The Thread: 'My Dark Vanessa' by Kate Elizabeth Russell

My summertime reading would not be complete without a long, luxurious tumble into the territory of mysterious puzzles, enigmatic characters and missed clues. 

Often, I’ll save a thriller that publishes in winter or spring for just the right stretch of sun-dappled, languid days. That moment has arrived.  

When Kate Elizabeth Russell’s novel “My Dark Vanessa” landed on the book table in mid-March, I took in the eerie cover — a girl’s face in tight closeup, made up in dark eye shadow and lipstick, with a butterfly covering one eye — and then read the inside cover. This book, with its references to “Lolita,” (the teacher actually gives Vanessa his own dog-eared copy) is every bit as disturbing as I thought it would be.  

And yet, I can’t look away. That’s the definition of a terrific thriller, isn’t it?

Vanessa Wye is 15 when her 42-year-old teacher draws her into a sexual relationship. Until she’s well into adulthood, Vanessa believes that she was an equal participant in the affair, making adult choices while she was still a child. “He loved me, he loved me,” she tells herself.

But a reckoning is coming for the teacher when the #MeToo movement persuades another of the students he exploited to go public on social media. Vanessa begins to reflect on how the relationship has had deep reverberations in her life and yet she resists seeing herself as a victim.

In fact, she still believes the portrait that the teacher drew of her:  “Lurking deep within me, he said, was a dark romanticism, the same kind he saw within himself. No one had ever understood that dark part of him until I came along.”

My first midsummer thriller must-read is Russell’s “My Dark Vanessa.”

Next week: A thriller that unfolds on the deck of a small yacht in a big ocean.  

Send me your favorite thrillers on Twitter @KerriMPR and I’ll share the whole list later this summer.

Correction (July 21, 2020): The author’s first name was incorrect in an earlier version of this article.