Trigger Warning
This review will contain discussions of abuse, paedophilia and rape. Reader discretion is advised.
Introduction
My Dark Vanessa is an Adult Fiction novel published in 2020, by American author Kate Elizabeth Russell. It’s something of a departure from The Manifesto, I’ll admit- though it does explore, with a lot less softness, a similar theme, the student-teacher affair. Considered to be Lolita for the #MeToo era, it’s a dark, complicated novel that forces us to question our beliefs and assumptions about victimhood, and where the lines between consent and abuse lie.
Summary
It’s the middle of autumn, 2017, and Vanessa Wye is working as a concierge in a fancy hotel in Portland, Maine. As the #MeToo era goes on around her, current events suddenly become a lot more personal when her former English teacher, Jacob Strane, comes under fire, accused of abusing a former student. The thing is, though, Strane wasn’t just a teacher to Vanessa- he was involved with her, too, ever since she was just fifteen. But Vanessa doesn’t consider herself to be a victim of abuse- even when everyone around her views her situation that way.
We cut back and forth between the present day and the early 2000s, as we’re shown the progression of Vanessa and Strane’s relationship in the past, outlining his grooming process and building, inevitably, to his repeated statutory rape, before finally showing how everything eventually fell apart, and the ways it changed Vanessa for good. In the present, meanwhile, Vanessa is under increasing pressure to join in on condemning Strane, and her wish to continue viewing what she went through as a love story becomes more and more desperate.
What I Liked
I liked a lot of things about this book. Vanessa is a main character that I honestly love, though if she were a real person I may well be, much like the other people in her life, frustrated at her insistence on romanticizing her abuse. However, seeing everything that happened from her perspective, it’s easy to see how she would come to see what happened to her through that lens.
That’s another thing I liked- the incorporation of the two timelines. Including the storyline set in the present day helps to elevate the story beyond just a standard one of child abuse, turning it into a commentary on the aftermath of these kinds of situations, on how we view their victims. In my opinion, the book would be nowhere near as strong or as memorable if it had only included the storyline set in the early 2000s.
What I Didn’t Like
The sex scenes between Vanessa and Strane were very uncomfortable to read. I understand that this is the point, that they are supposed to invoke that reaction, so I don’t mean this as a criticism, merely an observation, a confirmation that the intent was fulfilled. Perhaps the worst of these is the second one, when Vanessa wakes in the night and Strane pushes her into having penetrative sex. Of course, while this would constitute statutory rape regardless, due to Vanessa’s age, the fact that he is clearly going to do it whether she says yes or not makes it infinitely worse.
So, About The Lolita Thing…
Lolita, as you probably know, is a novel written in 1955, by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov. It tells the story of paedophile Humbert Humbert, and his obsession with his landlady’s twelve-year-old daughter Dolores Hayes. It’s essentially from the perspective of a paedophile who does not think of himself as a paedophile, and doesn’t want you, the reader, to think of him that way either.
The similarities between him and Strane don’t exactly need to be searched for- the gradual grooming, the use of threats and intimidation, the constant self-reassurance that he isn’t doing anything wrong. Likewise, there are similarities between Vanessa and Dolores which are fairly easy to spot. Both are lured in by a predator, both believe they have more power and control than they actually do, and neither of them are given the help they need when they need it the most.
I bring this comparison up largely because, well, Russell already did so in the book itself. Strane gives Vanessa a copy of Lolita to read, and it quickly becomes her favourite novel. She sees herself as Dolores, Strane as Humbert… all the while, managing to miss the part where Humbert is supposed to be the bad guy. Her interpretation of the novel may seem frustrating for that reason, but it’s also part of the wider way in which she continuously romanticizes what she went through in order to cope.
This is one of the many issues that this book grapples with, the question of what is or isn’t healthy when it comes to coping strategies. Do any of us really have the right to judge how another person responds to trauma? Do we have the right to pressure someone into viewing their experiences a certain way just because it makes more sense to us?
Final Thoughts
This book had a huge impact on me. It was a reminder of how lucky I was to have escaped my teenage years without that kind of trauma, especially powerful given how much of my younger self I saw in Vanessa. It also challenged the way I thought about abuse, reminding me that the myth of the “perfect victim” is just that, a myth. Overall, this is a book I would highly recommend- especially for anyone looking to understand the reality that people like Vanessa live with every day.
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