READING IDEAS FOR THE WEEK

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, 4th Estate, £8.99

This deeply psychological new novel from Kate Elizabeth Russell offers a fresh perspective on the highly pertinent topic of sexual abuse and grooming.

We are given a split narrative from the perspective of our protagonist Vanessa Wye, which takes readers on a journey between the present day, and back to her time at boarding school where she was groomed by her teacher at the age of 15.

After winning a scholarship at Browick, a boarding school in Maine, Vanessa seeks solace in her English classes after finding it difficult to fit in with her peers.

Her love of literature is quickly recognised by her English teacher, who praises her over her ‘maple-red’ hair and her ‘dark mind’. It becomes obvious very early on that the schoolgirl is being manipulated as a result of her desire to connect with someone else, and is cajoled into starting a relationship with the middleaged man, who claims they are kindred spirits due to their inability to fit in with everyone else.

Despite the obvious sinister tone as we helplessly learn of Vanessa’s deeply disturbing abuse, the present-day perspective of a now adult woman is almost more harrowing – it exposes the scars and the seemingly irreparable damage done to her at such a young and vulnerable age, where her teachers were her guardians. At times, this became an almost unbearably frustrating read, as the grown Vanessa appears unable to reconcile her issues as an adult with the trauma that she went through at the hands of her abuser.

The author cleverly manages to reflect the toxic storm on social media brewing around stories of historical abuse, with cries of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and ‘feminism gone wild’ seeming to further reinforce Vanessa’s opinion that, far from being a victim, she was a complicit accomplice in pursuing this illegitimate relationship. This is so much more than a simple trial and retribution story – it has layers of complexity that reflect the very nature of its subject matter.

It is a dark and at times uncomfortable novel, but it feels like an important one. I appreciated the author’s refusal to paint the protagonist as a helpless, meek victim and her abuser as a gruesome monster. Instead, she manages to produce an authentic commentary on the sexualisation of young women, and the way society as a whole treats these young women who are deemed ‘promiscuous’.