I read My Dark Vanessa about a year ago and I recently had a hankering for a book that would make my squirm, so I reread it today. And I hate to say that I love this book.
The subject matter is grim but it’s also so raw and so real. Strane trying to convince himself he is a good man, that Vanessa was different, as he continues to assault his students. Vanessa trying to cope with what happened to her, to convince herself she’s not a victim, that she wasn’t groomed, that it was love, otherwise she’d have to accept the truth that her life was and continued to be destroyed by a predator.
I hate that I can’t talk to anyone in real life about this book because of it’s subject matter, because it’s such an amazing, well written, and believable account of the twisted lies people tell themselves to justify their behaviour, be they perpetrator or victim.
by Sleebean
1 Comment
Agreed! If you want to experience it in a different way, Meryl Streep’s daughter does a beautiful job narrating the audio version. I swear some of my CPTSD resolved listening to it, and I say that with my whole master’s in counseling chest. Something released, you know? I felt seen and heard somehow after reading it.