#12 in Crime & mystery
My Dark Vanessa
- 384
- Pages
- about 7 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 1 week on the list, peaked at #7
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About the book
. . brilliantly crafted.”—The Washington Post Recommended by The New York Times • USA Today • Entertainment Weekly • Marie Claire • Elle • Harper's Bazaar • Newsweek • New York Post • Esquire • Real Simple • The Sunday Times • The Guardian • and more! Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, 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?
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.3 across 533 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 78% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 8.2 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.1 | 27 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 8.3 | 506 | 95% |
Reader voices
The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).
“Great description of complicated emotions when it comes to sexual crime victims. It captures the tiniest, the most subtle feelings. A book makes me ponder and it reveals a lot of emotions surrounding sexual crime victims that I never really thought of.”
Frequently asked
How long is My Dark Vanessa?
It has 384 pages — shorter than 60% of the ranked books in Crime & mystery.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Crime & mystery — with scores between 7.8 and 8.4, closest to this book.
