Book Review: The Mockingbirds

TITLE: The Mockingbirds
Book 1 in the Mockingbirds series
AUTHOR: Daisy Whitney
PUBLISHED: 2010
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Contemporary, drama
PREMISE: A girl who gets date raped calls for justice from her school's vigilante justice group.
MY REVIEW: The Mockingbirds is first and foremost an issue book. Therefore I don't really recomend it as entertainment although I certainly did enjoy it (I particularly enjoyed Alex's two friends because yay, female friendship and they were just awesome). Its purpose isn't really to entertain, its to inform. That part it does really well. So if you're not into issue books on a regular basis, I wouldn't pick this up unless you're in the mood for it.
But when you want a book like this, I totally rec it. It's informative, interesting, and I adore books that aren't afraid to tackle tough issues like date rape. While, I don't neccessarily think the book blew it out of the water (I actually think Speak does a far better handling of the subject) I do appreciate that the writer uses the book to tell girls that if this happens, there are places that they can go. It sounds silly, but actually most people who get date raped, don't report it. Most schools also don't talk about the subject and treat things like it exactly the way Themis does. So I do appreciate what this book says about the subject even if I'm not sure about some of the ways the author handles it in the book (and I totally wanted Alex to get together with Jones, not Martin).
This is one of those books that is good for when you want to think about subjects. Again, as far as entertainment goes, I'm not sure it fits the bill. But I definitely recomend reading it at least once.
WHO SHOULD READ: those who like or are in the mood for issue books
MY RATING: Four out of Five prep school blazers