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Content snapshot
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Violence
Barely any
No graphic physical violence; the violence is sexual and psychological
Language
Some
Adult language throughout
Sexual Content
Very heavy
Explicitly depicted statutory rape and grooming; the sexual content is central to the novel's subject and disturbing throughout
Substance Use
Some
Alcohol as a coping mechanism; some drug use
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
The psychological horror of grooming and its lasting damage; Vanessa's self-deception as a survival mechanism; one of the most psychologically intensive novels about abuse and its aftermath in recent fiction
What this book is about
Vanessa Wye was fifteen when her teacher Jacob Strane began grooming her. Now thirty-two, in the #MeToo era, another woman has come forward about Strane—and Vanessa must decide whether to speak. Kate Elizabeth Russell's debut novel alternates between Vanessa's present-day crisis and the past, depicting the grooming process with unflinching precision: how Strane made Vanessa feel special, chosen, complicit, and how that complicity has become the story she tells herself about her own life. The sexual content is explicit and disturbing precisely because it depicts abuse, not romance.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Explicitly depicted sexual abuse of a minor
Grooming depicted in precise and disturbing detail
Adults only; deeply uncomfortable reading by design
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