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  • Seventeen

  • By: Joe Gibson
  • Narrated by: Luke Thompson
  • Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (61 ratings)

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Seventeen

By: Joe Gibson
Narrated by: Luke Thompson
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Summary

It’s 1992. Like every other seventeen-year-old boy, Joe has one eye on his studies, the other on his social life – smoking, Britpop, girls. He’s looking ahead to a gap year full of travel and adventure before university when his teacher – attractive, mid-thirties – takes an interest in him. It seems like a fantasy come true.

For his final two years at school, he is bound to her, a woman twice his age, in an increasingly tangled web of coercion, sex and lies. Their affair, a product of complex grooming and a shocking abuse of authority, is played out in the corridors of one of Britain’s major private schools, under the noses of people who suspected, even knew, but said nothing.

Thirty years on, this is Joe’s gripping record of the illicit relationship that dominated his adolescence and dictated the course of his life for seventeen years. With a heady dose of nineties nostalgia and the perfectly captured mood of those final months at school, Joe charts the enduring legacy of deceit and the indelibility of decisions made at seventeen.
©2023 Joe Gibson (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, UK
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What listeners say about Seventeen

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Heart wrenching memoir

A raw honest account of a seventeen year old boy at public school and his manipulation by his thirty five year old Spanish tutor .

It’s not often the boot is on the other foot and it’s a woman who has lured this adolescent, but it’s the same grooming.

It beggars belief that alarm bells did not go off with the friends of this woman to put a stop to this, as they knew he was a minor. One friend was collaborative with the deceit taking photos of her son with this young man.

My heart ached for this young man, with the controlling antics of this woman, The culmination of her influence during 1992 hightened the incident in December 1992 when he was so out of his depth with his emotions that I was almost in tears.

Thank you to the author for telling his story (Joe Gibson being a pseudonym), Sadly you have lost, what should have been some wonderful years to this manipulating woman

Thank you to Luke Thompson for his sensitive reading of this book.

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Multidimensional experience

I reached for this audiobook partly out of curiosity and bit of nostalgia (I think most of us had a teacher who was attractive to us, during the school years), and partly for "pedagogical" reasons (my son is 16 years old), as I wanted to know the "dangers" that may await him.
As a result, I received a great story that was hard to put down. I don't know if all of these are true experiences, but it is certainly a very well-written and very well-read book.

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Raw honesty

A very moving book . I feel so sorry for the boy whose world was destroyed by the sexually rampant teacher

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Harrowing

An eloquently written and absolutely heart-wrenching memoir - the crescendo of events that culminate throughout the author’s adolescence are in equal parts astounding and terrifying - relayed in a sensitive and brilliant performance by Luke Thompson. Thank you for sharing your story Joe.

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very powerful

a very important and harrowing tale of abuse brilliantly written and narrated by one of my favourite narrators. i listened to it so quickly because it was so compelling and now that it’s gone i feel the loss! very brave of joe to tell his story and i hope he finds a way to enjoy life after many years of abuse

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Honest, heart wrenching, uncomfortable

My head was screaming ‘get away’ for so much of this book. Hard to believe that it was so recent that abuse like this went barely unnoticed or unpunished. Hugely uncomfortable but honest memoir that I hope brings repair and closure for ‘Joe’.

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An incredible insight

As someone who went to high school in the 1980s and has subsequently had a career in education, it has always troubled me that what went on in my childhood was considered acceptable and so the adults failed to intervene. This book gives a powerful insight into the subtle, manipulative behaviours and it is brilliantly crafted.

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Lolita in reverse

A well told story of experience of seduction & abuse of power that profoundly changed the course of author’s life. All while bystanders watched. A story that must be shared to prevent this happening to others.

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Binge listened to the entire thing

This is such an important story and is really well written and read. I simply couldn’t stop listening. This is such a brave story to tell and the author really should be commended for telling a truth that is so complicated and nuanced in a way that is entertaining without being salacious. An incredible read/ listen.

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Harrowing

I went to a mixed sex boarding school and was aged 17 in 1992 and was aware of some teacher -pupil relationship going on in my year. It was an open secret at the time. Horrific.

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