Crawling Over the Pages: Book Review: Forbidden

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.

I really don’t know if I like this book or not. Like in the sense of how the writer constructed a tragical love story that will give its reader a roller coaster ride of emotions. In some ways, I didn’t like the story because it’s incestuous. I cannot count how many times I put down this book and debating whether I continue reading it or not but I the end, my curiosity won.

The story is told in two alternating point of views: Lochan’s and Maya’s. Lochan and Maya are siblings. They may still be teenagers but they stopped being one ever since their mother stopped acting like a parent to them,

LOCHAN WHITELY. He’s the eldest I the family. When their father left them 5 years ago his father’s responsibilities were transferred on his shoulders. This, in turn, has contributed on his reputation as a social inept weirdo at his school. He’s a very brilliant student who has a shot at an academic scholarship for college but he has a difficulty expressing his feelings or talking to other people other than his family.

MAYA WHITELY. She’s the second eldest. Like Lochan, she also shouldered some of the responsibilities to help him because she doesn’t want to be under the Social Services radar she’s pretty and she also has friends in school but her social life is limited. She never got to enjoy the time after school because by then she’ll be busy attending to the needs of her younger siblings.

WILLA. She’s a very adorable kid and she’s my favorite character in this book. Even though Maya and Lochan gets tired attending to her needs, they find her pretty irresistible when she climbs on their laps to listen on their stories.

KIT. He’s the rebel kid who questions Lochan’s authority in the family. He began using drugs and has other vices too. From time to time he always finds a moment to provoke his brother. But at the end of this book, his character will mature.

Yes, you’ve read it right. This book tackles an issue that is quite a very sensitive topic to be discussed in this book. Lochan and Maya fall in love with each other against all odds – against all the fighting they have done with their selves. I cannot figure out how they can stomach being with each other. It is too incestuous and is so much against the morality I believed in. There were moments when I felt like gagging because what they’re doing is really against my principle.

I guess the very factor that affected their feelings is their being like father and mother figure in the family. They grew up in a very abnormal environment and they have always depended with each other. And somehow, along the way, they felt strange feelings toward each other and though they know that it was wrong, they don’t have anyone whom they can seek advice to and they felt like they only have each other so they did what they thought was best for them.

I was wondering how the author will write something as complicated as this story and I was surprised by her writing style. He wrote it in a way that will make the readers understand the main characters and why they were doing things that were supposed to be forbidden. The author’s writing is really good and at some point is very deep that it will make you stop to ponder about it. If you’re up for something different, then try to read this book. Will Lochan and Maya make it until the end? Will they fight for their love even if it’s wrong and illegal? Read it to find out.

Tabitha Suzuma was born in London, the eldest of five children. She attended a French school in the UK and grew up bilingual. However, she hated school and would sit at the back of the class and write stories, which she got away with because her teachers thought she was taking notes. Aged fourteen, Tabitha left school against her parents' wishes. She continued her education through distance learning and went on to study French Literature at King's College London.