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Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Filed in Review , Tabitha Suzuma , The Winged Lover Posted on August 4, 2010 @ 6:00 am
4 comments
Format Read: Paperback
Number of Pages: 418
Release Date: 27 May
Publisher: Definitions
Formats Available: Paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, BookDepository US, BookDepository UK, Amazon
Book Blurb:
“You’ve always been my best friend, my soul mate, and now I’ve fallen in love with you too. Why is that such a crime?”
She is pretty and talented – sweet sixteen and never been kissed.
He is seventeen, gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future.
And now they have fallen in love. But…
They are brother and sister.
My Thoughts:
Warning: This book is NOT suitable for younger teens.
That was possibly the most horrifyingly moving book I have ever read.
The Whitely kids don’t have it easy. Their dad has left. Their mum is an alcoholic with the temperament of a sixteen year old and barely makes it home at night. The responsibility has long since fallen to Lochan and Maya the two eldest children. At just seventeen and sixteen respectively they have managed to keep together their family of five, successfully taking care of their three younger siblings.
Things start turning more pear-shaped than usual. Kit, the thirteen year old middle child is lashing out, staying out until all hours of the night, smoking, drinking and hanging around with a gang. Tiffin and Willa, the two youngest of the clan need constant supervision and attentiveness.
Lochan is trying to study for his final year of school and Maya is only a year off that herself. In troubled times they have always turned to each other, always supported each other and been one another’s rock. They have always been the closest, the best of friends, the surrogate parents to the little ones, the team.
Lochie has always had trouble talking to anyone outside of his family, painfully shy and afraid of speaking in public after nearly losing Maya to another boy at school he realises why he has never wanted anyone else. He loves her, more than a brother should.
Maya has felt the same way and when given the opportunity to finally express herself, she willingly takes the chance.
Forbidden was in a way painful to read. There was no excitement at the unknown, no daring anticipation at the fact that they could be caught at any second. You start out thinking ok, well this will be a standard story about traumatised kids finding comfort in each other, but it is so much more.
You weren’t made to like the idea of incest, even Lochie and Maya hated it at first, you couldn’t sympathise with them, but you could understand what was happening. After their first kiss I had to put the book down and walk away, to be honest, I was disgusted.
You didn’t want them to succeed in finding a way to make their love work, but you almost didn’t want it to end. You didn’t want to continue reading because about halfway through it is easy to see the outcome but you couldn’t put it down.
Suzuma in a way forces you through their pain, by completely consuming you with their lives even though you don’t want to keep going, just like them, somehow you find a way to continue. By the time Forbidden was finished, I was a mess because it forced me to think of things that I didn’t want to think of. You want to write off Lochie as a nutcase, consumed by his own madness but that’s not fair to him, because he fought for so long.
I almost can’t bear to give Forbidden top marks, but it has to have them. I hated Suzuma for what she did to me, what she made me feel. I have never felt so depressed after reading a book, but that is what I want in a book, to be consumed, to be lost, to be pounded, to feel. I am honestly terrified of reading anymore of her work purely because of what Forbidden did to me. So, as her characters had to do; it will just be one step at a time.
I give Forbidden 5 out of 5 Bookies
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review. All our links to the online bookstores are affiliate links. The money earned with these accounts is spent on books for contest exclusively. FYI I bought this book with my own funds.
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WOW. Wonderful review. I have had this on my TBR but unable to commit to reading it because I'm not ready to step that far out of my comfort zone. I'm still not ready after reading your review. lol
WOWZA!! that review was wonderful Larissa, im reading this right now, it took a back seat so i could catch up on my reviews but im gonna go back to it.
I love a book that consumes you and stays with you long after you read it, it is a taboo subject, one that didn't appeal to me but after all the rave reviews ive read i just HAD to get it too. I read flower in thr attic many years ago and it had the same storyline, i couldnt help but love those characters despite the wrongness i felt for them too.
really great review hun =)
WOW, that's intense…I am off to buy this one!
I can't wait to read this novel. It can sense that it's one of those books that you just don't know how to rate or describe. Amazing review!