Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - My Dark Vanessa

My Dark Vanessa absolutely destroyed me. Russell does a fantastic job of writing a teenage girl with all of the typical naivety, obsession, and hope that accompanies that age. It was so relatable that I felt like I was Vanessa. That could be me. Russell skillfully tells this story of manipulation and abuse from the perspective of a young girl who wants it to be love. How can you know the difference if it’s nuanced, there are good moments among the bad, and you want so desperately to be seen; to be understood and touched, special and cherished. From this perspective it’s easy to see how a young girl could find herself teetering on the knife’s edge of right and wrong, self-blame and victimhood, love and disgust, morality and depravity. I wish I read this with a book club because I am currently reeling. There’s so much pain and tumult and truth to dissect here. I absolutely recommend this book but check trigger warnings first. This one is going to punch you in the gut and the feeling will linger.

Content Warnings

yuliyazar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I feel very conflicted with this review. This book is very clearly respected (its average star rating makes that clear) as it should be, and I do think this book is powerfully (albeit, very dark topics so be prepared). However, I also feel like it was much longer than it needed to be, which also seems like a VERY taboo thing to say given the nature of this book. A topic like this, obviously, should NOT be “rushed” but I did also feel like there were chapters that felt repetitive or unnecessary in the overall theme and to drive some of the heavier discussions/topics home weren’t needed.

I also had a hard time getting through it based on the chapter structure. This is obviously a very “personal” problem, but I’m big on timing my reading sessions per chapter(s) and this book made it impossible to do that (maybe on purpose) but most of the chapters were incredibly long.

I do think this topic is insanely important. And the questions and considerations this books makes are important, thought provoking, and honestly a little scary sometimes.

Overall, I did like the book a lot, but you definitely need to be in a very specific mindset to read it.

Content Warnings

goodyeargoodbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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