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rachjnelson 's review for:
Unteachable
by Elliot Wake
I cannot stand teacher/student love stories. I hate them. It's a personal thing, but with books, films, tv shows, I have never come across a teacher/student story that hasn't made me cringe from unoriginality, unbearable tension and possibly the most stupid, idiotic characters ever written. I find it unrelatable and when I saw the blurb for this book I immediately put it the fuck back down. However after coming across stunning review after stunning review for months now, I thought I would try it and see if I had found the exception to my rule.
Short answer: Yes.
I found this book really difficult to rate, mostly because I'm not sure what I'm comparing it to.
Smut: exceptional. If we are looking in terms of a smutty read with a decent story, then five stars easy. This book contains some of the best written sex scenes I have ever read. No cliches, no sugar coating, and yet utterly drug-like, powerful and the definition of life changing/ perspective altering sex should be like.
More than that, the language, the protagonist and the whole style of the book was what I have been looking for in YA and NA lit. It's brutally sarcastic, bitter, knowing, but at the same time humble- aware that it doesn't know everything.
Protagonist: Fuck yes. Why are these girls so fucking hard to find in this genre. Maise was real, bitter, very flawed, very cynical, completely self possessed and confident and overall just a likable character I was happy to root for. I have to say as well that when Maise hit bottom in this story, she really fucking hit bottom. It wasn't your general rom/com structural low point where the female lead loses the guy and mope around in her beautiful life alone for a couple of weeks. Like I did not know how life was going to get worse for her, other than maybe she gets hit by a bus and loses her good looks on top of everything else. The best part that she was just so fucking angry in response to all this shit that was happening to her, she didn't really wallow or break down, she threw things and swore. Maise was awesome. She was angry and resentful, but she was also thoughtful and insightful. She was not the most reliable narrator- what did happen with Wesley anyway?- but she was an interesting one.
Story: Satisfying and interesting. Although after the first half I found, while I didn't find it a chore, I wasn't as addicted and enthralled as I have been with other YA/NA books. It was a nice thing to pick up again before I went to bed, but I didn't stay up until 5am to see what would happen next. The whole book is full of alter-cliches, which I'm not sure if I like or not. Let's go with like, because it's better than having the actual cliches in there. The rollercoaster metaphor opening, the shitter than shit home-life, the forbidden love, the manic pixie girl protagonist, the best friend who's secretly in love with her, the plane at the end- all cliches. Except they weren't. They are all self diagnosed, written with a different perspective and made fun of by our narrator, who is almost embarrassed that these over done things are actually happening to her. It's so cynical and so self aware that it has to be intentional. Whether I like it or not, it's intelligent and a break from the mould. Maybe it's a bit smutty for teens, but I think they should read this anyway just for the whole general outlook, the way Maise observes the smallest things about people and places and her intelligent streams of consciousness in general. The story reminds us that cliches happen in reality all the time, that's why they're cliches.
The one and only thing that I just did not buy was the romance. It wasn't the student/teacher story- if anything that was well done and well analysed, I liked how they both admitted that the fact that they were a bit twisted and the whole dynamic made it hotter for them, and I like how Maise stood back from those few months and saw how miserable and obsessed she had been. There are two things that particularly anger me about these stories, the first being that the two parties completely misjudged each others' age one time before school started and when they realise their situation, they decided that they are just so in love that they can't control the way the feel. There is usually a thing about the girl thinking shes so mature and the guy wanting to teach her about the world and how he's only just finished college so he;s not even that much older than her and the whole time I am thinking THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE TO FUCK YOU MORONS. This story did not do that. Evan was 33 and Maise had a history of sleeping with older men and for whatever reason, this made their whole set up go down much easier for me. It didn't feel convenient in any way, it felt wrong and delicious and generally had an aura of 'fuck it'. The other thing is, they admit that the fact that he is her teacher, turns them on, that they fantasise about each other during class with this heated longing. The teacher thing is about lust and fun and danger, not about love or meaning or learning. And Maise literally has nothing to lose, she has no friends or family who would judge her (other than Wesley, but who fucking cares what he thinks) and Evan says again and again he can teach anywhere, that he will change his job if she wants him to. They are also constantly aware of the pitfalls of these kind of relationships. Evan makes and effort not to be the older man, the teacher when he is with her and Maise always reminds herself that she is only 18 and in some ways very inexperienced and immature. Basically, they talk a lot and proved to me that they are not morons and so I didn't mind their risk taking so much.
Actually, after a while the focus isn't really on the student/teacher thing, but on the scariness of relationships and his secret past and the collision of their substantial baggage.
The best bit about their relationship was, for me, right at the beginning (isn't that always the way) I loved their first encounter, her impressing him and him intriguing her and even when they met again at the school and the first thing he said to her was that he would resign.
My problem, mostly, was that I was not in love with Evan. While their meaningful conversations and gradual descent into love wasn't skipped over, I just didn't feel it. I didn't get the magic click and excitement (similar to the one you get when you like someone in real life) that forces you to keep reading until their story is concluded. Maybe I just loved Maise too much and thought that nobody was good enough for her. I grew bored with Evan, I kept reading to see what would happen to Maise because, suitably, she has other stuff going on other than a guy. I did not care if she ended up with him or not, I knew she would survive either way.
