGUE MILD SPOILERS
The writing had me addicted; it was lyrical and dreamy and drew out emotions so effectively. But I’m really going back and forth on how I felt about the romance and plot (though let’s be real, was there really much plot? lol no but that’s not what we’re here for). On the one hand, it was extremely compelling and kept me flipping the pages, and the tragic self-destructive feeling built up so well (I was constantly at the edge of my seat waiting to see if things would go sour and praying they wouldn’t). Yet, on the other, I feel like there were a couple pretty questionable things that happened that were brushed over too quickly. Namely, Evan’s past and Wesley’s behavior. I was able to accept that they made mistakes and regretted them, but I couldn’t help but feel like they never addressed the root of their problems, and thus, what is stopping them from happening again?? As for the ending, I liked how the story wrapped up, this being a romance and all (and if it hadn’t ended like this, I probably would not have recovered) buuuuut part of me feels like mayyyybe it shouldn’t have resolved so nicely. Maybe. The way the story was going and the inevitability of things going badly just made the ending feel like a nice-but-not-quite-deserved 180 turn.
Overall though—that gorgeous writing made me ready to forgive just about anything. I will definitely look out for other works by this author! :)