"HE WAS CAREFUL with me," the Vanessa Wye of 2017 tells the reader, and herself. Another victim has denounced Jacob Strane, the high-school teacher who "tried so hard to be good", but Vanessa is sure that her case is different. Or almost sure: her memories are "shadowy, incomplete", and she needs Strane "to fill in the gaps", as he always has. Yet it is clear from the drugs and the booze, her pained family relations and stalled career as a hotel concierge, that her life has been derailed. The scene of Kate Elizabeth Russell's gripping and unsettling debut novel switches to 2000, when Vanessa, again narrating, is at a boarding school in Maine, a vulnerable outsider on a scholarship. She is 15; Strane is 42. His practised grooming techniques are deniable but unmistakable, albeit not to Vanessa herself. He pays her creepy compliments. "I'm special," she rhapsodises. "I'm special. I'm special." He critiques her poems; he puts his hand on her knee; he makes her pity him for the risks he claims to be running. Then he smuggles her into his home and tells her she is in charge, though "after a while he starts asking permission after he's already done the thing he's asking about."
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机译：“他很乐意和我在一起，” 2017年的凡妮莎·怀（Vanessa Wye）告诉读者和她自己。另一位受害者谴责了高中教师雅各布·斯特兰（Jacob Strane），他“努力地成为一名好学生”，但瓦妮莎（Vanessa）确信她的案子有所不同。或几乎可以肯定的是：她的记忆是“阴影的，不完整的”，她需要斯特拉恩“像以前一样”“填补空白”。然而，从毒品和豪饮，痛苦的家庭关系和作为酒店礼宾员的职业陷入停滞中可以明显看出，她的生活已经出轨。凯特·伊丽莎白·罗素（Kate Elizabeth Russell）令人着迷且令人不安的处女作的场景切换到2000年，当时凡妮莎（Vanessa）再次讲述，他在缅因州的寄宿学校里，这是一个脆弱的奖学金获得者。她15岁; Strane是42岁。尽管Vanessa并非如此，但他所实践的修饰技术是可以接受的，但毫不含糊。他付了她令人毛骨悚然的赞美。她说：“我很特别。” “我很特别。我很特别。”他批评她的诗。他把手放在她的膝盖上;他对她自称要冒的风险感到可惜。然后，他将她走私到他的家中并告诉她她是负责人，尽管“一段时间之后，在他已经完成了他要问的事情之后，他开始寻求许可。”
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