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kimberlyf's review against another edition
3.0
Joe is just like any other 17 year old boy, attending school in London, when one of his teachers—35 year old Miss P, or Ali—takes an interest in him.
The formatting of the short chapters and Gibson’s prose, reading like fiction, make this memoir an addictive read. It’s wild to think that in 1992, when all of this was happening in Joe’s life, that it wasn’t an illegal act.
I have some grievances with this book though. The synopsis made it seem as if this is a story about “an abuse of power” and while I am not disagreeing, I feel like what you see is not what you get here. The entire book covers Joe’s two years at this prestigious school and, of course, his relationship with Miss P during his time there. Throughout the book, readers get many intensely detailed scenes of their sex life and it seemed, to me, as if Joe was almost relishing in it. We get pages upon pages of Joe detailing these two years with Miss P only to get to the last ten pages before the word “abuse” is even mentioned and then that’s it. It’s over.
While I very much enjoyed Gibson’s storytelling, I wish that we could have gotten more present day reflection from him. This is listed as memoir but memoir is supposed to include reflection on past events and there simply wasn’t any of that here. Perhaps autobiography would be a better description? Part three of the memoir is “17 years later” but it is incredibly brief and left me with more questions than I started with. When did he start to suspect that what happened was abuse? How did that affect him? How did he cope with it (therapy, etc)? What are his thoughts on it now? How did it shape who he became?
Overall, I have no regrets that I read it and I’m glad that Gibson wrote it; I’m sure that it helped him to get his story out there. I hope that it helps those that are in a similar position understand what abuse looks like and that it encourages them to speak out.
The formatting of the short chapters and Gibson’s prose, reading like fiction, make this memoir an addictive read. It’s wild to think that in 1992, when all of this was happening in Joe’s life, that it wasn’t an illegal act.
I have some grievances with this book though. The synopsis made it seem as if this is a story about “an abuse of power” and while I am not disagreeing, I feel like what you see is not what you get here. The entire book covers Joe’s two years at this prestigious school and, of course, his relationship with Miss P during his time there. Throughout the book, readers get many intensely detailed scenes of their sex life and it seemed, to me, as if Joe was almost relishing in it. We get pages upon pages of Joe detailing these two years with Miss P only to get to the last ten pages before the word “abuse” is even mentioned and then that’s it. It’s over.
While I very much enjoyed Gibson’s storytelling, I wish that we could have gotten more present day reflection from him. This is listed as memoir but memoir is supposed to include reflection on past events and there simply wasn’t any of that here. Perhaps autobiography would be a better description? Part three of the memoir is “17 years later” but it is incredibly brief and left me with more questions than I started with. When did he start to suspect that what happened was abuse? How did that affect him? How did he cope with it (therapy, etc)? What are his thoughts on it now? How did it shape who he became?
Overall, I have no regrets that I read it and I’m glad that Gibson wrote it; I’m sure that it helped him to get his story out there. I hope that it helps those that are in a similar position understand what abuse looks like and that it encourages them to speak out.
alisha247's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
seventeen is a shocking, raw, and uncomfortable memoir. whilst i thought this was a harrowing insight into a strategic and manipulative abuse of power, the majority of the memoir is dominated by extremely detailed scenes of their sexual relationship, which genuinely read like a teen boy fantasy, and was difficult to read. the only real reflections of this abuse occurred in the last few chapters, but this was brief and could’ve been much stronger. i was expecting some comprehensive interrogation of this abuse, such as his teacher’s intentions, or joe’s later observations and reflections of his experience, but we didn’t get that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, and Gaslighting
bigbenfulham's review against another edition
5.0
A good but very uncomfortable read. How easy it was for a confident happy young man to walk into an abusive controlling relationship.
kittylevin's review against another edition
Unforgettable story of one very brave person. The kind of book that you want to shove in everyone’s face and scream: “READ IT!!!”. Shaken and sad, but also somehow a bit more hopeful after reading it. Thank you, Joe Gibson, whoever you are❤️