Reviewed by Amber on
Not gonna lie, I went into Forbidden wondering if I would ship the incest. I had read and watched a few reviews for this book before reading, and the book has been known to trouble people and to cause conflicting feelings. Thankfully, I didn’t ship anything which meant that I didn’t experience any interal conflict.
Forbidden is such a great book for book clubs and discussions, because everyone has a differing opinion on the story and the characters, particularly the incest aspect which causes controversy and many arguments.
Want my opinion? Well, I think the point of Forbidden was to show that abuse and neglect from a parent can psychologically affect and impair their child or children. I think that the incest in Forbidden between Lochan and Maya came about because the two of them were thrown together to raise their siblings after their father left them and their mother suffered from undiagnosed mental illness(es), resulting in neglect and also abuse. I definitely don’t think that Tabitha Suzuma was trying to say that people should be able to love whoever they like, even their siblings. I think she was pointing out the psychological effects such behaviour can have on children. You can particularly see this with Lochan, who was rather troubled to put it lightly.
Forbidden is a really good book for those reasons, although I didn’t think the writing style was all that great. It was all very average aside from the theme, and I don’t think I will be checking out any of Suzuma’s other works. I would recommend picking up Forbidden if you’re looking for a book that will make you think. If you have already read it then you should leave a comment so we can get a discussion going!
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 19 January, 2015: Finished reading
- 19 January, 2015: Reviewed