Book Review – Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden
<— First, I must announce this as one of my newest favorite books ever! Absolutely stunning! And the crazy thing? This book has been floating around on my iPad (and ALWAYS on my main TBR list) since April 30th 2012. Almost two whole years!! Let me tell you… this wasn’t one of those freebie or super-bargain downloads that I purchased due to my book-hoarding ways.

Nope.

I purchased this one, in all of it’s full-priced glory (oh wow, I paid even more for it, back then!!) just on the recommendations alone (intense, insistent, adamant, emotional recommendations came my way every single time this book was mentioned). Here’s a sample (and I have TONS of these “Forbidden-specific” recommendations):

Athena: 5+++++++and more if possible for “Forbidden” from Tabitha Suzuma. It was a VERY taboo subject but if you can get past that you have a story of innocence, love, abandonment and ultimate sacrifice. I am in tears and in need of some therapy. Maryse you will ugly, ugly cry…you’ve been warned!

Maryse’s Book Blog: I’ve heard… and I own it. I SO wanna read it but I’m scared!!! And mostly scared of that ugly cry you’re doin’. I don’t know *why* you’re crying exactly but I have a feeling…

Lori: I’m scared too…and I don’t know if I can get past it!

Claudia: this book is great!

Athena: You need to be in a good place…it was a difficult one but soooo well written!

Maria: Maryse I know what you mean, I’m scared to read it to!

Kandace: I’m with Maryse. I’m too scared to read it.

Erin: Well damn I need to look into this one!! wow!! I just read the blurb that is TABOO!!

Tracie: This is an amazing book! You ladies should definitely read it.

Athena: @Erin, A beautiful taboo story of a functioning dysfunctional family (think Shameless, the tv show)…well minus the stupid, stupid parents, I despise them! The writer sucked me in and then spit me out.@ Maryse please read it I’m in need of a support group!!

Georgia: I agree with Athena …its been 2 days since I finished it ,can’t get over Lochan,he absolutely broke my heart over and over again. Great writing …a innocent love story….but so wrong and you want to be so right. Must read …but don’t blame me after you need therapy .

Martina:  My favourie book… one? Just one? How can I pick just one? :O I can’t. But if I HAVE TO…Tabitha Suzuma – Forbidden. It’s not an easy book, but it’s deep and it touches you.

Cat: I had it on my TBR list forever and was almost afraid to touch it.  I finally did and WOWZER!!!  What a book.  It tore my heart out.  Literary genius.

EVERYTHING they said above!!! Now that I’ve read it, now that I know it… I’m right there with you guys!

So yes, I bought it on that… and the crazy-sounding synopsis. Which is actually the MAIN reason I found myself repositioning it over and over again at the top of my TBR list… without ever reading it. This book portrays a forbidden love story, but not just “forbidden” as in Romeo and Juliet. This book depicts the true meaning of “forbidden” in every taboo sense of the word.

I don’t need to think about this anymore. What I desperately need is sleep. Otherwise I’ll fall apart. I’m going to fall apart. I am falling apart.

Oh wow. I was clutching my pajama top at “heart-level” with that one…

You know I have a thing for adrenaline-rushes, shock-value, and deep emotional connections to incredibly unconventional “love stories”. For awhile, I hid my dark secret. 😉 I stayed in the “dark-read’ closet for a year (devouring those books in secret) before I finally let everyone know I was a thriller-romance-darkread addict.

And while this isn’t a dark-read, per se… (not in our sense of the word), this is equivalent in it’s taboo-nature. Oh yes. I was desperate to read it back then. Dying to, ’cause come on… how CRAZY does this sound? I knew I was in for some handwringing. But I was so afraid of well… lots of things. Where this author would take me. The frequent “had me sobbing” warnings. Knowing that I would connect (and probably fall for) that, which I shouldn’t.

Family: the most important thing of all. My siblings may drive me crazy at times but they are my blood. They’re all I’ve known. My family is me. They are my life. Without them I walk the planet alone.

The rest are all outsiders, strangers. They never metamorphose into friends. And even if they did, even if I found, by some miracle, a way of connecting to someone outside my family- how could they possibly compare to those who speak my language and know who I am without having to be told?

