I’m always wary of hype, so I was on my guard when a friend gave me a pre-publication copy (the cover littered, of course, with breathless reviews from booksellers) of a novel that’s being promoted as one of the “hot” books of 2020, My Dark Vanessa. It’s a story, set in Maine, of a sexual relationship between a 15 year-old girl and her 42 year-old male teacher. Even before it was published, the book was notorious. It was picked as an Oprah Book Club choice and then suddenly dropped, somewhat mysteriously. Accusations were flung around of “appropriation” and plagiarism. All good for sales, of course.

So, what’s it about, this new, hot property? The novel is narrated by the victim, Vanessa Wye. Its chapters mostly alternate between 2000, when Vanessa begins the destructive relationship with her English teacher, Jacob Strane, at an exclusive boarding school in Maine, and 2017 when Vanessa is thirty-two, living alone, still damaged, still obsessed, and still self-absorbed.

On the evidence of this, her debut novel, Kate Elizabeth Russell is a capable and promising storyteller, but My Dark Vanessa is a dull, flat book. Whatever the jacket says, it’s not “dynamite” or “explosive” and it isn’t a “sensation”.  Vanessa and Jacob, victim and abuser, are little more than cyphers, never properly realized and rarely elevated above the level of stereotypes. My Dark Vanessa will, I’m sure, sell very well and have its few weeks of fame because reviewers and feature writers will do their best to present it as titillating and scandalous. In fact, it’s nothing of the sort. Russell had sincere intentions for the book, but lacks the experience to deliver a work that fully realizes those intentions.