Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

A heart wrenching novel about a brother and sister who fall in love...with each other. Told from alternating points of view, Forbidden is both poignant and vivid in it's details. In a society where incest is not only socially unacceptable, but illegal, Lochan and Maya battle feelings of guilt and indignation. Maya and Lochie were born only a year (or less?) apart, so they've been each other's everything for as long as they can remember. They share opposing parenting roles in the lives of their younger siblings, filling in for a careless and selfish alcoholic of a mother. So, it's only natural that they would fall in love, right?

Throughout this book, I found myself experiencing feelings of repulsion, empathy and anger. Repulsion because of their monstrosity of a relationship, and empathy and anger at the hand they had been dealt in life , not to mention the denial of their one happiness: being together. I honestly felt like they both lived horrible lives and if being together was going to make their horrible lives less horrible, then they deserved to be together. They were good, hardworking people. They took on the responsibility of caring for several small children while they themselves were still children and still went to school. But alas, the people who deserve happiness the most rarely ever get it. I guess that's just life.

I'd recommend this book to people with strong stomachs, good imaginations, and/or open minds. If you have neither of these things, then I recommend that you skip this one. Overall, I'd have to give this one 4 stars. I'd have given it 5 if not for the *spoiler alert* sad ending...