A review by alexamidala
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

5.0

My Dark Vanessa is a Lolita-inspired novel set in the early 2000s. The story is told from the perspective of Vanessa, a teen girl who is being sexually abused by her highschool English teacher. This story is gut-wrenching and gritty, and Russell does not hold back when discussing the details of the abuse Vanessa suffers. The subject matter is incredibly upsetting and reading certain scenes of this story hurt, but I still could not put it down. This novel is a brutal character study of a victim of sexual abuse and I have no doubt that it will haunt me for years to come.