Review:Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Published: 27th May 2010
Publisher: Definition 
Paperback Pages: 432

Goodreads Summary 

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister. 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 defacto 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 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.

What a massive roller coaster. I mean. I have no idea what to think of this book and it has been months since I’ve read it! I am still not over what has happened in this book.

This is a story of two bestfriends who happen to fall in love. Maya and Logan just wanted to be together. They just wanted to be left alone and be able to love each other. But nothing is ever that simple. Their love is more than forbidden. It’s against the law. Maya and Logan are siblings who fall in love with each other and must deal with the wrongness.

I have always been baffled by incest. It’s the main reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place. I have a younger brother and I couldn’t even imagine nor that I want to imagine anything close as to what Maya and Logan went through. There is a line between brothers and sisters. You can be best friends, hate each other, sleep in the same bed or share a bedroom together but crossing that line to become lovers just doesn’t fit in. Maya and Logan have been pushed into a life where they have to grow up fast, where they are looking after their younger siblings, pay the bills and keep the whole house from falling apart. The line between brother and sister gets blurry for the pair and they start to feel things for each other that they know are wrong.

It’s far too easy for authors to create a book with taboo romances that focus on the breathing and the fast paced lives of the characters. What you find in this book is unlike any other book you might come across.  Here, you will find characters that are so deeply written with such compassion and such insight to their lives that they will break your heart.

In the first half of the book I have felt more than cheated. I have read reviews which talked about the relationship, and about the love and how close the characters were getting. But instead I was faced with half a book about Maya and Logan trying to keep their family lives together; while taking care of themselves and their younger siblings. This made me incredibly angry. Angry towards their mother, angry towards the state that they were living, angry by the fact that there are children who are taking care of children right now and I cannot stop that! I will never understand a mother that abandons their children because of a new man or a new drug or alcohol. This will baffle me until the day I die and I will never have sympathy for parents that leave their children to fend for themselves.

Once the first initial contact between the siblings started to play out I was enthusiastic to see how the author would handle this unthinkable relationship. I was, I guess excited to see what both of the characters were thinking and to see where this whole thing began. The fact that Tabitha wrote the book in both of the characters perceptions it was rather interesting to see how they were both dealing with this new relationship and their views.

I was open minded while reading this book. I knew exactly what I was going to read and I made sure that I wouldn’t judge this until I finished the last sentence written. For me I was absolutely torn. I have a brother so for me this absurd relationship was making me want to stop reading. To pretend that it didn’t exist and that it never happens in the real world. But on the other hand, my romantic hand, I felt heartbroken for the pair. I was rooting for the pair. Why should they be denied love just because they share the same DNA?

Of course I am not forgetting that they are brother and sister and that people were not okay with this story. The one thing I am certain that other readers will agree with me; is in fact the amazing writing, I am still dumbstruck as to how Tabitha was able to write this book! The emotion, the raw insight to the story of both of the main characters was purely amazing; and I don’t mean jumping around because you’re just so excited amazing. I mean staring blankly, unable to move because you can’t process what just happened amazing. What better way is there to feel after a book?

I have completely forgotten the ending for this book. Just now as I’m furiously trying to type all of my thoughts in this review that I was hit with the shock of the ending once again. I’m not going to lie and say that I cried. I don’t remember whether or not I did, but I do remember putting the book down while staring at it with my mouth wide open. I remember not being able to sleep because I kept thinking about this book. I was not able to shut my brain off because of that ending. I assume that tonight it’s also going to be the one thing I am thinking about. It was. Just. SO INCREDIBLY HEART BREAKINGLY AMAZINGLY HURTFUL!