Title: Forbidden
Author: Tabitha Suzuma
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Pub Date: June 18, 2011
Format: Kindle eBook
Pages: 464
Source: Purchased
Genre(s): YA, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Rating: ★★★★
[Goodreads] ● [Amazon] ● [Book Depository]

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Synopsis from Goodreads:

Perfect for readers who enjoyed Flowers in the Attic, this is a heartbreaking and shocking 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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My review:

“How can we make it against the whole world?”

This is a difficult book to read, let alone review. You might be wondering why a book about incest has so many 5-star reviews. That’s because the book isn’t really about incest. It’s about a dysfunctional family, neglectful parents, and children taking care of other children. It’s about loving your family so fiercely to the point that you would die for them.

It’s just that the title is misleading. Forbidden paints a picture of two teens caught in a forbidden romance. It is so much more than that. I don’t know how else to say it. The other reviewers did a much better job of putting it into words.

One important thing I’d like to mention is how the author describes Lochan’s social anxiety/panic attacks. This is one of the best portrayals of anxiety/panic that I have read in a book. Granted his circumstances are far different from my own, the features of his precarious mental state were spot on. It was hard not to relate to him. It was hard not to feel bad for any of the characters. The author does a good job at eliciting empathy from the reader. Surely all of these raving reviews are testaments to her writing skill.

The only reason I’m not giving this 5-stars is because I wished the ending was different. I know it ended realistically, but I still wish it didn’t have to end that way.

Read at your own discretion. Obviously this might not be for everyone.