Tabitha Suzuma

To say that I am emotionally crippled is the understatement of the year.
I have just finished reading Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma (when I wrote this) and I don’t know what to feel. So forgive me if I prattle or babble or commit grammatical errors because I am so wrung out but I must write this review to lighten my heavy heart. Be mindful though because this will contain major spoilers that I cannot omit because of very important reasons.
Forbidden was first introduced to me by some friends show more online. Having read their tweets, posts and some reviews, I got curious so I looked it up and, well, I became intrigued right away. It dabbles on such a taboo topic—incestuous relationship—that I was uncomfortable of the thought of reading it. But my friends finally managed to persuade me and so I did, with little knowledge of what I was about to face.
It started with Lochan, the eldest of the 5 Whitely siblings, in a classroom describing the most inane stuff as ‘the small, crisp, burned-out black husks scattered across the chipped white paint of the windowsills.’ But the way he narrated it, the words he used to describe its suffering before finally dying suggests that he was not your typical 17-year old. Throughout the story, it was implied through his thoughts and actions that Lochan has a problem socializing or dealing with his peers. But it appears that he only has this problem at school because at home, he was the father-figure. It was never said what his real problem was or how and when his panic attacks started whenever he is asked to speak in class. What I can glean though was that being left so young by their father and having a drunkard for a mother who neglects them has taken its toll on Lochan so he became so focused in keeping what’s left of his family that he shut off from the world almost competely. What kept him afloat was his younger sister, Maya.
Maya is sixteen, 13 months younger than Lochan. Unlike her brother, Maya interacts well enough with other people and is almost like the normal 16-year old save for the mother-figure role that she plays. She doesn’t think as deep as Lochie does but was as pragmatic as her brother. Together, Maya and Lochie play the part of their estranged parents despite being brutally young. Maya and Lochan were close to their siblings especially Tiffin and Willa. But Kit, their 13 year old brother resents Lochan, claiming that he enjoys bossing them around.
So, as they struggled with the more frequent absence of their mother and Lochie’s problem dealing with other people plus the constant threat of Social Service hovering above them, Lochie and Maya became even closer. At first I cannot find any trace of incestuous feeling or thoughts between Lochan and Maya except that both of them constantly thinks about how the other is his/her bestfriend and has been there from the start. So I thought, ‘hey, maybe I can fathom reading this’.
But well, there’s always another shoe as they say. It all started to change one innocent morning. After reading a rather unsettling essay that Lochie wrote—the essay was about a man who felt emptiness even though he just received his college degree and contemplated to jump off a building; I think Lochan was channeling his own thoughts to the man in his essay—Maya asked him to help her practice salsa and so he did. But then a slow song came up and they, of course, danced slowly. Maya was content in the arms of her brother, and so was Lochie with Maya in her arms, except that, Lochie found himself admiring his sister’s beauty.
“I find myself marvelling at how pretty she is, standing here, leaning against me in her short-sleeved blue shirt, bare arms warm and smooth against my neck. Her top buttons are undone, revealing the curve of her collarbone, the expanse of smooth white skin beneath. Her white cotton skirt stops well above her knees and I’m aware of her bare legs brushing against the thin, worn fabric of my jeans. The sun highlights her auburn hair, catches in her blue eyes. I drink in every tiny detail, from her soft breaths to the touch of each finger on the back of my neck. And I find myself filled with a mixture of excitement and euphoria so strong that I don’t want the moment to ever end . . . And then, out of nowhere, I am aware of another sensation – a tingling surge across my whole body, a familiar pressure against my groin. Abruptly I let go of her, shove her away from me, and stride over to the radio to cut the music.”
Yep— a boner for his sister.
Days and weeks followed and things became silent between them. Then, one night, Maya went home from a date (with the hottest guy in school; and she agreed because she thought it would be better for both her and Lochan, to brush off what’s happened betweem them) and this is where it really changed. Lochan asked Maya what the hell they did for four hours when they’re just supposed to have dinner.
“I’m just surprised. Four hours is a hell of a long time to spend over dinner.”
