We have a two-for-one deal for you today, with a book that is a riveting read, and an accompanying conversation that offers information to make your reading experience even richer, and to shine a light on the tragic circumstances of sexual abuse.
The book is My Dark Vanessa, available as both an e-book and audiobook at OWWL2Go. There is a wait time for both, but trust us: it’s worth the wait.
The conversation features Macedon Libary’s own Jessica Saccone interviewing Mallory from the Victim Resource Center of the Finger Lakes. Mallory has some important things to say both to those who have or are experiencing domestic abuse as well as those who are just learning about it. You can access the conversation on Zoom HERE. The access password is 0o@69^Xx. We strongly urge you to check it out.
“Brilliant and stunning . . . an absolute must read.” – GILLIAN FLYNN
“A well-constructed package of dynamite.” – STEPHEN KING
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. 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.
Macedon Public Library 