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A review by ladybugwrites
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It's hard to put this book into words.
It's about a lot of heavy and important themes. It's about the nuances of something that's more often than not seen in black and white. It's about growing up, being a teenager. It's about being a girl in a western society.
This book is about how we often don't see the things that are happening to ourselves even if we recognize it with others, and it's about knowing what happened and not being ready to call it by its real name.
My Dark Vanessa is an important book. Mainly because it makes you discuss the themes with others, themes we should talk about to be able to make society better. It's definitely an interesting story, and whilst I don't particularly like Vanessa all that much, her story is important and I wanted to listen to it.
This is a well-written book, with a good narrator that I give all the credit to have managed to separate the voice of Vanessa between the two parallell stories - she sounds like a teenagre during the teenage years, and more grown up when she's supposed to be - and it makes it feel realistic, like listening to a person telling the story. And even better, a lot of the things happening are realistically written. It's something that can happen, that does happen, and it's not over the top or too little, but shows the reality of a situation like this with a lot of nuance.
I do think the book was maybe a little too long. Whilst I understand the choice of having a lot of things in it, some things fell flat and it dragged out the story more than necessary. Some parts of the plot were so-so to me, and I think it got a little too much with all the literary references at some points. I get it, it just felt like too much.
But I did like the ending. It didn't feel like an ending as much as peace, and that felt a lot more realistic than it could've ended.
It's about a lot of heavy and important themes. It's about the nuances of something that's more often than not seen in black and white. It's about growing up, being a teenager. It's about being a girl in a western society.
This book is about how we often don't see the things that are happening to ourselves even if we recognize it with others, and it's about knowing what happened and not being ready to call it by its real name.
My Dark Vanessa is an important book. Mainly because it makes you discuss the themes with others, themes we should talk about to be able to make society better. It's definitely an interesting story, and whilst I don't particularly like Vanessa all that much, her story is important and I wanted to listen to it.
This is a well-written book, with a good narrator that I give all the credit to have managed to separate the voice of Vanessa between the two parallell stories - she sounds like a teenagre during the teenage years, and more grown up when she's supposed to be - and it makes it feel realistic, like listening to a person telling the story. And even better, a lot of the things happening are realistically written. It's something that can happen, that does happen, and it's not over the top or too little, but shows the reality of a situation like this with a lot of nuance.
I do think the book was maybe a little too long. Whilst I understand the choice of having a lot of things in it, some things fell flat and it dragged out the story more than necessary. Some parts of the plot were so-so to me, and I think it got a little too much with all the literary references at some points. I get it, it just felt like too much.
But I did like the ending. It didn't feel like an ending as much as peace, and that felt a lot more realistic than it could've ended.