And they argued and argued, Maya defending herself saying that she and her date, Nico DiMarco, talked for hours because he was such a great guy (but she dumped him when he dropped her off outside their house) and Lochan, not believing her, convinced that she slept with Nico even saying that ‘like mother, like daughter’. So Maya took her brother’s shoulder and told him that Nico didn’t even kiss her—wasn’t able to because she didn’t let him— because... *kissed Lochan’s cheek*... *kissed the corner of Lochan’s lips*... *kissed Lochan*.
By that point, I thought... uh oh. I don’t know whether to be repulsed or what because they are siblings for chrissakes! But then, my friends told me to keep an open mind and so I did. And continued reading. Another thing that bothered me aside from their indecorous relationship was their mother. I seriously wanted to rip her hair out because no matter how much you hated your children, you do not leave them like that, you do not let them fend for themelves like that. But this also begs the question: if their father didn’t leave or even if he did but their mother wasn’t a drunkard, negligent whore-ish woman, would Lochan and Maya find themselves in the position they were in—in love with each other?
I’m still thinking about that.
Anyway, so after that fateful night, Maya was convinced to show her brother what she feels for him but Lochan is intent to avoid something like that to happen again. He was steering clear from Maya, insisting that what they did that night was wrong but after sometime, they cannot stop their feelings for each other anymore so they did whatever they could to be with each other secretly.
“They’ll never stop us. Not as long as this is what we both want. But you’ve got to stop thinking it’s wrong, Lochie. That’s just what other people think; it’s their problem, their stupid rules, their prejudices. They’re the ones who are wrong, narrow-minded, cruel . . .”
Oh, I’d really like to comment on this.
This may or may not reflect what Tabitha Suzuma personally thinks. But she presented a quite reasonable case with the statement above. It is true that there are certain kinds of love that are wrong in the eyes of the public. “Why is this such a crime?” Maya asked. Why, indeed. Does this have to do with religious beliefs? Or did it just blossom from chauvinism and predisposition of the society? Lochan believed that as long as they didn’t cross the arbitrary line—that is, of having sex— and as long as they don’t hurt the people around them, they are doing nothing wrong. Personally, I do not approve of incest. That’s why I wasn’t comfortable in reading this in the first place. But experiencing a love like that through Maya and Lochan’s eyes, I think I need some time to rethink. It doesn’t mean that my view towards the subject has gone all 180 degrees but that statement above really got to me as well as Maya asking why is their love such a crime and Lochan, “How can something so wrong feel so right?”.
Okay? Okay, well here’s the part that I have been dreading to write about. This is the major spoiler.
Okay so one morning, everyone, that is there three siblings, were out. Kit was on some field trip and Tiffin and Willa were on a friend’s house. Of course their mother wasn’t there. Maya and Lochan were looking forward to this day because finally, for one whole day they don’t have to pretend. So when they’re finally, finally alone they went to Maya’s room and at last, gave in to each other. Yeah, they crossed that line, that boundary but surprisingly, I did not feel disgusted. I was kinda happy for them actually because I can see that they’ve been working so hard and I’m not thinking of them as brother and sister anymore. I was happy because they were happy but then at the end of that chapter, it was like my world went down with them. Their mom discovered them. Long story short, she called the police and Lochan was taken away but not before he made Maya promise to incriminate him of rape because Lochan, unselfish Lochan, was thinking of their siblings and thought that if he and Maya confessed that their relationship was consensual their siblings would go into custody. Maya agreed and Lochan was imprisoned, questioned until he learned that Maya reneged and their plan was turned to ashes. But heck if Lochan will stay to witness that. Oh, no. He still thought of a way to escape. And I seriously thought he was going to escape, escape because of the small window he keeps on mentioning. Turns out he had a different definition of escape in his mind. One that’s permanent. An escape where there’s no coming back.
He hung himself. And his last thoughts were of Maya.
By this time I felt wrecked. I mean, I just wanted to hurl my phone across the room because, really? REALLY? I mean, why go through all those hardships, all those secrecy with Maya when in the end he just chose to end his life. He chose to leave his family. He chose to leave Maya!!!!!!!! By that time I really don’t care anymore what kind of love they have for each other but I know that it’s worth a lot and taking his own life didn’t make sense. If he’s not thinking of himself and Maya, can he at least think about Willa, Tiffin and Kit? How will Maya handle them all on her own? They barely manage it with the two of them but...ugh. I was so devastated and I’m just crying all throughout until the last page especially when Maya was also contemplating on killing herself! And when she’s telling Willa to draw for Lochan’s funeral... I just can’t.

