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A review by bilal506
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Dark Vanessa is one of those books that lingers in your mind long after you’ve turned the last page. It’s disturbing, deeply unsettling, and painfully intimate, almost to the point where you feel like you’re intruding on something you shouldn’t be witnessing.
The novel follows Vanessa Wye, a woman in her 30s who, as a teenager, had a relationship with her English teacher, Jacob Strane. Or at least, that’s how she saw it at the time—she was convinced it was love. But as the #MeToo movement unfolds around her, she’s forced to re-examine her past and question whether what she thought was love was actually something much darker.
“No, not crazy,” Ruby says. “Traumatized.”
Russell’s writing is hypnotic. She pulls you into Vanessa’s mind, making you feel her confusion, her misplaced loyalty, and the way Strane manipulated her so insidiously that she still struggles to see the truth. The most chilling part of the novel is how it forces the reader to sit in Vanessa’s denial. She doesn’t see herself as a victim, and you can’t just shake her and make her realize the truth. It’s frustrating, heartbreaking, and incredibly realistic.
This book isn’t an easy read—it’s heavy, triggering, and morally complex. But that’s also what makes it so powerful. It doesn’t follow the neat, linear path of healing that many stories about trauma do. Instead, it shows the messy, raw reality of what grooming and abuse can do to someone’s sense of self.
“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful.”
If you’re looking for a book that makes you uncomfortable in all the right ways, forcing you to examine power, consent, and the gray areas of memory. My Dark Vanessa is absolutely worth reading. Just be prepared to sit with some very difficult emotions.
I really liked how Vaneesa did not see herself as a victim, but the writing by the author still made us feel it was wrong. A perfect perspective. Even tho, I don't read books like this and prob wont in future too but this was a well written and powerful book.
“If there’s one thing you take away from this class, it should be that the world is made of endlessly intersecting stories, each one valid and true.”
The novel follows Vanessa Wye, a woman in her 30s who, as a teenager, had a relationship with her English teacher, Jacob Strane. Or at least, that’s how she saw it at the time—she was convinced it was love. But as the #MeToo movement unfolds around her, she’s forced to re-examine her past and question whether what she thought was love was actually something much darker.
“No, not crazy,” Ruby says. “Traumatized.”
Russell’s writing is hypnotic. She pulls you into Vanessa’s mind, making you feel her confusion, her misplaced loyalty, and the way Strane manipulated her so insidiously that she still struggles to see the truth. The most chilling part of the novel is how it forces the reader to sit in Vanessa’s denial. She doesn’t see herself as a victim, and you can’t just shake her and make her realize the truth. It’s frustrating, heartbreaking, and incredibly realistic.
This book isn’t an easy read—it’s heavy, triggering, and morally complex. But that’s also what makes it so powerful. It doesn’t follow the neat, linear path of healing that many stories about trauma do. Instead, it shows the messy, raw reality of what grooming and abuse can do to someone’s sense of self.
“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful.”
If you’re looking for a book that makes you uncomfortable in all the right ways, forcing you to examine power, consent, and the gray areas of memory. My Dark Vanessa is absolutely worth reading. Just be prepared to sit with some very difficult emotions.
I really liked how Vaneesa did not see herself as a victim, but the writing by the author still made us feel it was wrong. A perfect perspective. Even tho, I don't read books like this and prob wont in future too but this was a well written and powerful book.
“If there’s one thing you take away from this class, it should be that the world is made of endlessly intersecting stories, each one valid and true.”