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Review: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma


Book: Forbidden

Author: Tabitha Suzuma

Pages: 432

Read On: My Kindle

How Long it Took Me To Read: 1 day

Plot Summary: 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.

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

General Thoughts: I heard about this book a while back and I heard of it's controversial story. Incest is not an easy thing to read about I am sure even harder to write. To maintain a balance between a love story and talking about a taboo topic. I started reading this book a few months back and read around 40 pages and stopped, not because I didn't love it. But because I wasn't in the mood for it then. 

A week or so back, I couldn't sleep and started looking through the books on my Kindle and started reading this book again and started to connect with the story and it's people. 

Things I Liked: 

1. The writing was really lovely. 

2. The book switches perspectives, between Lochan and Maya. We see the world from their eyes. And this was a great way to tell this story. 

3. I felt like I really got to know about these people and their family. Really got to know them. 

4. This messed up family situation was shown so well. It was heart-breaking to see how these kids had to pretty much raise themselves. 

5. Even though the subject matter was very, very controversial, it never seemed skeevy or sketchy or cheap. The love between Lochan and Maya was shown in a wonderful way. 

6. I really, really loved Lochan. He was so...so nice and reading about him made my heart hurt. 

Things I didn't Like: 

I mostly loved this book from start to finish. But if I really had to nit-pick I'd say the two voices- of Maya and Lochan didn't sound particularly different from each other. 

Also there was a bit of repetition of the chores that Lochan and Maya had to do. The washing, cleaning, feeding the kids, cooking and picking up the kids were mentioned over and over again. 

Rating: 4/5 



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