Description:
My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell - 2020
By: Kate Elizabeth Russell
Narrated by: Grace Gummer
Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 03-10-20
Categories: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Crime Thrillers, Psychological
Language: English
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Format: mp3 64/48 stereo
Entertainment Weekly's Breakout Author to Watch in 2020
"Brilliant and stunning...an absolute must read." (Gillian Flynn)
"A well-constructed package of dynamite." (Stephen King)
A most anticipated book by The New York Times • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Marie Claire • Elle • Harper's Bazaar • Bustle • Newsweek • New York Post • Esquire • Real Simple • The Sunday Times • The Guardian
One of the most buzzed-about debuts in years
An international sensation sold in 24 territories and counting
Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, a brilliant, all-consuming listen that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, 15-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful 42-year-old English teacher.
2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: Remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager - and who professed to worship only her - may be far different from what she has always believed?
Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.
Includes a bonus conversation with Kate Elizabeth Russell, Grace Gummer, and Jessica Williams (editor of My Dark Vanessa).
©2020 Kate Elizabeth Russell (P)2020 HarperCollins UK
Editor's Pick
A dark, absorbing Lolita for the 21st century
"The sexual relationship between a 15 year old and her decades-older teacher can only be described as the rape of a child, but an adolescent—on a passionate identity quest, informed by literature and a culture that relentlessly sexualizes girls—doesn’t think of herself as a child, does she? Kate Elizabeth Russell’s absorbing and disturbing debut novel nails what it might be like to be 15, desperate to feel seen and to matter—and then, with devastating realism and pacing, to be groomed and raped by a predator. "I’m going to ruin you," 42-year-old Jacob Strane tells Vanessa early in the novel, and his prediction plays out through a dual timeline that alternates with Vanessa’s adult reckoning, set in #MeToo-era 2017. With a necessary trigger warning for sexual violence and child abuse, My Dark Vanessa provides visceral nuance to the consent conversation as well as an effective contemporary response to Lolita (a publishing trendlet of late). Narrator Grace Gummer, known for her role in Mr. Robot and as the daughter of Meryl Streep, sounds both tough and achingly vulnerable in an unforgettable performance. She embodies the character so well that, combined with Russell’s masterful prose, Vanessa feels deeply real in a way that’s impossible to shake. I hope she’s doing OK."—Kat J., Audible Editor
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