My Dark Vanessa

Kate Elizabeth Russell

Mar 2020 · HarperCollins UK

About this ebook

An instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellerSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 DYLAN THOMAS AWARD'A package of dynamite' Stephen King‘Powerful, compulsive, brilliant’ Marian Keyes

An era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacher

ALL HE DID WAS FALL IN LOVE WITH ME AND THE WORLD TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTER

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.

Nuanced, uncomfortable, bold and powerful, My Dark Vanessa goes straight to the heart of some of the most complex issues of our age.

Ratings and reviews

I struggle to finish this book, not because it's not good, but because of the realness in Vanessa's denial of everything that happened to her. It really shows how complex her abuse was for her. It makes my skin crawled everytime their encounter described a little too vividly. A great but though read, especially if you have experienced something similar.

this book took a lot out of me; it made me cry, but it mainly made me think a lot about things that never really cross my mind. I read it in the space of 48 hours, absolutely engulfed in the author's writing. It will stick in your head like a stain you can't get out. I urge you to read this book. it's incredible

So well written it hurts. You may want to look away but this novel demands to be read and understood, just like the stories of all the Dolores Haze in the world.

About the author

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.