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charliewatts429 's review for:
The Opposite of Innocent
by Sonya Sones
2 1/2 / 5
This book is important, and I’m glad that it exists! That being said, I have a lot of issues with it.
There are a lot of things I like about the book! I think it handled the overall topics pretty well. I think the relationship with Luke was shown in its “stages” very well, from infatuation to reality and eventual emotional isolation and depression. I also think the book did a good job of showing the reality of Lily’s mindset while being clear to readers that it wasn’t OK. I loved the Author’s Note at the end explaining that Lily was never at fault, even if she blamed herself. I also loved that Lily’s friends had positive sexual experiences with kids their own age, showing that sex isn’t inherently a horrible thing. I think this was shown really well and made very clear.
I think one of the main things I wish was that the book was longer. I feel like we didn’t get to see any of the actual healing of Lily, and while the book ended more hopeful than I was initially fearing, I wanted to see Lily’s parent’s reaction and more healing. I wanted Lily to get her life back, and I wish it wasn’t up to us to imagine it for ourselves. It felt like a cop-out to end the book right before the heavy lifting of “coming forward” actually happened, and not actually show what getting help looks like.
I found the writing style not great in my opinion. A lot of the verse poems felt like they were just prose which had been split up in order to sound edgy and important. Most of the word choice felt pretty cringey, and a lot of things felt communicated to me rather than shown — i.e. Alice is cute because the book tells me she is, rather than actually being cute in any way. I blew through the book in like three hours, and I didn’t come away with any specific imagery or anything sticking with me. I felt like I filled in the blanks myself for most of the description.
I found a lot of the characters very cliché — Lily’s younger sister Alice never really felt like a person, and it was pretty obvious what her character was there to represent. Bella felt pretty dicey racially at times, with her belly dancing and “exotic” characterization. And the parents were super underdeveloped, like criminally so. I wanted to know SO MUCH MORE about Lily’s relationship with her father, especially because the reason she’s “in love” with Luke to begin with is because of the attention and care she’s lacking from her father. I liked Presley and the “what could have been” storyline a lot. The two friends were pretty forgettable, but served their purpose okay. Luke also served his purpose fine, and he towed the like between disgusting and believably charming well enough that it felt realistic. I did, however find his whole “away for two years because of a research expedition to cure Malaria” SO cartoonish that it was hard to take seriously. Especially the leopard bite. I’m sorry. That was so dumb.
And despite the overall pretty good handling of the topic, I feel like if I was a survivor of CSA, this book would be SO upsetting to read. I am a very big supporter of sexual education for children and teens, and I don’t think the book was too explicit. I actually thought it handled the sensitive scenes fairly well, and saved Lily enough dignity while still making me wanna barf in my mouth and properly showing how gross it was.
Overall, the book wasn’t actively harmful! Which is a win for a topic so heavy. However, I felt like it wasn’t that great of a book-book on its own, without any characters that felt memorable, and with writing that felt cringey and cliche for the majority of the time. Not something I would recommend, but also not something I would advise against, either.
This book is important, and I’m glad that it exists! That being said, I have a lot of issues with it.
There are a lot of things I like about the book! I think it handled the overall topics pretty well. I think the relationship with Luke was shown in its “stages” very well, from infatuation to reality and eventual emotional isolation and depression. I also think the book did a good job of showing the reality of Lily’s mindset while being clear to readers that it wasn’t OK. I loved the Author’s Note at the end explaining that Lily was never at fault, even if she blamed herself. I also loved that Lily’s friends had positive sexual experiences with kids their own age, showing that sex isn’t inherently a horrible thing. I think this was shown really well and made very clear.
I think one of the main things I wish was that the book was longer. I feel like we didn’t get to see any of the actual healing of Lily, and while the book ended more hopeful than I was initially fearing, I wanted to see Lily’s parent’s reaction and more healing. I wanted Lily to get her life back, and I wish it wasn’t up to us to imagine it for ourselves. It felt like a cop-out to end the book right before the heavy lifting of “coming forward” actually happened, and not actually show what getting help looks like.
I found the writing style not great in my opinion. A lot of the verse poems felt like they were just prose which had been split up in order to sound edgy and important. Most of the word choice felt pretty cringey, and a lot of things felt communicated to me rather than shown — i.e. Alice is cute because the book tells me she is, rather than actually being cute in any way. I blew through the book in like three hours, and I didn’t come away with any specific imagery or anything sticking with me. I felt like I filled in the blanks myself for most of the description.
I found a lot of the characters very cliché — Lily’s younger sister Alice never really felt like a person, and it was pretty obvious what her character was there to represent. Bella felt pretty dicey racially at times, with her belly dancing and “exotic” characterization. And the parents were super underdeveloped, like criminally so. I wanted to know SO MUCH MORE about Lily’s relationship with her father, especially because the reason she’s “in love” with Luke to begin with is because of the attention and care she’s lacking from her father. I liked Presley and the “what could have been” storyline a lot. The two friends were pretty forgettable, but served their purpose okay. Luke also served his purpose fine, and he towed the like between disgusting and believably charming well enough that it felt realistic. I did, however find his whole “away for two years because of a research expedition to cure Malaria” SO cartoonish that it was hard to take seriously. Especially the leopard bite. I’m sorry. That was so dumb.
And despite the overall pretty good handling of the topic, I feel like if I was a survivor of CSA, this book would be SO upsetting to read. I am a very big supporter of sexual education for children and teens, and I don’t think the book was too explicit. I actually thought it handled the sensitive scenes fairly well, and saved Lily enough dignity while still making me wanna barf in my mouth and properly showing how gross it was.
Overall, the book wasn’t actively harmful! Which is a win for a topic so heavy. However, I felt like it wasn’t that great of a book-book on its own, without any characters that felt memorable, and with writing that felt cringey and cliche for the majority of the time. Not something I would recommend, but also not something I would advise against, either.