ssummermagic 's review for:

Unteachable by Elliot Wake

4.0

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This book is a well-written cautionary tale. Very unsettling. It does the smutty student/teacher trope very well, but is also blunt about how wrong that dynamic is. I enjoyed reading it overall, but I do have my gripes about the ending because

Spoiler

I hate that the two leads end up getting back together! And I hate that their reunification was framed so romantically. I liked that the book was upfront about how toxic and predatory their relationship was. For a moment there, I was also swept up in the whole ~forbidden romance fantasy, and was ready to believe that Evan was generally a morally upstanding person and that their relationship was a once in a lifetime situation. The reveal that he had actually already seduced and impregnated an underage girl was like a punch in the gut that brought me back to earth. It was so twisted. This is the type of behavior you should expect from a 33 year old man who hooks up with highschooolers. With that in mind, I guess it makes sense that they do end up back together because that's how toxic relationships work. I still hate it though lol.