And because this novel was able to make me cry, I consider it great. It brought out feelings in me that I thought I would never feel. It challenged my belief, made me rethink my own prejudices and made me reevaluate my judgement towards this kind of relationship. It showed me that love can be found even if it goes against human nature. It presented a kind of love that is very rarely found, one that is so taboo yet so thrilling to read at the same time. This is a story that I would not forget—not for quite a long time. show less

After reading recent comments, I feel the need to stress an important point about this book: it is not about accepting incest. It's not a book like [b:Flowers in the Attic|43448|Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger, #1)|V.C. Andrews|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327880853s/43448.jpg|3311885] or [b:How I Live Now|161426|How I Live Now|Meg Rosoff|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327870252s/161426.jpg|1132968] where incest is romanticised. It is a sad story about the danger of dysfunctional show more families and should never be regarded as another angsty tale of forbidden love, even though the title suggests otherwise.

So, first let me say that this was a very brave book to tackle such a controversial subject matter and the author must have some real bottle to take it on. I know quite a few people who would read the synopsis and put it straight back down, shaking their heads at the thought of another "Flowers In The Attic" scenario. But this book is far from that. "Flowers In The Attic" was about two teenagers who had grown up isolated from members of the opposite sex, all they had during puberty was each other and their sexual relationship was based on desires that are natural but they had been prevented from feeling them in a natural environment. But "Forbidden" tells the tale of two teenagers, Lochan (17 - later 18) and Maya (16), who both go to school with other people their own age, including plenty from the opposite sex but they have been forced to live quite unlike their other schoolmates when at home. Neglected at an early age by their mother after the sudden departure of their father, Lochan and Maya begin to play the roles of parents to their three younger siblings who they refer to as "the children". This ensues a relationship in which they support each other and share parenting roles like a couple would and not at all like a brother and sister. They are prompted to feel that they are related by some biological accident.

Characters:

Lochan is an excellently constructed character, when he is narrating the story you feel his pain every second of the way. You almost feel his nerves when he struggles to speak to people and, most of all, you really care about him. He's a troubled guy and that becomes apparent from the very first page when he is sat in class; he has many sides, all of them passionate. And then there's Maya. Maybe it's the strength of Lochan's character that does it, but I just don't feel any real connection with Maya and I don't feel like the author did either. For a female author she writes her male characters far better than the females, a fact also true of her other books. Maya is bland and, instead of feeling her pain and pitying her like you do with Lochan, she seems whiny and irritating. Also, incredibly naive. Now, I know there are plenty of pretty girls who are virgins at 16 and much older; I also know that there are pretty girls that haven't been kissed at 16, but I don't know of any quite so innocent... I mean, she goes to high school for godsakes. Lochan's blushing at sexual hints is forgiven because of his character that has been built up around his timidity, but Maya is supposed to be outgoing and full of life to balance him out. But it's hard to believe she knew what a penis was before this with Lochan. Ok, so you get that Maya didn't do it for me. But Kit did, surprisingly. I was expecting a throwaway character in the form of a bratty teenager, and yes, we got the bratty teenage stuff but Kit was a lot more than that. I loved the other side to him, he wanted to rebel and he didn't like that his older brother got to boss him around but he also understood the importance of them staying together and he wanted to keep them away from the eyes of social services. I felt really sorry for him when he's chasing the police car near the end, even though it was partly his fault, but I did like what it signified about the relationship between him and Lochan. His other siblings were just tools to move the plot along, Tiffin is only memorable because of his unfortunate name. Willa, though seemingly a sweetheart, was only their to reinforce the idea that Maya and Lochan were like parental figures, not siblings.

Ending:

If my review was of the ending alone then the book would have got 5 stars without a doubt. It was shocking, beautiful and tragic. That one scene after Lochan has been arrested, stayed with me afterwards and I was crying for ages. I got to a couple of chapters before the end and I thought "well, yeah, it is a good book", but the ending propelled it into awesomeness. Even if the story had been poor, it would have been worth reading just to get to that ending. I loved the simplicity of the final chapter - it could have been dragged out but it wasn't and that made it all the more effective. The final scene is told so well, you can see it clearly in your mind, imagine exactly how it would have looked. I cannot fault the ending at all.

The Incest Issue:

I understand what this book was trying to achieve and the question it was putting to the reader about different types of love. I feel the need to compare it to "Lolita" by Nabokov and the way in which Humbert is almost forgiven his perversity at the end and the reader is with him, inside his pain and wishing that Lolita would be with him. Paedophilia is viewed as one of the most disgusting acts possible, and yet Nabokov manages to get the reader to forgive Humbert, feel sorry for him, almost excuse him. Suzuma with "Forbidden" wants you to question the taboo that is incest. She is not saying "incest is okay", that's not the point. Like the many 'coming out' novels, Suzuma wants you to recognise a different type of love from the norm. Assuming they didn't have children because of the genetic issue and both were consenting... why legally prevent two people from loving each other just because they came out of the same woman? Can you answer it? Without the bible and comments like "it's just wrong" - do you have an answer? I don't. I think it's weird and creepy and makes me feel slightly sick but I can't put my finger on why the law forbids it (note: this does not include having children, because there are obvious reasons why this would be wrong). That said, for me Tabitha Suzuma didn't quite manage it the way Nabokov did. But I must stress how much I enjoyed this novel and how much it really made me think. show less

Wow. It's hard to know where to begin with this review - or even whether to review it at all. It's always hard when it comes to books like this because the hardest to review are so often the ones that deserve it most, so bear with me and I'll do my best!

