My Dark Vanessa is the kind of story that requires you to invest mentally and think critically while reading it. It was never meant to be for entertainment, never meant to make you feel good. It is disturbing and claustrophobic, and I imagine it’s not a piece you’ll want to spend too long on. I recommend carving out some time over two or three days to devote to it and get it over with, because after a while you may dread going back to the pages. Not because the writing or pacing are problematic—they actually demonstrate immense skill from debut author Kate Elizabeth Russell—but because this novel has a calculated way of reeling you into an atmosphere, a creeping feeling, a sense of helpless isolation that is all too affecting after a while. The story is not easy to hear, but I think it must be told.
Russell writes poignantly and in detail, executing descriptions, similes and metaphors with fluency. It is not the most lyrical or innovative prose to be found, but it serves the story well and never distracts save for a few particularly well-executed lines that demand to be admired for a few moments.
The narrative is paced and plotted well, never really lagging. This is much-needed given the subject matter that would have been despair-inducing if certain scenes had been allowed to draw on for too long. Russell seems to use this steady pace to soften the blow of some particularly traumatic moments by moving on from them in just enough time, allowing the reader to breathe before plunging them back into the depths.
Main characters are rounded out well enough, especially Vanessa and Strane. The supporting cast might be slightly underdeveloped, but I also wonder if this was intentionally done to intensify the isolating feeling of Vanessa’s internal loneliness and dependency on Strane. Could be interpreted either way.
My only concern is what I feel might have been a slightly gratuitous handling of Vanessa’s relationship with Strane—which I should go ahead and identify unequivocally as rape and abuse. Everything is Vanessa’s life comes back to Strane, even the little things. It’s incredibly exhausting, and I don’t know whether to label is as unrealistic or not. I have thankfully never been through Vanessa’s experience, so I can’t really speak to this, but I will say that the way Vanessa’s entire life revolved around Strane for more than a decade in so many ways made me question the believability of the story once or twice. The other piece to this is the sheer amount of graphic intimate (I can’t recall if there was actually a single encounter that wouldn’t warrant the label of rape) scenes between Vanessa and Strane, and the depth they were described in. They feel necessary in the first half, but might come across as gratuitously repetitive in the latter. Some have interpreted this as potentially romanticizing, but I’m skeptical of that myself.
All in all, My Dark Vanessa sticks the difficult landing it set out to. Nuance and complex emotional and mental processes are navigated with expertise. The novel teaches you a hard lesson and opens your mind to a small sliver of the difficult and complex thought processes of a survivor. It is incredibly valuable for that reason, coming packed with empathetic potential and emotional information. It is also quite apparent that author Kate Elizabeth Russell has a very promising career in front of her should she choose to continue writing. If you can handle the subject matter, consider this a recommendation.