A review by angrboda
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

wow. this book has been on my “READ THIS BOOK NOW!!!” list for over a year.. finally decided to pick it up and oh my god. i finished in the span of only two days. it was impossible to put down. it was horrifying, thought provoking, and completely messed up. the honest pain i felt when reading it; i had to take breaks everytime it got too much. i definitely see myself in the main character, vanessa, gone through a similar experience she did. i think this story did an amazing job at portraying how accurate abuse is, how it’s so easy to manipulate and control young girls who eventually spend their entire lives not understanding that what happened was bad.  this book is will stick with me for a long time.
as much as i loved the writing and the plot development, i wished for the downfall of stane SO badly. i despised him. i was manifesting some sort of revenge plot in the last portion, where vanessa finally exposed all he did, where stane finally admits defeat and is thrown in jail for life. the constant dismissal and disrespect vanessa had over the situations made me mad, i honestly disliked so many of her choices, but it’s so real. she’s so real. her mind is corrupted, she’s gone. she’s split off permanently and it’s so real. so real.
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