Contemporary Fiction: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

There are some books that are so obviously going to be trouble, but you know they will be worth it. I was not entirely sure if Kate Elizabeth Russell's My Dark Vanessa was going to be worth the troubling journey through its pages, but I went ahead and took the chance. Stories about inappropriate relationships between students and teachers are hard to navigate, and this one is no exception.

The Situation: Fifteen year-old Vanessa Wye has started her sophomore year at Browick, a boarding school in Maine she managed to convince her parents to let her attend after earning a scholarship. After having a major falling out last year with her best friend and roommate, Vanessa now has her own room and mostly keeps to herself. The only person she has any interest in talking to is her 42 year-old English teacher Jacob Strane. Well, him and maybe Jesse, the only other student in the Creative Writing Club, for which Strane is the advisor. Vanessa takes every opportunity to talk with Strane, whether it is during class, after class, during office hours, during the meetings for the Creative Writing Club, whenever. It is not long before the situation turns inappropriate and scandalous, but that is what Vanessa wants, a stance she will maintain for nearly 20 years.

The Problem: It's 2017, and Vanessa reads the allegations along with everyone else. Moving between her sophomore year at Browick, and her life now, she tells her own story of when she had a relationship with her English teacher. For her it was consensual - yes, she knows she was only 15 and how people feel about the word 'consensual' when applied to that age - but these allegations mention abuse, and the woman from the article wants Vanessa to also come forward. Of course, Strane, who is still teaching at Browick, wants nothing more than to make sure Vanessa will keep her word to never say anything. While he uses the reasoning that not only will it be bad for him, but for her too, she agrees with him. Besides, how can she accuse a man of something she wanted him to do? But as she tells her story, and the two timelines come closer to meeting, it is clear that Vanessa's hold on the truth, even her version of it, is tenuous at best. 

Genre, Themes, History: This is a fiction novel that is set both in 2000-2001, and 2017. In 2000, Vanessa was starting her sophomore hear at Browick, and in 2017, she is in her 30s and barely managing to hold on. As Jacob Strane's history of abusing his young students finally catches up with him,Vanessa is being forced to once again face the facts of what happened to her, and closely examine her relationship with the man who gave her Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita to read (a book that is referenced heavily in this one, and the author acknowledges her own 'complicates feelings' towards it). She maintains that she was not abused, that she was different, almost special, and vows to never tell. She wanted the relationship with a man 27 years older than her and cannot bear to see Strane as the monster his accusers see him as, even as her own relationship with him has finally ended. It is a complex story that calls into question what it means to consent, and what it means to be a victim, while also exploring how manipulation can work, and just how easily the system can fail.

My Verdict: Yeah, this one is tough. The story is upsetting, the characters are frustrating, and what makes everything harder to take is the fact that this kind of stuff happens all of the time. If you can get past the difficult subject matter, it may be possible to appreciate how well it is written. The book is incredibly complex, especially when it comes to the character of Vanessa. But there are other elements that are worth pointing out, such as the setting of the Browick boarding school, which is also pretty complex. It is a school with high standards and expectations, and yet, despite its beautiful grounds and respected reputation, it is clear to the reader that something is not right, even before everything begins to go wrong. Even the character of Strane comes across as troubling, or at the very least as an annoying teacher, before he even learns Vanessa's name. However, the element of the book that requires the most patience, at least from me, is Vanessa herself. It is an issue with an easy answer, but also not. It's hard.

Favorite Moment: *spoiler alert* When Vanessa finally has her breakthrough and can acknowledge what happened to her.

Favorite Character: I don't think I can pick one. I tried, and there was no one I really wanted to see more of in this book. To be clear, I don not see this as a failing on the author's part. This is a crappy situation that results in crappy interactions and personalities.

Favorite Quote: " 'Vanessa,' she says gently, 'you didn't ask for that. You were just trying to go to school.' "

Recommended Reading: This is hard because I have never read a book quite like this one. I have read and (mostly) enjoyed Lolita, but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone. So instead, I will recommend Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister. This feels like a good antidote to how readers may be feeling after this one.