I will definitely read this again, and I'd probably recommend, although only to those few friends I have who wont blush over smut.
Short answer: Yes.
I found this book really difficult to rate, mostly because I'm not sure what I'm comparing it to.
Smut: exceptional. If we are looking in terms of a smutty read with a decent story, then five stars easy. This book contains some of the best written sex scenes I have ever read. No cliches, no sugar coating, and yet utterly drug-like, powerful and the definition of life changing/ perspective altering sex should be like.
More than that, the language, the protagonist and the whole style of the book was what I have been looking for in YA and NA lit. It's brutally sarcastic, bitter, knowing, but at the same time humble- aware that it doesn't know everything.
Protagonist: Fuck yes. Why are these girls so fucking hard to find in this genre. Maise was real, bitter, very flawed, very cynical, completely self possessed and confident and overall just a likable character I was happy to root for. I have to say as well that when Maise hit bottom in this story, she really fucking hit bottom. It wasn't your general rom/com structural low point where the female lead loses the guy and mope around in her beautiful life alone for a couple of weeks. Like I did not know how life was going to get worse for her, other than maybe she gets hit by a bus and loses her good looks on top of everything else. The best part that she was just so fucking angry in response to all this shit that was happening to her, she didn't really wallow or break down, she threw things and swore. Maise was awesome. She was angry and resentful, but she was also thoughtful and insightful. She was not the most reliable narrator- what did happen with Wesley anyway?- but she was an interesting one.
Story: Satisfying and interesting. Although after the first half I found, while I didn't find it a chore, I wasn't as addicted and enthralled as I have been with other YA/NA books. It was a nice thing to pick up again before I went to bed, but I didn't stay up until 5am to see what would happen next. The whole book is full of alter-cliches, which I'm not sure if I like or not. Let's go with like, because it's better than having the actual cliches in there. The rollercoaster metaphor opening, the shitter than shit home-life, the forbidden love, the manic pixie girl protagonist, the best friend who's secretly in love with her, the plane at the end- all cliches. Except they weren't. They are all self diagnosed, written with a different perspective and made fun of by our narrator, who is almost embarrassed that these over done things are actually happening to her. It's so cynical and so self aware that it has to be intentional. Whether I like it or not, it's intelligent and a break from the mould. Maybe it's a bit smutty for teens, but I think they should read this anyway just for the whole general outlook, the way Maise observes the smallest things about people and places and her intelligent streams of consciousness in general. The story reminds us that cliches happen in reality all the time, that's why they're cliches.
The one and only thing that I just did not buy was the romance. It wasn't the student/teacher story- if anything that was well done and well analysed, I liked how they both admitted that the fact that they were a bit twisted and the whole dynamic made it hotter for them, and I like how Maise stood back from those few months and saw how miserable and obsessed she had been. There are two things that particularly anger me about these stories, the first being that the two parties completely misjudged each others' age one time before school started and when they realise their situation, they decided that they are just so in love that they can't control the way the feel. There is usually a thing about the girl thinking shes so mature and the guy wanting to teach her about the world and how he's only just finished college so he;s not even that much older than her and the whole time I am thinking THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE TO FUCK YOU MORONS. This story did not do that. Evan was 33 and Maise had a history of sleeping with older men and for whatever reason, this made their whole set up go down much easier for me. It didn't feel convenient in any way, it felt wrong and delicious and generally had an aura of 'fuck it'. The other thing is, they admit that the fact that he is her teacher, turns them on, that they fantasise about each other during class with this heated longing. The teacher thing is about lust and fun and danger, not about love or meaning or learning. And Maise literally has nothing to lose, she has no friends or family who would judge her (other than Wesley, but who fucking cares what he thinks) and Evan says again and again he can teach anywhere, that he will change his job if she wants him to. They are also constantly aware of the pitfalls of these kind of relationships. Evan makes and effort not to be the older man, the teacher when he is with her and Maise always reminds herself that she is only 18 and in some ways very inexperienced and immature. Basically, they talk a lot and proved to me that they are not morons and so I didn't mind their risk taking so much.
Actually, after a while the focus isn't really on the student/teacher thing, but on the scariness of relationships and his secret past and the collision of their substantial baggage.
The best bit about their relationship was, for me, right at the beginning (isn't that always the way) I loved their first encounter, her impressing him and him intriguing her and even when they met again at the school and the first thing he said to her was that he would resign.
My problem, mostly, was that I was not in love with Evan. While their meaningful conversations and gradual descent into love wasn't skipped over, I just didn't feel it. I didn't get the magic click and excitement (similar to the one you get when you like someone in real life) that forces you to keep reading until their story is concluded. Maybe I just loved Maise too much and thought that nobody was good enough for her. I grew bored with Evan, I kept reading to see what would happen to Maise because, suitably, she has other stuff going on other than a guy. I did not care if she ended up with him or not, I knew she would survive either way.
I will definitely read this again, and I'd probably recommend, although only to those few friends I have who wont blush over smut.