BOOK REVIEW: Unteachable by Leah Raeder

This is a book review for Unteachable by Leah Raeder.

Maise O’Malley just turned eighteen, but she’s felt like a grown-up her entire life. The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future. But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall. When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke. Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.

After reading Black Iris and falling into a deep slump because of how amazing it was, I was fully prepared to adore this book. So imagine my surprise when I was just underwhelmed. There were still a lot of things I really liked. Leah Raeder knows how to write tough, but vulnerable, female characters that just make you hate them and love them at the same time. Maise is no exception. Maise made a lot of stupid mistakes, but I can forgive them since she is eighteen. I think part of my issue was that Maise was just too self aware. She kept referring to her attraction to older men as a reflection of her “daddy issues.”  I just don’t know that many eighteen year olds who would be smart enough to know this. 

Leah Raeder does something else really well: sex scenes. Seriously, her sex scenes are hot. One issue I did have was the romanticization of the relationship between Maise and her teacher (Evan). I get that Maise is eighteen and I understand that they slept together before she knew he was her teacher. But once they did know, it seemed like the forbidden part of it was the whole turn on. If they had the random hookup and then met without having that teacher/student relationship between them, their relationship would have ended as quickly as it began. But suddenly, the relationship turned from something that was purely sexual into an actual romance. I was really uncomfortable with all the chapters describing their romance as if it were some love story. There was only one way this relationship could end . . . or at least only one way it should end. As hot as the sex scenes were, I was able to see just how dysfunctional their relationship was. At one point, Maise did compare her obsession with Ethan as a kind of sex addiction. I think that is as self-aware as she got, but that didn’t stop her from wanting a happily ever after with him. Maybe because of all of these issues, I just found it really hard to root for them at all. I won't give away any spoilers, but I was not happy with the ending. 

Buy/Borrow/Skip: Borrow.