Teach Me is my favorite book both because of the plot and the writing. The writing is so honest and raw; it’s like someone baring their heart for you, ripping it open with their hands and allowing you to peer inside it with a microscope in order to observe its various desires and urges.
Teach Me is about a high school senior named Carolina, Nine for short, who has an affair with her English teacher, Mr. Mann. The affair lasts for several months and it’s one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever read. Yes, it’s a difficult subject to tackle because of the implications and consequences of having a relationship with a large age difference, but R.A. Nelson writes through that relationship so purely. I ached for Nine because she ached so much for Mr. Mann, for Richard.
A book that makes you ache is a book you should always keep. And there was something dangerous in this book, something fierce and passionate and so real. I know a romantic relationship between a student and a teacher sounds wrong, unethical, but this book showed a different side of those relationships. Often student-teacher relationships are simply for sex; the relationship in Teach Me was not about that in any sense. The relationship between Nine and Mr. Mann is a form of poetry in and of itself, and that is something truly remarkable.