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meheveran's review against another edition
4.0
This was my first book in this type of genre and my eyes are now glued wide open. This book has so much going on within it, and has so many stories, examples, perspectives, and ideas it’s mind boggling. I really enjoyed reading this book. I hope to continue learning more about this type of work.
sjhastoomanybooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was an incredibly powerful book. The author takes a nuanced look at collegiate sexual assault, along with portrayals of black and white cases, along with some grayer ones. She’s not preachy, and you can see her going through her own journey during the course of the book. My only complaint is in some cases (particularly the gray ones), she only interviewed one side of the story, without even trying to reach the other party. While this may have been deliberate to try to steer us away from the he-said, she-said model (who will actually directly admit to assaulting someone), it would have been good to have a fuller picture in these instances. A good and important read for parents, as well as teenagers.
kmhoover's review against another edition
2.0
This book was disappointing for me. There are so many topics in the book that none of them felt really fleshed out. It also focused heavily on schools from the Northeast, and I don't necessarily think that those schools are representative of colleges across America.
drlindseynb's review against another edition
3.0
This is a difficult review for me - I think for a general audience, particularly anyone who feels removed from university/campus culture, the book is useful/interesting. If you are someone who reads/studies sexual assault, it's not going to provide any "new" information. She views campus assault through the grey areas, sometimes making me uncomfortable. I have more to say, but I wrote a book review on this for a journal ... so TBC.
stevendedalus's review against another edition
5.0
This book was name-checked by one of my favourite writers, Jia Tolentino, as a great in-depth look and it doesn't disappoint. It's an unflinching look at the complexity around sexual assault that doesn't try to demonize but also doesn't fall into the "truth is in the middle" trap.
Grigoriadis is not shy about injecting herself into the reporting since the topic can be so personal and because so many of the themes revolve around the evolution of consent and the clash between generations.
Her thesis boils down to: the kids are doing good, sometimes they may go too far for me, but all in all things are moving in a good direction and we should be having these conversations. It's an eminently reasonable point and she does a good job of contextualizing the movement instead of splashing clickbait headlines about crazy leftist radicals.
Campuses aren't isolated liberal enclaves of meaningless rhetoric, they're places that can reflect and foster new ideas that permeate the culture, especially as the #metoo movement post-publication has brought consent discussions even more to the mainstream.
Grigoriadis shows both the weirdness of college life (Greek life where only male frats can have parties forcing sororities to come to them) and their microcosm of normal life (in-network stranger assault).
She gives voice to men who have been accused of assault (and their almost-to-a-one misogynist mothers) some of whom are believable but is always careful to contextualize that unreported assaults are vastly more common than false or misguided accusations.
What you're left with is a portrait of an argument in flux, debate roiling, all rough edges and grey zones. But you also feel the urgency of the argument, the passion of the advocates and, most importantly, a hopefulness that as the younger generations hash this out, while it may seem confusing at first, the world will be a better, and more consensual, place for it.
Grigoriadis is not shy about injecting herself into the reporting since the topic can be so personal and because so many of the themes revolve around the evolution of consent and the clash between generations.
Her thesis boils down to: the kids are doing good, sometimes they may go too far for me, but all in all things are moving in a good direction and we should be having these conversations. It's an eminently reasonable point and she does a good job of contextualizing the movement instead of splashing clickbait headlines about crazy leftist radicals.
Campuses aren't isolated liberal enclaves of meaningless rhetoric, they're places that can reflect and foster new ideas that permeate the culture, especially as the #metoo movement post-publication has brought consent discussions even more to the mainstream.
Grigoriadis shows both the weirdness of college life (Greek life where only male frats can have parties forcing sororities to come to them) and their microcosm of normal life (in-network stranger assault).
She gives voice to men who have been accused of assault (and their almost-to-a-one misogynist mothers) some of whom are believable but is always careful to contextualize that unreported assaults are vastly more common than false or misguided accusations.
What you're left with is a portrait of an argument in flux, debate roiling, all rough edges and grey zones. But you also feel the urgency of the argument, the passion of the advocates and, most importantly, a hopefulness that as the younger generations hash this out, while it may seem confusing at first, the world will be a better, and more consensual, place for it.
jjupille's review against another edition
2.0
I can't quite put my finger on what left me dissatisfied with this, but I found it rather unfocused, lacking any kind of narrative thread. It was well reviewed and the topic is one I am close to and interested in. It contains lots of useful material, but for me it didn't bring it all together very successfully. I did get a sense of the range of issues, and I really strong agree with her support for positive consent -yes means yes, rather than no means no. I am not sure she adequately grappled with the "due process" and other kinds of issues facing the accused - the 1 in 1,000 who are accused have rights, too, and I don't think she dealt adequately with the challenges surrounding the investigation and adjudication of sexual misconduct claims of various kinds by university administrators. I guess I share her basic optimism that we are feeling our way toward some understanding, and the recommendations in the appendix seemed mostly unobjectionable to me.
Again, I was expecting more, but I am hard pressed to describe what that "more" would have looked like. I would recommend this as a pretty good descriptive overview of sex and sexual misconduct at American colleges and universities in the present period.
Again, I was expecting more, but I am hard pressed to describe what that "more" would have looked like. I would recommend this as a pretty good descriptive overview of sex and sexual misconduct at American colleges and universities in the present period.
anrobe's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who worked with sexual assault survivors early in my career, I was really interested in this book and seeing what Vanessa Grigoriadis explores as she takes a look at sex, power, and consent on college campuses. There are a broad set of issues explored in this one. It’s got a pretty good overview of the positions of the various players dealing with this issue of rape on campus – students (the survivors and the accused), school administrators, parents, researchers, attorneys and more. It felt fairly balanced for the majority of the book. There were a few areas that I felt weren’t explored in an open and honest way. But, overall, it was a solid book. It’s been a long time since I was in college and the issues have changed quite a bit due to the cultural shifts over the last 20 years. It was interesting for me to read this as a mother of a 13-year-old girl and boy who will one day go off to college and experience the impacts of some of these issues. All in all, I’m glad I read this one and it did give me quite a bit to think about as a mother and a citizen. The author has a very distinct voice and has said some things in this book and in the media that I didn’t love but I think, overall, this book is a good exploration of sex and consent on campus.
laura_sorensen's review
4.0
I appreciated reading through this take on campus relations. It's such a complicated question.
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