Scan barcode
A review by hayleybeale
True Story by Kate Reed Petty
3.0
I was intrigued by the premise of this novel. There are two versions of the story of what happened between a drunk-to-the-point-of-passed out female high school student, Alice, and two male members of the lacrosse team, Richard and Max, who gave her a ride home from a party. Both versions come from the young men: in one there is sexual assault and in the other they simply drop her off home. Nick, a friend of Richard and Max, and Haley, a friend of Alice, choose the story they believe to be true.
Years later, Alice is in an abusive relationship, Haley makes documentaries about women who’ve suffered sexual assault, Richard is a successful entrepreneur, Max is dead, and Nick is an alcoholic.
The novel is a weird, but deliberate, patchwork of points of view and styles. There are scripts of horror movies that Alice and Haley wrote in middle school, an interview, a collection of emails, a horror-tinted weekend which is scary but doesn’t quite work in the context , even a section written in the second person (never my favorite) as well as regular first and third person accounts. Nick and Alice are the main protagonists, but both Richard and Haley are ever-present.
But I never felt I quite got the rhythm of the novel: it seemed to be going one way then would abruptly change to something quite different which made it hard to settle into. The different facets shown add up to some sort of coherent picture in the end but maybe not the one I was expecting.
Thanks to Viking and Netgalley for the digital review copy
Years later, Alice is in an abusive relationship, Haley makes documentaries about women who’ve suffered sexual assault, Richard is a successful entrepreneur, Max is dead, and Nick is an alcoholic.
The novel is a weird, but deliberate, patchwork of points of view and styles. There are scripts of horror movies that Alice and Haley wrote in middle school, an interview, a collection of emails, a horror-tinted weekend which is scary but doesn’t quite work in the context , even a section written in the second person (never my favorite) as well as regular first and third person accounts. Nick and Alice are the main protagonists, but both Richard and Haley are ever-present.
But I never felt I quite got the rhythm of the novel: it seemed to be going one way then would abruptly change to something quite different which made it hard to settle into. The different facets shown add up to some sort of coherent picture in the end but maybe not the one I was expecting.
Thanks to Viking and Netgalley for the digital review copy