A review by leduyhxxng
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

as i kept standing over this novel, i lingered over a question: how deep can a person be in their denial? because Vanessa, in denial of her own experience, denies other survivors of theirs, and i hate her guts for doing such a thing, even though i know how destructive and terrible her abuse is. in agonising over Vanessa, i keep returning to myself for something, but nothing has come up yet for now (which i hope is a good sign).

in terms of storytelling, Kate Elizabeth Russell did it beautifully. the writing, however, needs a couple more rounds of editing, because i can see some details (i.e. the characters' movements) that could've been left out and it'd improve the pacing of the novel so much.
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