A review by judereadsbooks
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

5.0

This book is engaging, infuriating, and haunting. Russell's Vanessa is tragic character in circumstance but triumphant character in constitution. She has an intricate inner world full of contradictions and shame and the very human desire to want to make meaning out of something that's so expansive it takes over your life. Strane is also a labyrinthine figure, looming and fucked in the head and somewhat sympathetic through the eyes of a lovesick youth. The central question in the book is complicity. Is Vanessa an active participant as she'd so like to believe? How responsible is Browick, is her mother? How responsible is a culture that turns young girls into nymphets? How responsible are journalists and the general culture of the "Me Too" movement in re-traumatizing victims? I was captivated by this book and its portrait. Russell is a strong writer and I hope she continues to expand her craft.