To begin with, let me say that although this is published by Definitions as a young adult novel, I wouldn't recommend it for teenagers younger than 15 or 16 due to the extreme nature of the themes. Because yes, this is a story about the show more romance between a brother and sister. Don't stop reading! Because it's also so much more than that...

Lochan is seventeen. He suffers from crippling social anxiety at school, and comes home every afternoon ready to take care of his three youngest siblings: wild rebel Kit, 13, mischievous young Tiffin, and sweet Willa, 5. His mother is a neglectful, alcoholic mess who barely bothers to come home any more, and his father moved to Australia with his new wife years ago. His only ray of sunshine in this darkness is his sixteen year-old sister Maya. The two have never really been like brother and sister; they are best friends and, to all extents and purposes, parents to the three children. So when they share an unexpected kiss one night, it's like the final piece of their existence has fallen into place.

The first third of the book is mostly about the family, and the way Lochan and Maya are hanging on by a thread. They have to keep up with their school work as well as cooking, cleaning, shopping, playing, supervising homework and bedtimes, and covering for their absent mother so that Social Services won't split them up and place them in care. With Kit now old enough to rebel against his brother's authority, the situation is reaching breaking point and the tension is tangible.

Once the kiss happens and changes their lives forever, this tension is only compounded by the added nightmare of falling in love with the wrong person. As their love grows deeper, the sense of dread grows ever more pervasive as they try to balance their feelings against the needs of their family and their gradual realisation of how much trouble they would face if they were ever caught. With this comes an even greater despair as they wonder how they will ever be together. Seriously, Romeo and Juliet had nothing on these two.

By alternating between Lochan and Maya's first-person, present-tense narrative, Suzuma gives a real sense of immediacy and urgency, deftly exploring the thought processes and passionate feelings that each is struggling to bear, and placing the reader squarely in the middle of this whirling dervish of emotion. You know that something has to give, that this can never end well, and yet you ache with every fibre of your being for life to finally cut these two young people a break and allow them to live happily ever after. Of course, the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach tells you that it just can't happen that way.

I closed the book with tears rolling down my face, feeling like I needed a nap - or at least, a stiff drink. This is a real rollercoaster of a read, and so skilfully written that I felt every bump along the way. Every blissful moment, every small triumph, every second of panic, every long hour of frustration and despair and exhaustion, is so beautifully evoked that I found I couldn't read the book for too long at a time without stopping and removing myself from it for a while, giving myself a break from all that turmoil!

I could go on - about the internal morality battle for both the characters and the reader, about the questions it raises about the legal implications of consensual incest (though it never feels like what happens in the novel should be labelled so harshly), about the harrowing depiction of teenagers having to step up and take responsibility for a whole family - but I won't. I'll just say that this is a complex novel about two deeply sympathetic characters in a difficult situation, which will provoke a lot of thought and reflection, skew your world perception a little, and stir up every emotion you can imagine until you tumble out the other end, exhausted. Open your mind, take a deep breath - and read it. show less

I'm going to say outright that I feel a little odd giving a book about incest of all topics such a high rating, BUT... it really was that good a story, it deserves it. For a topic that is so utterly taboo and so socially repelled, this story really didn't gross me out nearly as much as I expected it would. In actual fact the overall story was really quite sad and moving... it was emotional. Lochan and Maya are brother and sister. Their dad left them and they are left with an alcoholic show more neglectful mother who is far more interested in spending 99% of her time with her boyfriend and occasionally gives the kids some money to get by. Lochan and Maya essentially play mum and dad to Willa, Kit and Tiffin, their younger siblings who rely on them to cook, clean, get them to and from school etc. So by all means Maya and Lochan aren't a typical brother/sister unit, but rather peers. They are also best friends. Lochan has no friends at school due to an overwelming social anxiety which prevents him from speaking to others, and so gradually he turns to his sister Maya who becomes his rock, and helps to keep him strong when he feels like he can't cope with the pressures of looking after everyone, money, school and everything else. Without the guidance of parents, without anyone else to turn to, Maya and Lochan eventually become more. They fall in love. Yes it gets sexual - but I have to admit I wasn't really thinking about the whole brother/sister thing at that time, and that is purely because Tabitha Suzuma writes in such a beautiful and emotional way that you are so wrapped up in their tragic situation. You feel their pain, you experience what their whole family has been subjected to, and you understand how they feel. And so when it happens, it's not about it being gross. Whilst I might not understand an attraction as they describe it, I can empathise with them.Such a fantastic story.. gripping from the start right through to the end. I am not going to say anything about the end, but I would truly encourage anyone to read this book. Those of you who are thinking you don't want to read it because of the incest thing I am talking to you. Give this a try, I promise it's not one of those books published for shock value. This is a very real, very sad story and I finished it really caring about this family. View more of my reviews at http://www.booknerdreviews.com show less