🌟 Review🌟 - - 18+ 🚨CHECK TW🚨 - - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 I’m going to be completely upfront and say I don’t think this book is for everyone. I usually post my reviews the same day I read the book but felt compelled to properly absorb what I had read. I myself found this book especially hard to read at certain times because of the subject matter. That being said; to say that this was an astounding read would be an unequivocal understatement. The story follows fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye and Forty-two-year-old Jacob Strane and their “transgressions” together. Through interspersed chapters of Vanessa’s past and present we get a first hand recount of her affair with her English teacher whom she still believes did nothing wrong 17 years later. My Dark Venessa delves into the power imbalance, manipulation tactics, and coherence of the affair and the after affects it has on Venessa and the people she loves. What I found so profound in this novel were the thought provoking and tragic revaluations and Anecdotes from Both past and present Vanessa. @kateelizabethrussell first novel is a riveting testament on manipulation and heartbreak from abuse. This novel deeply effected me, in a way I’m afraid I cannot properly put into words. I’m going to share a few quotes from the novel below that particularly shook me. 🚨SPOILER WARNING🚨 “To be groomed is to be loved and handled like a precious, delicate thing.” “Groomed. I repeat the word over and over, try to understand what it means, but all I can think of is the lovely warm feeling I’d get when he stroked my hair.” “At the time I was how old? I count in my head: six, a first grader, barely a person and nine years away from being in bed with him, squirming under his hands as he told me to calm down” - - #mydarkvanessa #mydarkvanessareview #bookreview #mydarkvanessabook #sadbooks #hardtoread #novel #teacherstudent #tropes #manipulation #illegal #books #bookiesagainstalgorithm #algorithm #vanessa #kateelizabethrussell #bookreviewer #bookreviews #bookreviewersofinstagram #mustread #tbr #reading #bookstagram #books #booklover #book #bookworm #bookstagrammer #reading #bookish #bookaddict (at Bookstagram) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmM4udsPZIq/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

I was tagged by @booksinktea to do the #pinkbookstack ft some nice (fake) flowers. I promise the Kate Garraway book is pink! I went through a period of hating pink but now I’m liking it again. How do you feel about pink? #pinktomaketheboyswink #thekingdom #jessrothenberg #beautyandthebeast #prettybooks #mydarkvanessa #kateelizabethrussell #thepowerofhope #kategarraway #pinkbooks https://www.instagram.com/p/CSMHEVKApCJ/?utm_medium=tumblr

August 26th, 2019 || so excited to have received this in the mail 🥳🥳 it is signed as well 🙌🏼 . I won the giveaway hosted by @4thestatebooks and I just cannot wait to dive into this one. Will read it in September 🌻 • • • Do you have any anticipated releases you are very excited about? 🎉 • #mydarkvanessa #fourthestatebooks #anticipatedreads #booklover #kateelizabethrussell #booksaremylife #bookslover #booksfordays https://www.instagram.com/p/B1n18KZo6pN/?igshid=1tx9ghknhiha8

Általában "félúton" szoktam írni a könyvekről néhány gondolatot, de tegnap annyira fogva tartott a történet, hogy nem bírtam letenni. A szó klasszikus értelmében nem tetszett a regény, viszont Kate Elizabeth Russell nagyon jó érzékkel tapintott rá a dolog lényegére. Az efebofília egy eléggé hanyagolt téma a pedofília mellett, pedig lehet több érintettje van, mint azt az ember gondolná. A szerző ráadásul egy áldozat szemszögén keresztül mutatja be ezt a "folyamatot", ráadásul E/1-ben, ami még erőteljesebbé teszi a hatást. Két idősíkon követhetőek az események. Egyrészt a tinilány szemén át, aki hízelgőnel tartja, hogy a 30 évvel idősebb tanára érdeklődik iránta. Már itt látható, mennyire ambivalens érzéseket keltett a dolog a lányban. Másrészt már felnőtt nő szemszögéből, akinek az egész életére hatással voltak a történtek. Nagyon jól ki volt dolgozva ez a kettősség, ezáltal beleláthatunk az áldozatok fejébe, abba a lelki folyamatba, amit kívülálló nehezen ért meg ép ésszel... #book #reading #bookblogger #buch #lesen #buchbloggerin #könyv #olvasás #könyvesblogger #librikiadó #kateelizabethrussell #vhrai #libellum #könyvrefel #csakolvass #kapcsoldkiatvt #libellum #vhrai https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd4wo7EonNw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

