Illicit Love

Forbidden


Written by: Tabitha Suzuma

Released: June 28, 2011 by Simon Pulse

Summary: 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.

I’m not entirely sure what to write about this book. I read it in less than 24 hours, I was sucked into the story, and it was an incredible book to read, but I’m still speechless.

Through most of this book I pictured Lochan and Maya as more step-siblings than full-blooded brother and sister. I think that was my brain’s way of coping with the incest subject matter, but it was what also made it easier to read it pretty much in one sitting. But once the ending started to hit, it was hard to imagine anything but what was happening.

Throughout the entire novel I was torn in two completely opposite directions. I was disgusted by the fact that it was a brother and sister being sexual with each other. As it was slightly touched upon in the novel, it seems as though incest is one of the last remaining taboos out there. But at the same time I was so happy that Lochan and Maya had each other in the utter chaos of their lives. I wanted them to find happiness even if it meant finding it in each other. Then by the end I didn’t know what to think; it was like I was emotionally spent.

I know that love in a very confusing thing to define and that true love is something that so many people wait their entire lives for which may be why I wanted this novel to end differently. And after reading this, I now look at the definition of true love with more questions than anything.

This was a novel completely in a realm of its own. I do know that this isn’t going to be a book for everyone to read and I would suggest going into it (if you so choose to) with a very open mind. It’s never going to be a story that everyone agrees on and it’s definitely going to be on many “banned book” lists. It’s going to spark many discussions and shed new light on incestuous relationships and cause controversy, but it’s also going to change people’s lives (though I have no idea whether that will be for better or worse).

I’m not going to say that I recommend this book because it’s not going to be for a lot of people. It will be a book to look out for if you think you can handle it. I give it a 9/10.

Many thanks to Simon and Schuster’s Galley Grab for enabling me the opportunity to read this novel.