Forbidden

Product Information

When You start reading, Maya and Lochan are only friends. The author helps you understand how they fall in love. They try to deny it, to fight against it… They struggle until they can’t anymore. Ah, so Maya romanticized it. I can understand that. At her age in the book, it is not unusual at all for the concept of the “grand gesture” to be overly romanticised and there is no grander gesture than the giving of one’s life so that others may benefit. In fact, that very concept is why for me (based on your review), the end makes sense. Skoky do vody. Ja si ani neviem predstaviť aké to asi naozaj je, ale po tých opisoch sa do toho chcem pustiť. Chcem zažiť všetko to, čo popisovala Tabitha, všetko to, čo sa Mathéovi premieľalo hlavou. Ja viem, je to šialené, ale dokázala vo mne vzbudiť takéto pocity. Characterization is really a weak point in Forbidden. Maya has no real personality that I could discern – she’s mostly just a collection of virtues. The mother is a central casting Bad Mother. The only character who shows any real depth is the troubled middle brother Kit, who seesaws between being an awful juvenile delinquent and showing flashes of the needy child he still is.

cs:I was thinking about Romeo and Juliet yesterday in relation to this book. I know a fair number of people (none literary critics, to be fair) who think R&J were immature morons. But I really give it a pass because 1) it’s Shakespeare and 2) I don’t expect realism from works that are hundreds of years old. Sensibilities were different, and writing styles were different. Anger Born of Worry: Kit elicits this response from Maya and Lochan in general. The time he comes home at 3 am is a particularly noteworthy example. Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Due to the taboo of incest, the pressure of secrecy, the angst of Can't Have Sex, Ever, and a few emotionally insensitive comments, Lochan and Maya break up for a chapter. WARNING! To review this book the way I want to, I need to include some slight spoilers. Please read no further if you're planning on reading this book and don't want it spoilt for you.

Help

Most of the books I'm covered for the Sex Crimes part of Sex in Teen Lit Month are related to sexual assault, rape, and revenge porn, so this is a slight deviation from what you've been reading about. But it is a crime for family members to have sexual relationships with each other (well, except cousins, at least in the UK), so I thought this would be a good book to cover for the event. I knew it was going to be a difficult read, and it was. Sadly, it didn't amaze me like I hoped it would, but it's still a pretty good, though disturbing, story.

Tabitha Suzuma made me love the main characters, the kids, the setting, the plot… Then it shattered my heart. I loved this book. I loved getting to know Mattie and seeing the contrast between his world that was and the one he was currently living in since the incident. I loved the relationship with his girlfriend Lola and seeing how that develops as the book goes on. I also loved seeing how clinical the one with his parents had become which him being used almost as a sign of their status and being paraded out in front of others with no real thought for what Mattie was feeling. Also the scenes with Mattie and his younger brother have to be the most heartfelt and gorgeous scenes I have ever read between two brothers. Sedemnásťročný Mathéo je presne taký chalan, akým som ja nikdy nebol. Pekný, úspešný, športovo založený, má peknú frajerku a ešte aj prachy. Kniha sa začína ránom po… A od prvej stránky chceme zistiť len jediné: čo sa Mathéovi stalo. Nič iné nás nezaujíma. A tak sa vyberáme na cestu, ktorá k tomu viedla. Spoznávame Mathéovu každodennosť, jeho spolužiakov, frajerku, rodičov i brata. Mathéo športuje – skáče do vody. Mathéo je vo výbere na účasť na olympijských hrách. Mathéo je proste top v tom, čo robí a tak rodičia – hlavne otec – dbajú na to, aby všetko dodržiaval, aby na tom vrchole aj ostal. Mathéovi sa však niečo stalo a on si na to nespomína a tak nám to ani nemôže povedať. Snaží sa však prísť na to, čo to bolo. Čo ho ťaží na duši. Čo sa prihodilo a aj prečo.Brother–Sister Incest: One of the big topics of the book, with a major point throughout being their inability to find a reason as to why a fully consensual relationship between equals should be considered wrong, as long as they don't have any inbred children together. Lochan's research also reveals that there's very little material on consensual incest, with most cases involving abuse. Rozprávanie v tretej osobe. Áno, táto kniha, ktorá je celá o vnútorných pocitoch toho chlapca a o tom, čo sa mu prihodilo a čo pri tom pociťoval je písaná v tretej osobe. Niektorí spisovatelia nedokážu pochopiť svojich hrdinov v prvej osobe a Tabitha sa Mathéovi dokázala dostať pod kožu v tretej osobe. Klobúk dolu. The morning after the fight with Kit, Maya wakes up before Lochan and watches him for a minute, not wanting to wake him. In 2004 Tabitha Suzuma left classroom teaching to divide her time between writing and tutoring. This gave her time to write her next four novels:

Teens Are Monsters: Kit, who's in his sister's words, "your standard screwed-up teenager." But it's also a deconstruction, as his screwed up family situation— Disappeared Dad, neglectful mother and two older siblings trying to parent while not even adults themselves—more than explain why he behaves so badly. He improves in the last third of the book.This book isn’t about accepting incest. I don’t think that Tabitha wanted to convince the reader that incest was good or bad. The question isn’t answered at the end of the book. We can draw our own conclusion, we can root for them, ask for a better ending, and so on. This book opens your mind if you’re brave enough to read it. It’s your choice and I understand that It isn’t an easy one.

Of course, there isn't anything wrong with this, but most british authors seem to do the same and it would be really cool to read about a teenager/young adult of slightly different experience. (Obviously, Flynn is both) There are two scenes I enjoyed, the first one was when Lochan saved enough money, by doing other people's homework, to give Maya a Christmas gift. It was the first Christmas gift Maya received in years and the scene was touching. They were outside of the school yard being the bleachers where no one can see them. It was a very intimate and loving moment for those two, and made me wish that the scene will never end. My other favorite part was when Lochan gets sent to the police after the charge of raping Maya (he doesn't) and the reason they found out was because Kit told their mother and the police. The look on Kit's face when he understands that he will never see his brother again and destroyed their family dynamic and running to the police car saying that he is sorry and Lochan forgives him. That brings tears all the time. Neither came across likable and I don't understand why they are in love with each other. And for a story relying heavily on that relationship, this book didn't give a good enough argument to make me believe all that devastating declaration of love. Their moments together felt superficial at best, one that not even Tabitha Suzuma's gorgeous prose could help. And If you Had the patience to read all of this, I thank you with all my Heart, It means the world to me.

Tiffin and Willa were so cute! I loved them and wanted to cuddle them. I kept picturing them more as Maya and Lochan’s children because they took care of them since they were basically babies. Actually I think that this was the idea, for us to see them as Maya and Lochie’s kids. Don’t Judge the book based on the blurb