Library Manager
Manage your library—your way. Keep a running list or organize archived books into little stacks. i.e. Beach Reads, Cozy Covers, True Crime, etc.
My Dark Vanessa
A General Fiction Novel by Kate Eliabeth Russell
Subgenres:
- Psychological Fiction,
- Literary Fiction,
- Dark Academia
This book is for you if you're into...
- Psychological deep dives into power imbalances and forbidden relationships
- Stories confronting memory, trauma, and the gray areas of consent
- Narratives that alternate between past and present to unravel truth
From Little Stack
This one was an instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller for good reason. Even Stephen King has described it as, ‘A package of dynamite’! A bold and powerful read which touches on some of today’s most complex issues.
Vanessa was fifteen-years-old when she started a relationship with her English teacher. Now thirty-two, she learns the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student. Vanessa is forced to revisit her past, admit to herself that the greatest love story of her live was rape. Was she just one of many other victims?
Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, this is a brilliant, all-consuming read that marks the explosive debut of an extraordinary new writer.
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-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.
Little Stacks of Modern & Literary Fiction
Emotionally Gripping Women’s Fiction about Mothers and Daughters
Whether funny, moving, or thought-provoking, these engrossing women’s fiction novels explore the complex relationship between mothers and daughters.
Angel Down Wins the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Daniel Kraus's WWI novel joins a celebrated lineage. Discover the Pulitzer-winning books readers love most.
Best Pulitzer Prize Winners of All Time According to Readers
How do you pick the greatest books from the list of legendary Pulitzer Prize winners? Well, we’ll give it a go!
Get Free & Discounted eBooks
Curated reads, irresistible prices—subscribe now