December 2020 📚 Wrap up

This is the last post about issues concerning 2020, I promise. But I couldn't not talk about the books I read in December. They are not many, but they are beautiful. 

Fourth Person Singular by Nuar Alsadir (2017) 

This is an experimental poetry collection, focusing on issues about identity and self-discovery. It was assigned for a course at school, and once again I was surprised by the novelty of contemporary writers. The form and the structure is innovative and compliments the subject of questioning the world around us and our own self perfectly. You'll definitely learn a lot by reading it not just about yourself, but also about psychology and physics. You should definitely give this a try. 

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell (2020) 

Vanessa is thirty-two years old when her English high school teacher, Jacob Strane, is accused of sexual assault by a student. These accusations complicate her already unstable life because ever since she was fifteen years old, she has always thought of her relationship with Strane as a romantic one. 

I hope that the description above makes it obvious that the book is about mental and emotional abuse and paedophilia. If you are fine reading about those things, I would recommend this book. 

The whole story is narrated by Vanessa, which is great because we get to enter her mind and understand why she trusted Strane completely. I feel that Russell did an amazing job portraying the thoughts and emotions of a teenage girl and the consequences of her relationship with her teacher on her mental health later in life. My only criticism would be that I needed more scenes of the teenage Vanessa with her parents. It seems that they were not as close as they would like to be, but there is no explanation of why this is so. 

Trash by Dorothy Allison (2002) 

This is a short story collection dealing with issues of poverty, childhood abuse and trauma, and lesbianism. Again, this is a book that it is not for everyone as there are a lot of traumatising descriptions. Personally, I enjoyed this book as the first person narrator expresses her feelings and experiences openly and honestly without spoonfeeding her readers. The fact that all the stories are snippets of the narrator's personal and family life means that every detail of every story is important in order to get a clear sense of who the narrator really is. My personal favourite short stories from this collection are 'Meanest Woman Ever Left Tennessee', 'Mama', 'Gospel Song', 'Demon Lover' and 'Compassion'. 

And this is the end. Have you read any of these books? If yes, tell me your opinion about it in the comments below.