8,416
edits
Changes
no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox2
|title=Forbidden
|author=Tabitha Suzuma
|genre=Teens
|summary=Powerful, claustrophic and shocking, this book deals with the biggest taboo of all: sibling incest. It's beautifully written and beautifully handled - absorbing and poignant, it's highly recommended for teens unafraid to grapple with difficult issues.
|rating=444.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=432
|publisher=Definitions
|date=May 2010
|isbn=1862308160
|amazonukaznuk=<amazonuk>1862308160</amazonuk>|amazonusaznus=1862308160|cover=<amazonus>1862308160</amazonus>
}}
Told in a turn-and-turn-about dual narrative, readers can see the full turmoil in both Lochan and Maya. They can see the desperate need, but they can also see the doubt, the worry, and yes, the self-disgust too. They try to put a stop to things several times but, with no escape from the pressure cooker of their home environment, neither can do it. They can't manage alone.
So, suddenly, the reader is rooting for this star-crossed couple. And that is a tremendously shocking thing to find yourself doing. It forces you to confront some very difficult feelings. It can't end well, of course, and I cried floods of tears at the inevitable denouement. Is sibling incest always wrong? Well, personally, I'm going to have to say yes. There is a reason almost all human societies have rejected it and while that reason is probably based on prehistoric genetic drivers, we are still left with relationships that cause too much confusion and too many problems. That doesn't mean the people involved are wrong though - and this is the critical point that Suzuma makes and that my grandmother made too, all those years ago.
This is a brave and important book. And I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it was to write it. Bravo.
Incest - but not sibling incest - is also a theme in [[Set in Stone by Linda Newbery]], a wonderfully Gothic novel, set at the turn of the century. Suzuma's own [[From Where I Stand by Tabitha Suzuma]] has a deeply sympathetic central character who is as tortured as Lochan. [[Meet Me At The Boathouse by Suzanne Bugler]] is about an altogether different but equally dangerous adolescent love affair.
{{amazontext|amazon=1862308160}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=72466731862308160}}
{{commenthead}}