Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Published: 1999
Category: YA
Genre: Realistic Fiction/drama
Premise: A girl goes to a school that hates her as she tries to get over being raped.
My Review: This is one of those books where whatever I have to say about a book is not really going to impact it much. This has been out for fifteen years now. I think it's fairly close to becoming a modern classic. Give it another five years or so.If you've gone to high school in the last decade or so you might even have read it for school.
I was in high school when this book came out and I don't really remember hearing much about it. I don't think it became what it is now until a year or so later. Honestly, a lot of nineties books in YA happened that way because the YA section was not the YA section back then. It was still rather small and not the powerhouse in sales that it is now so YA books were not pushed like they are now. That's probably why I missed this one (as well as a few other books like Perks of Being a Wallflower). Plus I went to school in the bible belt. My school did abstinence sort of sex-ed, you know they weren't about to let a book about date rape get in their libraries.
So that's how I missed this classic despite being the target audience for it when it came out. Now that I've read it, I'm kind of mad that I missed it. This book is important and should be read by every high schooler, especially boys and people who like to victim blame rape victims. I also am kind of impressed by how not dated it is. This was written fifteen years ago and doesn't feel dated at all. Mostly because the author doesn't go around trying to put in pop culture references or teen slang. Authors, please take notes.
WHO SHOULD READ: Laurie Halse Anderson fans, those that like books about serious subjects, anyone inclined to read it
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five near perfect books
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