Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher.
She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.
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.
Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.
I cannot put into words how much I disliked this book. The thought of a teacher taking advantage of and having a sexual relationship with a 15 year old makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The fact that they continued their relationship into her adulthood doesn't change things for me. No matter how much Vanessa tries to justify their relationship, it still feels wrong. A 32 year old having a relationship with someone in their 60s is very different to a 15 year old being in a relationship with someone 30 years their senior. No matter how precocious the 15 year old is. That's my opinion. I remember reading Lolita as a teenager and not really raising an eyebrow, whereas nowadays I'd probably hate that too.
Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 33: A controversial book.
Rating: ⭐⭐
She is now thirty-two and in the storm of allegations against powerful men in 2017, the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student.
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.
Forced to rethink her past, to revisit everything that happened, Vanessa has to redefine the great love story of her life – her great sexual awakening – as rape. Now she must deal with the possibility that she might be a victim, and just one of many.
I cannot put into words how much I disliked this book. The thought of a teacher taking advantage of and having a sexual relationship with a 15 year old makes me throw up in my mouth a little. The fact that they continued their relationship into her adulthood doesn't change things for me. No matter how much Vanessa tries to justify their relationship, it still feels wrong. A 32 year old having a relationship with someone in their 60s is very different to a 15 year old being in a relationship with someone 30 years their senior. No matter how precocious the 15 year old is. That's my opinion. I remember reading Lolita as a teenager and not really raising an eyebrow, whereas nowadays I'd probably hate that too.
Read for the Shelf Reflection Reading Challenge.
Prompt 33: A controversial book.
Rating: ⭐⭐
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