The best books about girls lured into inappropriate relationships

My Dark Vanessa is a highly compelling, if disturbing read. I loved the book as I related so closely to the idealistic fifteen-year-old Vanessa, who is groomed by her English teacher, Jacob Strane, believing him to be the love of her life.

The book opens to Vanessa at thirty-two, leading a lonely and unfulfilling life in a dead-end job at the beginning of the #MeToo era, when other girls come forward to accuse Strane. She finds herself torn: how can she do anything but defend him? Otherwise, she would have to admit to herself that their great love has been a great lie.

It’s a very clever, very funny novella about a talented literary editor, Quin, told alternately in his own voice and by a long-term friend of his, Margot.

Margot defends and normalises his behaviour towards women until she is forced to reassess his actions in the light of numerous accusations, all of which fall short of actual assault or rape, sex, or even touching. Is he an abuser? Or is he just a playful, overgrown manchild who thrives on emotionally intense and intimate friendships with women?

I loved the book because it refuses to answer the question definitively.

I’ve never read anything remotely like this book.

It’s a painfully difficult but beautifully poetic read about an Irish girl from a miserably dysfunctional family with a difficult, abusive, ranting mother and a disabled older brother. After she is sexually abused by her uncle, the girl allows herself to be used by the boys at school and begins a series of loveless encounters, as if determined to prove how worthless she is. At college, she continues her career of joyless, destructive promiscuity.

The book is steeped in guilt and shame, redeemed only by the depictions of pure love she has for her brother. Like a poem or a lyrical poetry performance, the novel does truly incredible things with language.

A nonfiction book that tells the story of three unrelated women and their unique but universal struggles; I loved it because of the author’s incredible talent for articulating the everyday lived experience of being female, the subtle and overt judgments, and the fact that women are held to different standards, even by other women.

"‘Even when women fight back, they must do it correctly. They must cry the right amount and look pretty but not hot." Many times while reading, I recognised myself, my sister, my mother, and my friends.

All three stories are highly engaging, but the truly compelling story is Maggie’s, a troubled girl from a difficult family who is preyed upon by her teacher, a married man with a family. The subsequent effect on her life is just devastating (remember, folks: this is nonfiction.)

I have always shied away from reading Lolita, not having the slightest desire to read about a middle-aged man’s sexual obsession with a twelve-year-old. Still, I could not compile a list of books about girls in inappropriate relationships without including this novel, the most famous book of all time on the subject.

I now fully appreciate why it has stood the test of time. I loved the dark comedy, often tipping into farce, the fabulous turns of phrase, the elaborate yet pin-sharp descriptions, and the blending of such sinister subject matter with the banalities of American post-war consumerism. Humbert Humbert is a truly deviant, disgustingly loathsome paedophile, but he’s funny and clever, and no one hates him more than he hates himself.