“People will risk everything for a little bit of something beautiful”- #KateElizabethRussell , #MyDarkVanessa #CurrentlyReading #MyDarkVanessaBook #Book #Books #BookQuote #BookQuotes #Quote #Quotes #Bookstagram #Photography #Alexandria #Egypt #mydarkvanessakateelizabethrussell (at Alexandria, Egypt) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKL7mGJhXLx/?igshid=iaw2agi8sv8w

Livres Hebdo poursuit sa revue thématique de la rentrée littéraire en présentant les romans qui traitent de la violence faite aux femmes: «Chienne», premier roman de Marie-Pier Lafontaine; «La laveuse de mort» de Sara Omar; «Grandes poupées» de Céline Debayle; «Les impatientes» de Djaïli Amadou Amal (Prix Orange du Livre Afrique); «Ma vie de cafard» de Joyce Carol Oates; «Les femmes n'ont pas d'histoire» d'Amy Jo Burns; «A trop aimer» d'Alissa Wenz; «Sale bourge», premier roman de Nicolas Rodier; «Sept gingembres» de Christophe Perruchas; «Viens que je t'adore» de Kate Elizabeth Russell; «Orageuses» de Marcia Burnier; «Les Petrov, la grippe, etc» d'Alexeï Salnikov. Retrouvez tous ces romans à paraître dans mon Grand Guide de la rentrée littéraire 2020 (avec tous les autres). #premierroman #MariePierLafontaine #SaraOmar #CelineDebayle #DjailiAmadouAmal #JoyceCarolOates #AmyJoBurns #AlissaWenz #NicolasRodier #ChristophePerruchas #KateElizabethRussell #MarciaBurnier #AlexeiSalnikov #hcdahlem #roman #RentréeLittéraire2020 #litteraturefrancaise #litteraturecontemporaine #primoroman #premierroman #àparaître #Edition #Société #féminisme #MeToo #violenceconjugale #violencefaitesauxfemmes #Violencessexuelles https://collectiondelivres.wordpress.com/le-grand-guide-de-la-rentree-2020-2/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CDCLQB5nLuV/?igshid=eeucgmhswkkr

📖 BOOK REVIEW 📖⁣ ⁣ Hi everyone, hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. Today I’m sharing my thoughts on My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.⁣ ⁣ Every year there seem to be a few books that EVERYONE is talking about and I’ve been hearing hype and praise for this novel for months prior to its publication date. I couldn’t bear not knowing any longer so bowed to the hype and was given it as a birthday present. ⁣ ⁣ Generally, I think My Dark Vanessa is not only an incredibly difficult book to review, it’s a difficult book to read and a difficult book to talk about. Yet sometimes reading something that makes you feel uncomfortable can be important because it gets conversation started about crucial issues.⁣ ⁣ My Dark Vanessa comes with multiple trigger warnings for sexual abuse and grooming. I think what surprised me the most about the story though was that our female lead, Vanessa is not like many survivors of sexual abuse. I hesitate to even say that and must add that I don’t think there is a cookie cutter version of a “survivor of sexual abuse.” Everyone is an individual with their own experiences, their own way of getting through it and their own right to be heard.⁣ ⁣ I can’t really say I enjoyed this novel. Enjoy is a strange word when it comes to this story. I was absorbed, I wanted to keep turning the pages and I lost myself in the narrative whilst reading it. This is a dark, disturbing and thought provoking tale that will certainly give readers a lot to discuss.⁣ ⁣ Four stars 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 ⁣ ⁣ #bookstagram #bookworm #booklover #bookstagrammer #mydarkvanessa #kateelizabethrussell #fourstarreads #bookreview https://www.instagram.com/p/CB_PrU_Ay1r/?igshid=3w11iax0tgin

Trechos

"Às vezes tenho a sensação de que é só isso que estou fazendo sempre que entro em contato: tentando assombrá-lo, arrastá-lo de volta no tempo, pedindo a ele que me conte de novo o que aconteceu. Para que eu entenda de uma vez por todas. Porque eu continuo presa lá. Não consigo seguir em frente.” - p. 76

“A sensação de perigo é tão grande que é estranho pensar que já estivemos mais próximos muitas vezes.” - p. 81

“Eu não digo isso, mas às vezes tenho a sensação de que é exatamente isso que ele está fazendo comigo: me desconstruindo, me montando outra vez como alguém novo.” - p, 106

