From the Bookshelf of Turning Pages At Midnight…

My Dark Vanessa

Kate Elizabeth Russell

Start date: April 9, 2020

Finish date: April 14, 2020

Discussion: Buddy Reads

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* September 2025 Buddy Reads
By Diana · 13 posts · 19 views

last updated Sep 04, 2025 07:25AM

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last updated Jun 01, 2025 09:53AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 26, 2020 Ela rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Loved this twisted tale and how said this happens in our world! I only wished arsehole didn't get off so easily! ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2020 Sera rated it really liked it

4.5 stars

1 like · Like · see review

May 28, 2025 Shan ~A~ rated it really liked it

Shelves: back-to-school, teacher, audio, contemporary, crime, family, kindle-unlimited, mental-illness, teacher-student-relationship, title-proper-name

Vanessa Wyes

It's been a couple of days and I'm still not sure what to say about this book or how to rate it. In this story the present is 2017, but we get flashbacks of the years when Vanessa was in high school and. some after between the years of 2000-2006.

This is not a love story and please check the triggers because this story deals with sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as mental issues.

As a teenager Vanessa was introduced to sex in an inappropriate way. Most of us was probably having Vanessa Wyes

It's been a couple of days and I'm still not sure what to say about this book or how to rate it. In this story the present is 2017, but we get flashbacks of the years when Vanessa was in high school and. some after between the years of 2000-2006.

This is not a love story and please check the triggers because this story deals with sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as mental issues.

As a teenager Vanessa was introduced to sex in an inappropriate way. Most of us was probably having sex or something close to it at that age, but most of us wasn't being groomed, manipulated, and sexually abused by their teachers (or some other adult). Her teacher Jacob Strane, a 42-year-old man, is the definition of a predator. He saw a young girl who was desperate for attention and took full advantage, not just of her body, but of her mind.

The sexual abuse is horrible on its own, but the mental abuse was really like brainwashing.

If I had honestly felt that the decisions that she made were her own, I would still frown on the relationship, but I wouldn't feel so murderous towards a fictional character.

Long ago girls/young women were put on the marriage mart at this age or at least 16, so there hasn't always been stigma on young girls having sex with older men (or at least marrying them). However, here there was a power imbalance as well as the fact that you can clearly see what his intentions were from the moment they start interacting.

I also think that this school did nothing to protect Vanessa or any other girls that attended. That whole part where Vanessa has to speak in front of everyone and they got to ask her questions was victim shaming at its finest.

I also took from this the importance of our children feeling like they could talk to us about anything. No matter what it is without judgement. The moment they feel like we're going to flip out about everything, is the moment they start keeping secrets.

All I know is if this was happening to my daughters, I may have to be like Carl Lee Halley in A Time to Kill. ...more

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