*I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.*
Hoo boy was this one interesting.Honestly I'm not sure if I mean that in a good way or a bad way. I know there was a lot of buzz on this one (it was even mentioned a few times when I was at PLA in Nashville) so I had to pick it up and read it, if only to see what all the hype was about. Aaaaannnnddd... I kinda wish I hadn't.
This is the story of Vanessa. As a teen, she has a relationship with her MUCH older teacher. Fast forward a few years and he is being accused of assaulting another student of his. This of course affects her in ways she didn't expect. My Dark Vanessa is NOT an easy read. It can be difficult to understand why she would continue a relationship that seems so gross, there's definitely some sex scenes I could have done without having in my brain, but I think this is an important topic that doesn't get discussed enough.
I have a few points I'd like to bring up, so let me get on my soapbox for a second. I knew there was some controversy with this book, so I looked into it to see what it was.Apparently, the author took some inspiration from another writer, who is a woman of color, in order to help her write the book, which is in part based on the author's own life. It seemed as though people were saying that because she was white she wasn't entitled to her own trauma. I understand that we need more representation and other voices in literature, and in no way am I minimizing what happened to the other author, but for a victim to be able to come forward and write through her own trauma, because of encouragement she got from reading someone else's story (which she CREDITS, I might add) is an incredibly difficult thing to do. I can remember watching an episode of Switched at Birth that reminded me very much of my own assault. To the point where they could have taken it straight from my brain. Does that mean I think they copied me? No, rather, I think it's a shame that so many women have had the same experience that it's a common enough theme for people to write about.
My second point of frustration with this book is that one of the other victims and the reporter seemed to shame Vanessa for not wanting to come forward with her own story originally. It's frustrating that people do this. I get that doing so would help the case against him, and prevent other girls from being assaulted, but it is NOT the responsibility of someone struggling with their own emotions to keep a grown man from assaulting other girls and she shouldn't be made to feel that it is. It's hard enough to deal with, women should be allowed to process things in their own time on their own terms. *end rant*
Clearly, I had some feelings about this book.
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