Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

358 reviews

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol

judyegallagher's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

5 stars because even though it was hard to read, it felt so real and so heartbreaking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, and Death of parent

wonderstruckwillow's review

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

maddiechristine15's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

It doesn’t feel right to give this a star rating, though the book was masterfully written. deeply troubling and disturbing to read; still, I couldn’t put it down. I suspect this book will haunt me for a long time.

“you were just trying to go to school.” </3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Suicide, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

mbzoller's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Devistatingly relatable. More to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Death of parent

allidone's review against another edition

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

4.0

I've seen a lot of places have this listed as a "dark romance" and that is definitely NOT what this is.  It's not romantic. It's heartwrenching and sickening and devastating.  There is no actual love in these pages.  There's nothing redeeming in the 'love story' told because it's between a 42 year old man and a 15 year old girl that continues until she is 22 years old (and he's 49) and the havoc that has wreacked on her life up until she's a 32 adult woman (and he's 59) and he's suddenly being called out for his pedophilia.  This is a man that groomed a 15 year old child by touching her in class and giving her a copy of Lolita to read like a manual. 
Most of this novel is the adult woman looking back on what happened to her and trying to reframe it in her mind.  Most of what I read made me feel physically ill.  My stomach hurt and I had to take frequent breaks from the book while also wanting to 'get it over with'.  It's a beautifully written novel that takes a real look at all those "age gap" tropes and the ongoing fantasy that having an affair with a teacher is in anyway sexy.  This takes a look at what that power imbalance, what that breaking of a young soul actually does to a person.
Vanessa isn't a loveable victim.  In fact, she insists through most of the novel that she's not a victim at all.  She wanted it and it was love and she knew what she was doing and he wasn't a monster.  All things to cope with what actually happened to her and what kept happening to her all through her youth.  The gaslighting and grooming that took place, the fact that while he initiated it all he turned it around and placed it on her.  The fact that he was always covering his bases, telling coworkers she had a crush and it might end up being a problem.  She coped the only way she knew how and that was to reclaim some of the agency she lost to him. Each sexual encounter reads as a loss of agency, that she didn't want to take all those steps but the secondary coping mechanism of continuing with it creates a sort of retroactive consent.  It doesn't.
It's incredibly triggering as a woman and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that has any experience of losing their agency, with rape or with assault.  This novel, while beautifully written, created a physical response that I battled throught the novel.  Ultimately I am glad I finished it, but it was a struggle and there were many moments that I considered DNFing the book entirely.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Bullying, Self harm, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death

lu555's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

bloupibloupreads's review against another edition

dark sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Rape

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

maygetdizzy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book was so hard to read. Not because the writing was bad, but quite the opposite. The writing is so good it nauseates you. There was a few times I had to put the book down to take a breath, and I did not know if I could go on reading. I am so incredibly grateful for this point of view of such a hard topic. To see grooming through the victims pov was incredibly eye opening. I will love this book until I die. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, and Alcohol

sighclopss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

This is a hard one to write a review for, being that, while it is fictional it is also influenced by the author's life experiences and also reflects many real people's trauma. 

To say I enjoyed reading this book wouldn't be quite accurate, but it did feel like a necessary read. It was one of the longer reads I've done this year, not because of how long it actually was, but because I had to frequently take breaks from it. The writing is really good, very poetic, a little drawn out. It elevates a basic idea, into a nuanced discussion about victimhood and sexual abuse. 

Some critiques I have are, that I worry about some of the explicitness feel exploitative for shock value rather than adding depth to the novel, and that the open-ended conclusion makes me feel like it can allow some readers to continue to romanticise sexual abuse. But I think it also provides a point of view that is rarely seen and shows how we must let victims (even when they don't identify as a victim) define for themselves what their experience/abuse means for their lives. 

My Dark Vanessa is a heavy and emotionally charged book, it was a challenge to read but the world is challenging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent