My Dark Vanessa My Dark Vanessa

My Dark Vanessa

A Novel

    • 4.2 • 2K Ratings
    • $12.99
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 

“[An] exceedingly complex, inventive, resourceful examination of harm and power.” —The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice

“A lightning rod . . . brilliantly crafted.”—The Washington Post

A most anticipated book by The New York Times • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Marie Claire • Elle • Harper's Bazaar • Bustle • Newsweek • New York Post • Esquire •  Real Simple • The Sunday Times • The Guardian 

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.

GENRE
Fiction & Literature
RELEASED
2020
March 10
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
400
Pages
PUBLISHER
William Morrow
SELLER
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS
SIZE
3.3
MB

Customer Reviews

Jess ☆ ,

couldn’t put it down.

Although it was one of the most unsettling (and at times frustrating/almost relatable) books I’ve read yet, I could not put this book down. The author wrote it so well that I almost mistook it as a memoir.

Superreader21 ,

Enlightening in the most heartbreaking way

This book is nothing like I’ve ever read. The character of Vanessa touches your soul in every which way by challenging what it means to be a victim. Such a topical piece that is tragic, profound, and bittersweet.

Kaia RR ,

AMAZINGG

Oh my word, I’ve never read a book this interesting, if there was a book to have to be peeled out of my hands it would be this one one!!!

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