When Abuse Comes Disguised as Love

Fifteen-year-old Vanessa thought she had a love too special for the world to understand. Decades later, her lover is being accused of child abuse. Read my review of My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, published in Story Lamp Reviews on Medium.

Thirty-something Vanessa Wye lives in the shadow of her doomed love affair with English teacher, Jacob Strane. Recognising her potential for future greatness, Strane singles his teenage student out for special attention, and they begin an intense and covert relationship. It’s not long before the school community becomes suspicious, and both Strane and Vanessa are called to account.

Strane convinces Vanessa to take the fall, and she denies everything, telling the school authorities that she was simply making up rumours about her and Strane. They accept her convenient excuse, forcing Vanessa to give up her scholarship to the prestigious school and leave in disgrace.

Vanessa’s life never gains any traction after that. Strane’s prediction that she would become a great and celebrated writer falls disappointingly short, and two decades on from their relationship, Vanessa has a dead-end job as a hotel concierge and lives alone in a squalid little apartment. She clings to memories of her time with Strane, believing their love was too unique for the conventional world to understand.

But then she gets a call from another student of her beloved Strane. The woman publicly accuses Strane of abusing her as an underage girl, and soon several others come forth. As the evidence mounts against him, Vanessa slowly comes to realise the true nature of the relationship that has shaped her life, and that what she thought was a great love affair was nothing more than abuse.

My Dark Vanessa is an intimate and exquisitely written story, portraying the insidious nature of childhood sexual abuse. While some have found the sex scenes in this novel to be gratuitous, my take is that they build the case for how Vanessa succumbed to Strane’s seduction, and the extent of his manipulation. Strane justified his actions during their sexual encounters by inveigling Vanessa’s verbal consent with each move that he made and would later use it against her to make her feel complicit in the situation.

Before they embarked on their sexual encounters in earnest, Strane warned Vanessa “I’m going to ruin you,” and true to his word he did. This novel demonstrates how long-lasting and far-reaching the effects of sexual abuse can be, and how they can forever tarnish the victim’s relationships, mental health, and financial well-being.

It is fitting that at the end of the novel, events come full circle, and Strane himself is the one who is ruined. When the full extent of his crimes comes to light, he takes his own life rather than have to face the consequences.

It is only when she is set free from both Strane himself and all her delusions that Vanessa can truly rebuild her life.

Read on Medium

Photo by Author

Buy Here

Affiliate link. You will not incur any extra charges by purchasing from this link, and the author will earn commission from any sales.