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lunalyssable 's review for:
Unteachable
by Elliot Wake
"Unteachable" started so well. The lyrical writing is lovely enough to make me want to pick up another Leah Raeder book. The protagonist is wonderfully complex, believably brave, resourceful, cynical and vulnerable in a way that makes your heart break for her while also making you want to shake some sense into her. The first carnival scenes were steamy, romantic perfection. The rest of the love story, however, took a sharp turn into ick that got worst at the book's end.
1. Evan's a skeeze. Based on Maise and Evan's crazy chemistry at the carnival, I bought into their connection despite their circumstance. The revelation that Maise is the second high school girl Evan slept with killed that for me. Connecting with a young woman who told you she was 21? Okay. Finding out she's 18 and your student and still going for it, despite the fact that you impregnated a 17-year-old student previously? This guy should never teach again.
2. They mostly have sex. This starts out great, but no build up, tension, or proof of a real connection occurs because that's all they do. Much of their time spent doing something else is mentioned but not shown. This is the first romance I've read where I found explicit scenes tedious.
3. Maise's terrible home life enables their affair. One scene that grossed me out was when Maise brings Evan to her home, which she has previously described as threadbare, smelly and dirty, and instead of being horrified, he makes out with her on her bed.
4. Obsession isn't healthy love. Maise and Evan explicitly state that part of their attraction to each other is their age difference, and the forbidden teacher-student dynamic. What happens when that goes away, and they settle in to the day-to-day of a relationship? When Maise is no longer young? I'm not sure if the Siobhan/Jack relationship, the only other example of a similar age dynamic in the book, was meant to be foreshadowing - separation, her alone and "what-if"-ing, him with new, 20-something arm candy - but it sure felt like it. Yay, romance.
Spoiler
This rating would've gone up a star if Maise had flown off into her new life on her own, free of the problematic relationships of her past. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I hated the Happily Ever After for the following reasons:1. Evan's a skeeze. Based on Maise and Evan's crazy chemistry at the carnival, I bought into their connection despite their circumstance. The revelation that Maise is the second high school girl Evan slept with killed that for me. Connecting with a young woman who told you she was 21? Okay. Finding out she's 18 and your student and still going for it, despite the fact that you impregnated a 17-year-old student previously? This guy should never teach again.
2. They mostly have sex. This starts out great, but no build up, tension, or proof of a real connection occurs because that's all they do. Much of their time spent doing something else is mentioned but not shown. This is the first romance I've read where I found explicit scenes tedious.
3. Maise's terrible home life enables their affair. One scene that grossed me out was when Maise brings Evan to her home, which she has previously described as threadbare, smelly and dirty, and instead of being horrified, he makes out with her on her bed.
4. Obsession isn't healthy love. Maise and Evan explicitly state that part of their attraction to each other is their age difference, and the forbidden teacher-student dynamic. What happens when that goes away, and they settle in to the day-to-day of a relationship? When Maise is no longer young? I'm not sure if the Siobhan/Jack relationship, the only other example of a similar age dynamic in the book, was meant to be foreshadowing - separation, her alone and "what-if"-ing, him with new, 20-something arm candy - but it sure felt like it. Yay, romance.