“Eu não sou nada, não sou ninguém, não estou em lugar nenhum.” - p, 123

“Ele me usou outra vez. Quantas vezes? O que vai ser preciso, Vanessa?” p. 130

“Às vezes tento imaginar outra menina fazendo o que eu fiz - afundando no prazer daquilo, ansiando por aquilo, construindo a vida ao redor daquilo -, mas não consigo. Meu cérebro chega a um beco sem saída, o labirinto é engolido pela escuridão. Impensável. Indizível.” - p. 132

“Mas não, essa palavra não serve, nunca serviu. É esquivar-se da realidade, uma mentira, do mesmo jeito que é errado me chamar de vítima e nada mais. Ele nunca foi tão simples; nem eu.” - p. 132

“Isso tudo aconteceu antes mesmo de eu me dar conta do que realmente estava se passando.” - p. 164

“Mas eu nunca conseguiria. Seria como atear fogo em mim mesma.” - p. 224

“Ele me fez enxergar a mim mesma de tal modo que um menino da minha idade jamais teria conseguido.” - p. 225

“Quero afundar o suficiente para chegar abaixo da superfície e nadar sem precisar de ar.” - p. 225

“A coisa só acelerou depois disso, quando ele soube que por mim estava tudo bem; e não é isso o que significa consentimento, sempre ser perguntada sobre o que se quer? Eu queria que ele me beijasse? Queria que ele me tocasse? Queria que ele me comesse? Lentamente guiada até o fogo... Por que todo mundo tem tanto medo de admitir como isso pode ser bom? Ser seduzida é ser amada e manuseada como algo precioso e delicado.” - p. 229 

“Se você tocar em mim, eu vou morrer.” - p. 282

“Não consigo me afastar do cheiro dele.” - p. 285

“Ainda me sinto rasgada ao meio quando ele mete, provavelmente sempre vou me sentir assim, mas eu quero aquilo. Preciso querer.” - p. 294

“Eu simplesmente preciso muito que seja uma história de amor. Você entende? Preciso muito, muito que seja isso.” - p. 372

“E, por fim, obrigada às ninfetas autoproclamadas, às Lolitas que conheci ao longo dos anos e que carregam dentro de si histórias semelhantes de abuso que parecia amor, que vêem a si mesmas em Dolores Haze. Este livro foi escrito especialmente para vocês.” - p. 430

Minha sombria Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russel / Ed. Intrínseca

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell #currentlyreading #reader #readersofinstagram #mydarkvanessa #kateelizabethrussell #readmorebooks #readmore #bookstagram #book #booklover #booknerd #bookstagrammer #bookworm #bookaddict #bookrecommendations #booksofinstagram #bookobsessed #bookcommunity #bookcollection #bookhoarder #booklovers https://www.instagram.com/p/B_w-XlEBDIa/?igshid=16cts3i8bwgox

Well hey there Day 22 #ausbookishphotochallenge over at @ausbookishfeatures Prompt: Books and Chocolate 😋🤤 . Unpopular opinion here but I don't like to eat chocolate that often but when I'm in the mood for it, BOY do I crave it! Lindt Intense dark mint chocolate is one of my favourites at the moment 😍🍃 (look, we can pretend those are mint leaves🙃). . What is your favourite chocolate? . . My current physical read is My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and it is SOMETHING! Have you read it? . . . . #ausbookishfeatures #amreading #photochallenge #booksandchocolate #aprilphotochallenge #mydarkvanessa #kateelizabethrussell #readbyamity #cozyhome #neutralbedspread #booksinbed #booksofinstagram #booksandcandles #pinkbooks #paperback #floppypaperback (at Wollongong, New South Wales) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_RaCsPgGPH/?igshid=1d92yv6qx8d0e

Happy Friday! I’m almost done with my fourth book of the #contemporaryathon, I’m sure if you had watch my video last you have heard me talk about this book a lot! 😁 but it’s you haven’t then read more below. • • • My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Expected publication: March 10th 2020 by @williammorrowbooks • • • • • Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer. 2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher. 2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed? Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself. • • • • • • #mydarkvanessa #kateelizabethrussell #dark #thriller #adultthriller #fiction #darkromance #psychologicalthril https://www.instagram.com/p/B8jIa1zANqO/?igshid=1tenzfe74bpml

Vivo uma procura eterna por mim mesma, mas nunca encontro algo exato.

