"Because even if I sometimes use the word abuse to describe certain things that were done to me, in someone else's mouth the word turns ugly and absolute.It swallows me and all the times I wanted it, begged for it," Vanessa tells herself. When a young journalist reaches out to Vanessa to corroborate Taylor's story, Vanessa's world begins to unravel. More than 15 years later, at the height of the #MeToo movement, Taylor Birch, another young woman from Browick, publicly accuses Strane of sexual abuse. "I can tell from the way you write that you're a dark romantic like me." Soon, Vanessa is reveling in her newfound power of attraction, pursuing sleepovers at Strane's house, and conducting what she feels is a secret affair right under the noses of the administration. "I think we're very similar, Nessa," Strane tells her during a one-on-one conference. Jacob Strane is 42, "big, broad, and so tall that his shoulders hunch as though his body wants to apologize for taking up so much space." Strane woos Vanessa with Nabokov's novels, Plath's poetry, and furtive caresses in his back office. The #MeToo movement forces a struggling young woman to confront the abusive relationship that defines her sexual and romantic past.Īt 15, Vanessa Wye falls for her English teacher at Browick, a private boarding school.
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