Forbidden
For Ages: 16 and up
- reading group guide
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- customer reviews
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 defacto 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 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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Buy from us:
- Simon Pulse |
- 464 pages |
- ISBN 9781442419957 |
- June 2011 |
- Grades 11 and up
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Praise
“Ms. Suzuma’s ability to dig so deeply into the various layers of human need and desire across several strata--physical, emotional, situational--renders a cringe-worthy premise another human experience to evaluate. The poignant and shocking ending will leave the reader pondering this story long after the final page is turned.”
– New York Journal of Books
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“Ms. Suzuma’s ability to dig so deeply into the various layers of human need and desire across several strata--physical, emotional, situational--renders a cringe-worthy premise another human experience to evaluate. The poignant and shocking ending will leave the reader pondering this story long after the final page is turned.”– New York Journal of Books
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“The novel’s surprises continue to the very end, and the secondary characters are well developed, including the needy younger siblings, who are shown in all their anger, sweetness, and rebellion. Most of all, though, it’s Lochan’s and Maya’s alternating first-person, present-tense narratives, both tender and heartbreaking, that will stay with readers.”– Booklist
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“There is nothing about this novel that is easy, but readers who snag the book for the controversy will stick around for the polished writing and compelling character development.”– BCCB
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
Lochan
I gaze at the small, crisp, burned-out black husks scattered across the chipped white paint of the windowsills. It is hard to believe that they were ever alive. I wonder what it would be like to be shut up in this airless glass box, slowly baked for two long months by the relentless sun, able to see the outdoors—the wind shaking the green trees right there in front of you—hurling yourself again and again at the invisible wall that seals you off from everything that is real and alive and necessary, until eventually you succumb: scorched, exhausted, overwhelmed by the impossibility of... see more
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Book Reviews
Reading Group Guide
A Reading Group Guide to
Forbidden
By Tabitha Suzuma
About the Book
Lochan and Maya live with an alcoholic mother and three younger siblings. When their mother moves out and takes up primary residence with her boyfriend, Lochan and Maya are left to raise their younger siblings alone. Lochan, the eldest, is an exceptional student with high expectations but experiences social anxiety, which prevents him from making friends. Aware of her brother’s anxiety, Maya is protective and rushes to his side when he has anxiety attacks. Lochan, however, is the strong one at home. Fearing social services could intervene and separate them, Lochan and Maya cover for their mother’s absence. As the two deal with the stress and fear of raising three younger siblings and keeping their mother’s absence secret, they are drawn closer and closer together and realize the love they feel for each other bars social acceptance and is illegal.
Prereading Activity
We all must one day assume responsibility for our own lives; however, often we confront situations in which we must take on someone else’s responsibility. Discuss a time in which you had to take on a task or role unexpectedly that someone else was unable to handle. How did you manage the situation? What feelings did the added responsibility evoke and why? What would you do differently? What would you do the same?
Disc see more
Forbidden
By Tabitha Suzuma
About the Book
Lochan and Maya live with an alcoholic mother and three younger siblings. When their mother moves out and takes up primary residence with her boyfriend, Lochan and Maya are left to raise their younger siblings alone. Lochan, the eldest, is an exceptional student with high expectations but experiences social anxiety, which prevents him from making friends. Aware of her brother’s anxiety, Maya is protective and rushes to his side when he has anxiety attacks. Lochan, however, is the strong one at home. Fearing social services could intervene and separate them, Lochan and Maya cover for their mother’s absence. As the two deal with the stress and fear of raising three younger siblings and keeping their mother’s absence secret, they are drawn closer and closer together and realize the love they feel for each other bars social acceptance and is illegal.
Prereading Activity
We all must one day assume responsibility for our own lives; however, often we confront situations in which we must take on someone else’s responsibility. Discuss a time in which you had to take on a task or role unexpectedly that someone else was unable to handle. How did you manage the situation? What feelings did the added responsibility evoke and why? What would you do differently? What would you do the same?
Disc see more
