Consent

by Nancy Ohlin

Consent is a sensitive issue and if you're going to write about it for a young adult audience it needs to be done with tact. Teenagers are impressionable. They're vulnerable. And books like this - books that romanticize teacher student relationships send the wrong message. I think student teacher relationships need to be set in university where the issue becomes about the authority a teacher has rather than just the age of the individuals.

Look this book was reasonable well written, had a fast moving plot and somewhat flat but easy enough to read characters. But the issue of consent hits all the wrong notes. If it was just a romance between a student and a teacher, it was well written and examined how people can fall in love but discusses the necessity of keeping a boundary between the role of student and teacher sure. I can get behind that. Even if it's not so preachy and more just romance. But it's not a simple romance and neither is the relationship condemned or the ramifications of it explored properly. She's not the first underage student he's ever slept with. He spouts love and roses but they have a name for people like him. Pedophile. And it made me deeply uncomfortable that Bea doesn't seem to feel the same gravity of the situation I was feeling. I get it - most teenagers don't - if they did they wouldn't be in this situation. But it's a young adult book and she seems more concerned that he slept with another girl than because he slept with another underage girl.

I don't think keeping teenagers ignorant is a good idea - but I also think books that confront such issues should be a lot more realistic - and not gloss over the consequences. And Consent doesn't explore the ramifications of their relationship to my satisfaction.