Teach Me by R.A. Nelson

Teach Me by R.A. Nelson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Synopsis

Nine is a six foot tall amazon girl in her senior year of high school, and she's hot for teacher. Attacking her attraction with laser focus, she is amazed and astounded when her feelings are reciprocated. When the teacher suddenly breaks it off, Nine loses it. Will she find her way out of the madness?

Review

Unlike Uses for Boys, Teach Me actually had some redeeming features at the end of the painful slog. While it was written very similarly to Uses for Boys, it did have a much stronger vocabulary and more personality than that novel. That said, I still wasn't a big fan. There were several points when I would tell my husband "I'm slogging through, but I just wish it would end." The story is not told linearly, and can be a bit confusing.
Nine was somewhat likable, though I lost any affection for her as the book went on. I just wanted to beat her over the head, or any of her "supportive" friends and family. It was bizarre that in her loving family, they just kind of "let her have her space" when their daughter was completely losing her mind. They even noted all of the signs of a major issue in their daughter, but then failed to do anything about it. I realize that this happens in real life, but it just seemed out of place in the novel.
The teacher, Mr. Mann was just plain creepy in my mind. I saw a few review were people thought that he sounded dreamy. Yeah, no. As a character, he was a bit flat for me. I thought that he should have been more developed if he was going to attract the attention of a seventeen year old girl that strongly. Though, I suppose that since the book is primarily about Nine's obsession, the lack of description could have been yet another example of how unwarranted her attention was.

My Recommendation

Since I didn't actually enjoy the book, I can't recommend that you read it. I think that if you want an exploration of the themes of this book, there are way better examples out there. (Even if I can't think of them off of the top of my head at the moment) I give it 2/5 - If it happens to be around, it's OK.