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Book Summary and Reviews of Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden

by Tabitha Suzuma

  • Published:
  • Jun 2011, 464 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In the vein of Flowers in the Attic, this is a heartbreaking and astonishing novel about siblings Lochan and Maya, their tumultuous home life, and the clandestine and taboo relationship they form to get through it.

Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As de facto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: A love this devastating has no happy ending.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Ms. Suzuma's ability to dig so deeply into the various layers of human need and desire across several strata—physical, emotional, situational—renders a cringe-worthy premise another human experience to evaluate. The poignant and shocking ending will leave the reader pondering this story long after the final page is turned." —New York Journal of Books

"The novel's surprises continue to the very end, and the secondary characters are well developed, including the needy younger siblings, who are shown in all their anger, sweetness, and rebellion. Most of all, though, it's Lochan's and Maya's alternating first-person, present-tense narratives, both tender and heartbreaking, that will stay with readers." —Booklist

This information about Forbidden was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Tabitha Suzuma

Tabitha Suzuma is the author of A Note of Madness, A Voice in the Distance, From Where I Stand, Without Looking Back, among others. She used to work as a primary school teacher and now divides her time between writing and tutoring. She lives in London. Visit her at TabithaSuzuma.com.

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