620 reviews for:

Unteachable

Elliot Wake

3.54 AVERAGE


DNF at 20%

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.

“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! :)

freaking fantastic book!!!! thank you Joanne for telling me to read this! once it settles in my brain a little...I will write a review...but just know..I loved it!!!

OMG... this book.... ok yes.. .it's taboo... well sort of...

she is 18, and has lived a life that made her grow up fast. her mom is a meth addict
who turns tricks... her dad, no clue who he is.

the teacher... well when they met and exploded with passion.. he was just a guy..
whom she met at a carnival... she was just a girl... yes he was older... she needed older.

fast track... one night stand... beginning of her senior year... first day of school... in walks the girl, into his... the teachers class room... OMG!!

well let me tell you, this story was not your typical older guy teacher manipulating the
innocent student... the manipulated one sometimes was the teacher...

luved this book...


"Part of falling in love with someone is actually falling in love with yourself."
"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead. I think I made you up inside my head."
"You can call it love, or you can call it freefall. They're pretty much the same thing."

"You should love something while you have it, love it fully and without reservation, even if you know you'll lose it someday."

the writing is goddamn exquisite and the aesthetics in this book are chefs kiss. this book is raw and real and it’s just about two people navigating a fucked up world and living life. this one was slow for me but that didn’t mean i enjoyed it any less!!

3 stars. This was the epitome of an okay read. It wasn't bad but I wasn't thrilled or hooked into it either. It is what it is and that kind of makes sad because the story and subject matter is so interesting.

Like I said, the story and subject was so interesting. The whole student/teacher relationship is fascinating in a weird way but I just feel like the author didn't take full advantage of Maise and Evan's situation. I never felt like the stakes were high even though you know that they are. It didn't feel dangerous enough to me considering that Evan had so much to lose if their relationship was found out.

Maise was so annoying and immature for an nineteen year old. The writing was great and I appreciated Maise's voice and everything but I just didn't like her as a character. I completely understood why she was the way she was but still. She seemed like a such a stereotype that it wasn't even funny. She didn't want to be like her mother and hated her so much but basically was doing the exact same thing as her. I didn't get it. Again, I get it. Her life was messed up but still. I did like that she wanted to go to college at least.

Evan was an okay character. He didn't really have a backbone to me. I wanted him to be stronger and a bit more assertive. I didn't understand his reaction when he found out Maise was his student. He wasn't angry that she had lied to him or anything, he was just okay with them sneaking around from the get go. Didn't get it.

I feel like this book would better as a movie, that way Maise and Evan's relationship can really be pushed to its very limits. 3 stars.

Possibly one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read even though I wasn't into the teacher-student relationship plot at all. This novel is eloquently descriptive, using the most creative word juxtapositions. Words that should not have gone together did. At times, I was so overwhelmed that I thought about the validity of my own writing. I write serviceable prose, nothing near to this, and I wonder if I could even write like this. Anyway, I highly recommend it. A very interesting and consuming story and so well written.

I don't feel like I read the same book as everyone else. I usually like taboo, but I was so bored reading this book.

Well, that happened. This was very different from what I was expecting and I don't really know how I feel about it.