Vivian and Johnny, two very different people from two very different backgrounds whose paths are on course for collision. In The Dark Chapter, Winnie Li takes us on a journey that changed her life forever. This is a story based on reality, it’s a tough and emotional read but it is also a story of strength, resilience and a journey to recovery. It is a story that needs to be read.
It is harrowing, and despite being fiction, it is a raw read as we know that the author is also a survivor of rape. This might not be the whole of her story but it is written from the heart and the perspective of someone who has lived through this experience and so it is difficult not to feel that emotional connection with Vivian. The prologue is so intense as the narrator watches herself from a distance taking a journey she is powerless to stop. Right from the very beginning I was drawn in and in doing so was taken on the journey alongside Vivian all of the way.
The book follows alternate chapters in which Vivian and Johnny’s lives are traced leading up to the event that would change their lives forever; the very ordinariness of their lives and experiences, how events and people shaped the people they became, was a powerful and tense read. It was impossible to read it and not feel the emotions that Vivian felt. From start to finish was an emotional rollercoaster.
When Johnny was narrating his story it was difficult not to feel conflicted; as a human being watching the life of a young boy being shaped in such a way that it would have been nigh on impossible for him not to take the wrong path in life, it was hard not to feel sorrow for him, not to want to lay the blame on his upbringing, the discrimination faced by travellers, but it was also gut wrenching as I knew that this story was being written by a woman who had experienced the trauma that Johnny was about to inflict on her. We know that this is not Winnie Li’s attacker she is writing about as she knows nothing about him other than he was from the travelling community; he pled guilty and so there was no trial, no background information or defence lawyer trying to silence her truth. Despite the conflict mentioned above, it was impossible to empathise with him as he played out the part that was to change this woman’s life forever.
Some may ask is Winnie giving the rapist a voice or is she using fiction and writing as a therapeutic process? Having met and listened to Winnie speak, I’d say it was the latter, it is a courageous and compassionate woman who can take her experience and write about it from the perspective of the survivor as well as the perpetrator. I would say that fiction plays an important part in opening up conversations about rape and about violence; understanding why someone has done something is not condoning the act but it does help shatter the silence around the subject which is what we need to be doing; it encourages the conversations that we all need to be having.
The loneliness of Vivian struck me to the core, as she came to terms with having to censor her story to protect the listeners, to having to protect others from her pain: but also the sheer strength of her as an individual, a survivor and a voice that needed to be heard.
The courtroom scenes were written so well that I found myself sitting in the room watching the wheels of justice churning, I felt Vivian’s pain as she was left feeling exposed once more, reliving the rape under cross-examination, her pain yet her determination to see the process through in order to see justice done. It laid bare conflicts she felt, should she cry? Should she be strong and composed? How do the public expect a survivor of rape to behave? All these questions and thoughts that no individual should ever have to be thinking.
I wept reading this book, not because I think her life is ruined but I wept that she has had to go through this pain to write this novel, to write a novel where the research done was based on her experience, I wept that she was strong enough to tell this story and to carry on speaking out for those who have not yet been able to find their voice
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About the author
Uncomfortable but important
Dark Chapter has stayed on my TBR for several years because I realised the subject matter could prove difficult reading, but it's time to bite the bullet.Cosmopolitan, Taiwanese-American Vivian is a tourist who often escapes her busy London life through adventure and travel. 15-year-old traveller Johnny lives a neglected life on the margins in his native Northern Ireland. One bright spring afternoon in West Belfast, their paths collide with a horrifying act of violence.Based on the author's own experience of sexual assault, this harrowing story is told from both Vivian's and Johnny's perspectives. Hearing the perpetrator's and victim's thoughts at the time of the assault is uncomfortable, to say the least, but the author alternates the narratives with skill. #MeToo was blowing up when Dark Chapter was published, so it was a timely launch, but an equally important read at any time.
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2017
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2020
Top reviews from other countries
- Ashwini D.Reviewed in India on 17 February 2021
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Reviewed in India on 17 February 2021
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- Eleanor R. OppenheimReviewed in the United States on 3 June 2017
WOW! A Fabulous Book for Everyone - Loved it in the USA
- Arlene D BotelhoReviewed in the United States on 8 November 2017
I've never read a book quite like this.
