My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell

  “I’m going to ruin you.”

Vanessa Wye. Why her ? Was she too strong, and yet too vulnerable at 15 ? Was Strane just a helpless man, who acted out a few of his own scripts and got lucky, more than just a couple of times ? Is there a category of men, who can manipulate vulnerable, lonely girls in to their sordid plans ? Was the mixture of lack of attention, loneliness, girlish adventurism and innocent pride in her yet blooming early womanhood all combine to corner her in to a most undesirable situation ? Could her mother have made a difference ? Or, is it that, in these matters, the dishonourable initiative of the adult, towards the minor, the guiding principle in deciding the guilt - the first attempt at manipulation - as Taylor's precise (safe?) allegation suggest ? Is  the stance,

“He worshipped me. I was lucky.”

, a self-deception caught in an opportune time, to help her through the mires ?

I was making little progress with another three books, when I started this in audiobook format. I must admit that I am glad that I chose to listen to this - instead of reading  in the proper sense - because Grace Gummer does such an amazing job, for even the quiver of  Vanessa's helplessness is felt in her perfect narration.

For all Strane's  monstrosity, I cannot get over the fact that Vanessa's own traits didn't help her, in leaving that stage of her life.

“I can’t lose the thing I’ve held onto for so long, you know?” ... “I just really need it to be a love story, you know? I really, really need it to be that.”

What I like about this book most is, the numerous questions that it asks the reader. What if this ? And, what if that ?  The suggestion, that, yes, that first inappropriate initiative is wholly wrong, but there are so many other factors that lines up to feed on that initiative, possibly making the victim feel that he or she was hungry for that initiative, and making  them play along, before they realise that the are so deeply trapped in the labyrinth of immature emotions, that it can destroy them.

I liked the ending too - the fact that Jolene would never know Strane - the trigger that Vanessa required to make a new start. Reading this book, about half a dozen years after the account of one very philosophical Humbert Humbert - now, a tale that it be could be compared with, told from the perspective of a victim in denial. It was, no doubt a most disturbing read - but I guess, the intensity of that feeling is tantamount to admission of the author's success. The author and the narrator's, in my case.

Rating - ****
Genre - Novel (2020 )