Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma - June

[Sheri, Bookworm]

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.

Here are a couple of questions to get the discussion started. I haven't read this yet, so if you have any more questions to add, feel free!

What do you think of the characters, Maya and Lochan?

Maya and Lochan have to step in for their parents and raise their younger siblings. How has this affected their ability to have a 'normal' life? What challenges do they face? What 'normal' teenage things are they missing out on? How would you feel if you were put in their position?

Feel free to discuss the book as you go, but please use SPOILERS for those of us who haven't gotten this far!!! (Check out the 'some html is ok' box above the post box for spoiler tags.)

Don't forget to enter the June BotM contest!
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Just ordered this from Amazon. Have a couple of review books to read first, but hopefully I'll be able to get to it next week :)

[Lily]

WoW sounds interesting

[SANDRA]

LOVE LOVE IT!!! people get ready to have your world rocked and your views changed with this book... I still ache when thinking of it!!!

[Tanecia]

SANDRA wrote: "LOVE LOVE IT!!! people get ready to have your world rocked and your views changed with this book... I still ache when thinking of it!!!"

Lol, I hope I can fit this book in this month!

[SANDRA]

Tt u need to find time for it.. I am so excited you are reading it! :) I can not wait to start discussing it!!! :)

[Stacia]

Oh! I absolutely loved this book.

It's one of a kind.

[Maria]

I have read this book already.I just have to say I love it but its a sad topic.

[Lisa]

Is it for teenagers or us older ladies too?

[Sheri, Bookworm]

The book is labeled as young adult, but it has some more mature topics...I haven't read it yet but I'm going to be this next week.

[SANDRA]

It is hard to think abut incest being okay which I do not think it is but with this story it made me forget about it, the story itself came a live so well that there was so much feeling and downs. It made me fall in love with it. It has changed me even now I ache for it.. not many books are able to do that.

@ Lisa it is YA but it's not at least not in my opinion it touches to many adult issues to be merely YA.

[tif]

The subject matter is difficult, but the storytelling was amazing. I did agree with many reviewers that Maya and Lochan's voices were much too similar for their different personalities, but oh the storytelling. I agree with Sandra, that the story came alive and made me forget a little about the incest. The last half of the book shattered me. I'm not going to give away the ending, but I'll just say (in the words of one of my best friends) SO MANY FEELINGS.
MAJOR SPOILER HERE-> (view spoiler)[The only problem I had with it was that they spent forever talking about how they couldn't have sex, that it would be crossing a line that they were not going to do, and then they get one day alone and go sexytime nuts. Didn't totally make sense to me. (hide spoiler)]
AND HERE-> (view spoiler)[I LOVED the ending. Well, not so much the no-happy-ending-Lochan-dies part as Maya's "oh hey, we're like Romeo and Juliet. I'm gonna die to be with him. But...then his sacrifice is in vain. And the kids! ... I'm going to have to live without him." thought train. That's basically what wrecked me and made me sob. That she realized she had to keep on living without her love, and it made me sad. But also ALL THE FEELINGS. (hide spoiler)]

P.S. I feel like almost all YA books are "for us older ladies too". Though they're about younger characters, we've all been that age at some point. And let's not forget that technically the Harry Potter series is middle-grade, not even YA. I may not be the target audience for YA anymore, but probably most of the books I read are YA.

[Maggie]

I loved this book so much! The author set it up so that the reader could see Lochan and Maya's relationship and how it was developing before they even realized that they were in love. This way it didn't really seem like incest, it just seemed like two people who loved each other. I was trying to explain this to some friends of mine, and they thought I was crazy! I guess it's just one of those books that you have to read to understand.

I am a teenager myself, and I didn't think the topics were too mature, I thought they were sort of interesting because I am in the same age group as the characters.

I think that some people might not read this book because incest has become so taboo, but the author has written it so well that I just didn't think that it was that much of an issue.

P.S. I cried... A lot.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Watch for our interview with author Tabitha Suzuma...coming soon!

[Tracey]

when i found out the topic for this book i for sure thought it was gonna be a preachy over the top mess. but i'm glad i decided to read it because it's one of the best books i have ever read. i was totally pulling for the main characters even though their relationship is in fact forbidden.

and for some reason i love books that make me cry. i guess because it means that i actually cared about the characters and what happened to them.

[Elise]

When I first heard of this book I wasn't sure I would like it because its about incest. But it was so emotion and well written that I found myself crying and wishing the best for them.

Here's my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Tawna]

Okay, I just finished the book. I must be the odd one out because I thought it was boring. The ending was emotional, but the whole rest of the book for me was boring.

Here's my review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Elise]

⚝ Ŧáẅņá ⚝ wrote: "Okay, I just finished the book. I must be the odd one out because I thought it was boring. The ending was emotional, but the whole rest of the book for me was boring.

Here's my review: http://..."

Besides the incest which did not happen in my situation. I think the reason I didn't get bored was because it reminded me of my life growing up. My mom a drunk, my dad working so much he was never home. I essentially raised my little brother. So I knew how it felt and it hit home. So I could relate with everything except the romance. I think I would have found it boring if not for that.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I loved this book so much! I agree Tawna that it started out slow, but I thought it built to a great ending.

Regarding the whole incest issue…yes it happened, but that's not the whole story. The real story is about these two screwed up kids who have no one to lean on but each other and because of that they're terrified they are going to lose each other, and going through all this crap and emotional stuff, they forge a bond bigger than brother/sister. Do I agree with what they did? No…but really all they thought they had was each other. They did not see any kind of future for either of them, so why not?

You could tell from the beginning that (view spoiler)[Lochan was the weaker of the two and Maya really was in charge, even though she let him think he was. I was not terribly surprised at the ending…I knew something like that was going to have to happen…but still it was so sad. But in the end he probably knew that Maya could handle things on her own because he had not been a whole lot of help along the way anyways. (hide spoiler)]

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Here's my review :)
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...