I had a feeling my heart would override my head. I know myself now, and I didn’t know how I would handle those feelings… and when I finally gave in and read it, I realized… it wasn’t hard at all. Sure, it’s whoa! Crazy. And sure, when you try to describe it to someone (like your husband) you find yourself explaining it in a, er… “see, that’s why they fell in love…” way. 

Husband: So are you finally reading that crazy taboo one you were telling me about?

Me: Yep. It’s SO good. It’s crazy, and it’s like the author is writing it, telling their story in a way that while I know it’s wrong, it just feels… like I love them. Like I’m rooting for them. I dunno. They’re so alone, and all they have is each other. Their mother has pretty much abandoned them.

Husband: So they live alone?

Me: Not “officially” but she’s an alcoholic and a sort of “party girl” that spends days and nights away, and when she is home, she’s passed out – recuperating… so the two eldest (16 and 17 years olds) have to take care of the 5, 7 and 13 year old. And they’ve been responsible for them for years like that. Sharing in the care taking. Homework, bedtime, dinner, cleaning, discipling… the two oldest siblings were raised as “partners” vs siblings ’cause of their responsibilities. They never got to be kids, and they never really got to be “siblings”, like fight, argue, get jealous or competitive. They’ve been “parents” for years, to stay off of social service’s radar. So they can stay together.

Husband: but, like… you find out that they’re only like… step-siblings right? Not even related?

Me: Umm…. no. I’m pretty sure they were full on siblings.

Husband: Maybe the mother had them from two different fathers?

Me: Yah… that totally could be true… but it’s never mentioned that way. I don’t know that that would be any better anyway…

Husband: Oh yah. No. So… they KNOW they are full on siblings? There’s no twist where they didn’t know it, and just met as strangers or something? They know it and they fall in love anyway?

Me: *blink blink*

Husband: *blink blink*

Me: Yep. Er… but. They… but. Umm…. They’re not… it’s different. They haven’t been able to interact socially on a normal level with other kids, or have crushes or you know… stuff. They go to school and stay off the radar. So, it’s always just been… them.

Husband: *blink blink*

Me: *blushes* You just had to be there. *huffs* Okay… I know it sounds weird. ‘Cause it is. *sigh* You just have to read it.

So yep… this book is full-on taboo, and probably THE most taboo (yet supremely eloquent) story I have ever read. So touching and so beautifully poignant and so emotionally distressing. On many levels. And in many ways.

He is my brother, my best friend. The idea of anyone seeing him like this, so close, so exposed, is suddenly unbearable. What if they hurt him, broke his heart? I don’t want him to fall in love with some girl – I want him to stay here, loving us. Loving me.

The perfect read (for me)… the reason I read. For the emotions a story (and writing) like this illicits. And the perfect story for those that like to read unconventional love stories. Stories that really make you think, and that take you out of your comfort zone by MAKING you comfortable… right there (where, in real life, you never imagined being). Can you imagine? This author does that.  This story is for readers that accept, and maybe even enjoy indulging in that risk, with a story that might go any way.

I’m desperate to escape myself because the truth of the matter is that the feeling is still there – perhaps it has always been – and now that I’ve acknowledged it, I am terrified that however much I may want to, I will never be able to turn things back.

This, by a brilliant and eloquent author. Persuasive, exquisitely descriptive yet delicate in her approach. This is the ultimate, perfect example of “show-not tell” storytelling. And one that takes an amazing risk, and had me right there with her characters every single step of the way.

“Maya, what the hell are we doing?” Although his voice is barely more than a whisper, he sounds close to tears. “I don’t understand. Why – why the hell is this happening to us?”

5 stars!!!!

P.S. Does it have an HEA? Er… I’ll let you read the synopsis on Amazon. 😉

Let’s just say, no matter what I thought I knew, what I expected, and the many things I guessed a long the way (in fact, I may even have known something via a “remembered spoiler” that I can no longer pinpoint two years later), I still experienced this book BIG time, every step of the way. For once, potentially suspecting I “might” know the ending (but wasn’t 100% sure since I waited so long to read this), it did not affect my reading of this book in the least. L-O-V-E-D!!!!!