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highladyofthenightcourt21 's review for:
What We Saw
by Aaron Hartzler
Wow, three 5 star books in a row, I'm on a roll this December!
Okay, so this is SUCH a hard book to swallow. I've never been in a situation even remotely close to the one these characters are put in (namely, Kate and Stacey), but the way this book was written made me feel like I was part of the community and had a say in the whole situation.
So many parts of this book will stick with me forever:
1) "'Boys will be boys' is what people say to excuse guys when they do something awful."
2) "Grease" is really all about how Danny Zuko has a certain image for the ideal woman, and instead of being her own person, Sandy adheres to this image by the end. Because we expect her to.
3) "Just a trashy girl learning the hard way what can happen when she drinks too much and wears a short skirt."
4) Mr. Johnston's lesson about "other choices to make if you come into contact with a young woman who is 'wasted' and 'throwing herself at you'"
This book sheds a hard, SERIOUS light on how we treat rape in our culture. We like to pretend that we've progressed, but shit like this *still happens*. And there are real communities like this, where a rape victim won't be believed regardless of evidence, just because the perpetrator is a "stand up boy" in his community. This book will make you SO angry, I promise.
And that's not even to mention the "romance" part of the book. It gives you hope, gives a silver lining (if even possible in the situation), and makes the book just a little bit lighter.
*****SPOILERS COMING, so you've been warned.*****
But then it all shatters. You kind of expect the truth throughout, but probably like Kate, you are in suuuuuch denial about it that it fully breaks YOUR heart when it gets revealed. It took everything I had not to cry with Kate at the end of the book.
I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, and certainly didn't expect to get so emotionally involved, but I'm glad that both happened. I know I'll be reading this one again in the future.
Okay, so this is SUCH a hard book to swallow. I've never been in a situation even remotely close to the one these characters are put in (namely, Kate and Stacey), but the way this book was written made me feel like I was part of the community and had a say in the whole situation.
So many parts of this book will stick with me forever:
1) "'Boys will be boys' is what people say to excuse guys when they do something awful."
2) "Grease" is really all about how Danny Zuko has a certain image for the ideal woman, and instead of being her own person, Sandy adheres to this image by the end. Because we expect her to.
3) "Just a trashy girl learning the hard way what can happen when she drinks too much and wears a short skirt."
4) Mr. Johnston's lesson about "other choices to make if you come into contact with a young woman who is 'wasted' and 'throwing herself at you'"
This book sheds a hard, SERIOUS light on how we treat rape in our culture. We like to pretend that we've progressed, but shit like this *still happens*. And there are real communities like this, where a rape victim won't be believed regardless of evidence, just because the perpetrator is a "stand up boy" in his community. This book will make you SO angry, I promise.
And that's not even to mention the "romance" part of the book. It gives you hope, gives a silver lining (if even possible in the situation), and makes the book just a little bit lighter.
*****SPOILERS COMING, so you've been warned.*****
But then it all shatters. You kind of expect the truth throughout, but probably like Kate, you are in suuuuuch denial about it that it fully breaks YOUR heart when it gets revealed. It took everything I had not to cry with Kate at the end of the book.
I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did, and certainly didn't expect to get so emotionally involved, but I'm glad that both happened. I know I'll be reading this one again in the future.