MInha Sombria Vanessa.

“ All he did was fall in love with me and the world turned him into a monster ❤️ “

👨🏻‍🏫👩🏻‍🦰”Realmente necesitaba que fuera una historia de amor. Realmente necesito que sea eso. ¿Sabes?.” “Lo sé,” d...

Hello there and welcome to the blog of closet reading, I was lucky enough to get my blogging hands on a book that is currently a hot potato within the blogging world, and one that I predict will be one hell of a hit when it’s released in January 23rd next year. The book I am on about is of course My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, it is the hard-hitting novel that can be described as a modern day version of  Lolita. I’d like to thank Matt Clacher of 4th Estate Books for sending me a glorious proof. If this necessary read tickles your bookish pickle, you can pre-order your very own copy here! (It’s been endorsed by Stephen King – “A package of dynamite”, that’s how completely superb it is!)

Kate Elizabeth Russell is originally from eastern Maine. She holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Kansas and an MFA from Indiana University. My Dark Vanessa is her first novel. Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher. you can find me on twitter @GinnyMcCoo and on instagram @kateelizabethrussell. Kate also has a website with a blog that you can check out here.

Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher. She is now thirty-two and the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student of his. Vanessa is horrified by this news, because she is quite certain that the relationship she had with Strane wasn’t abuse. It was love. She’s sure of that. But now, in 2017, in the midst of allegations against powerful men, she is being asked to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape.

I’m always quite suspicious of hugely raved reads before they are published, let alone those that are raved so much months before publication date – I know a lot of people are the exact same, but this book hugely lives up to the hype, it exceeds the hype and is a solid must read. The whole of My Dark Vanessa is written in first person from Vanessa, a fifteen year old girl who has increasingly become more aware of her body and as an adult, how her historical sexual ‘awakening’ has affected her emotionally and mentally, while still being manipulated by a person who was meant to keep her safe. The storyline is visualised unbelievable well with the use of time hopping between 2001 and 2017 – the reader knows the bare bones of Vanessa’s story but the jaw dropping shock is elevated to new levels as the plot begins to unravel with a series of difficult to swallow events.

Vanessa is a normal student who exceeds expectations in the creative writing department, she is experiencing puberty while at the same time her first taste of complete independence. Although Vanessa portrays herself as a logically individual, between the cracks you can still see the childlike nativity within her – she is still a child and the attention of her professor makes her feel that she has the lead, when really she has no clue that she is being manipulated. My heart broke as I cascaded down a steep cliff of emotions from anger, frustration and sadness. Kate Elizabeth Russell has created a hard-hitting novel that is filled with trauma and edged with hope. The quality of her writing is brilliant, she sucked me into the life of Vanessa and then spat me out, leaving me completely bereft and utterly stunned.

As I’ve already said, My Dark Vanessa is an absolutely necessary read, especially in times of the #MeToo movement, among this novel Kate has integrated the warning signs of abuse, I think this book could be used as a worthy tool to help explain various social issues, such as what sexual consent means, that the definition of a sexually abused victim has a wide range of grey areas – from grooming to the ongoing power of the abuser. This is an essential read!

I read My Dark Vanessa in multiple sittings because it was so twisted, but what you, as well as I need to remember is that this fictional tale has been developed around a non – fictional issue – Kate has written this novel in a sensitive and respectful way, I can’t fault her, not at all. The evocative and emotive essence of My Dark Vanessa will stick with me for a long while, like that heavy feeling in your stomach. This book is sadly a story of our times, but it could also be a weapon in the war against it.

Verdict – It completely blew me away! The whole read was an emotional marathon and My Dark Vanessa is a bookish force of nature. Pre – order it and scream about it from the rooftops.

Thank you again Matt for sending me a copy of this read!

I’ve also included links for those who may need them.

http://thesurvivorstrust.org/find-support/

http://www.ascasupport.org/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/child-sexual-exploitation/

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-is-child-abuse/types-of-abuse/grooming/

I also find this YouTube very helpful when explaining consent, and it’s youngster friendly, so can be a weapon in eradicating this sort of abuse at the roots.

Tea and Consent

#BookReview: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell @GinnyMcCoo @4thestatebooks @MattClacher #MyDarkVanessa #Review Hello there and welcome to the blog of closet reading, I was lucky enough to get my blogging hands on a book that is currently a hot potato within the blogging world, and one that I predict will be one hell of a hit when it's released in January 23rd next year.