deservingporcupine's review against another edition
3.0
This is a very important book to have available to teenagers. It does a good job making issues of consent, rape culture, privilege and toxic masculinity visible. As a woman, former high school student, former college student, teacher, and someone who knows a bit about rape culture, nothing in this novel was groundbreaking. Which is pretty sad to think about. Solid YA with perhaps too many characters and not a ton of depth.
jordandotcom's review against another edition
5.0
This book is so very important - so important that I stayed up until 2 am during finals week to finish reading it.
The reason this book IS so important is because it attacks the rape culture that is in society and institutions that we sometimes refuse to believe and acknowledge, and it actually written by someone whose demographic (cis white male) is the most prevalent perpetrator of these beliefs.
For a specific example as to why this is important? Let's focus on the institutional response. Most don't even need to read this to assume that it was subpar. For anyone who has doubts about this, let me tell you a story. About my own university.
So there was this girl named Brenda*, right? And a fellow student named David. David consistently harassed Brenda to the point of her blocking him on Facebook. But he didn't stop then, and actually began to harass her mother as well - asking about Brenda's father and the divorce her mother just experienced. These two are not the only victims - multiple other women on campus reached out after this occurred to share their similar experiences.
Now the natural response is: you have to report it. So she did. But before she reported it, the incidents escalated. David would corner her and force his way into her dorm room when she was only in a towel.
So after this, she reported it to her RA. The Title IX policy on this campus requires that any faculty member who receives any details regarding an event of sexual assault/harassment has to report it. Then Title IX is required to follow up. In this case, they did not.
Brenda was going to leave this behind, until David began to run for student body president. So she went public. Finally, it was ensured that the Title IX office has heard about this incident. She then filed a grievance with the Elections Committee through Student Government. David had broken five election codes, which one would think would prevent him from running. It did not, and her complaints were once again sent back to the Title IX office. She was then told it didn't matter what he did, because it was before he ran for president. So my university let a known perpetrator of sexual assault become the lead student representative.
Brenda kept pushing the investigation forward. The Title IX office did not give her any information or updates for over 4 months. Even the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reached out to the university because of the failure to act promptly and respond.
So the tl;dr? Brenda was assaulted by David. She reported it in 2016. When David ran for student body president he got it, because the Title IX investigation DID NOT EXIST when he ran for office in 2017. Instead of promptly responding, as an institution should, it decided to favor its shining students and diversity over the traumatic experiences of one of their students. They were entirely willing to shove all of that under the rug and move forward.
This is entirely unconscionable. But almost no one at this university would have even known about it if it was as strict of an environment as in the book. We got lucky this time. But this cannot happen again. THIS is why this book matters. This is why this book is absolutely necessary. Because unfortunately, I know of more stories like this. I know of a university that accepted a transfer student while he had an ongoing Title IX investigation, not caring about this active investigation or the fact that it grinned it to a halt.
This book was amazing in being able to touch on HOW this can happen. It goes deep into the way we act and the way we think when it's not just sexual assault or rape, but merely women standing up for themselves. This book is a major fuck you to tradition, and that is what is needed now.
And if any of you want to read further for the case I discussed in length, here is the link: http://gmufourthestate.com/2018/04/29/how-a-title-ix-report-in-student-government-dragged-on-for-over-a-year/#sthash.8SGfTHXs.dpbs.
*name changed to hide identity of the student
The reason this book IS so important is because it attacks the rape culture that is in society and institutions that we sometimes refuse to believe and acknowledge, and it actually written by someone whose demographic (cis white male) is the most prevalent perpetrator of these beliefs.
For a specific example as to why this is important? Let's focus on the institutional response. Most don't even need to read this to assume that it was subpar. For anyone who has doubts about this, let me tell you a story. About my own university.
So there was this girl named Brenda*, right? And a fellow student named David. David consistently harassed Brenda to the point of her blocking him on Facebook. But he didn't stop then, and actually began to harass her mother as well - asking about Brenda's father and the divorce her mother just experienced. These two are not the only victims - multiple other women on campus reached out after this occurred to share their similar experiences.
Now the natural response is: you have to report it. So she did. But before she reported it, the incidents escalated. David would corner her and force his way into her dorm room when she was only in a towel.
So after this, she reported it to her RA. The Title IX policy on this campus requires that any faculty member who receives any details regarding an event of sexual assault/harassment has to report it. Then Title IX is required to follow up. In this case, they did not.
Brenda was going to leave this behind, until David began to run for student body president. So she went public. Finally, it was ensured that the Title IX office has heard about this incident. She then filed a grievance with the Elections Committee through Student Government. David had broken five election codes, which one would think would prevent him from running. It did not, and her complaints were once again sent back to the Title IX office. She was then told it didn't matter what he did, because it was before he ran for president. So my university let a known perpetrator of sexual assault become the lead student representative.
Brenda kept pushing the investigation forward. The Title IX office did not give her any information or updates for over 4 months. Even the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights reached out to the university because of the failure to act promptly and respond.
So the tl;dr? Brenda was assaulted by David. She reported it in 2016. When David ran for student body president he got it, because the Title IX investigation DID NOT EXIST when he ran for office in 2017. Instead of promptly responding, as an institution should, it decided to favor its shining students and diversity over the traumatic experiences of one of their students. They were entirely willing to shove all of that under the rug and move forward.
This is entirely unconscionable. But almost no one at this university would have even known about it if it was as strict of an environment as in the book. We got lucky this time. But this cannot happen again. THIS is why this book matters. This is why this book is absolutely necessary. Because unfortunately, I know of more stories like this. I know of a university that accepted a transfer student while he had an ongoing Title IX investigation, not caring about this active investigation or the fact that it grinned it to a halt.
This book was amazing in being able to touch on HOW this can happen. It goes deep into the way we act and the way we think when it's not just sexual assault or rape, but merely women standing up for themselves. This book is a major fuck you to tradition, and that is what is needed now.
And if any of you want to read further for the case I discussed in length, here is the link: http://gmufourthestate.com/2018/04/29/how-a-title-ix-report-in-student-government-dragged-on-for-over-a-year/#sthash.8SGfTHXs.dpbs.
*name changed to hide identity of the student
nms5989's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
sc104906's review against another edition
2.0
I received this through Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
After Jamie got into some trouble on his football team at his last school, he was sent to Fullbrook Academy. Jamie is not used to be surrounded by the privileged and prestigious and he feels more out of place because he is on scholarship and working against his past. Jamie tries to move beyond last year, but he is put in difficult situations with the unwritten traditions occurring around school.
Jules dislikes Fullbrook Academy and is tired of the boys club environment. While she attempts to stand up for herself and the other women at the school, she is ostracized and begins fighting a losing battle.
Things become extremely difficult after one party, where something bad happens (avoiding spoilers) and the characters are left to deal with the ramifications.
This book was tricky for me. While this is a story to be told, I just don't know if it was developed enough to provide the characters justice. I think it will be a great book discussion book.
After Jamie got into some trouble on his football team at his last school, he was sent to Fullbrook Academy. Jamie is not used to be surrounded by the privileged and prestigious and he feels more out of place because he is on scholarship and working against his past. Jamie tries to move beyond last year, but he is put in difficult situations with the unwritten traditions occurring around school.
Jules dislikes Fullbrook Academy and is tired of the boys club environment. While she attempts to stand up for herself and the other women at the school, she is ostracized and begins fighting a losing battle.
Things become extremely difficult after one party, where something bad happens (avoiding spoilers) and the characters are left to deal with the ramifications.
This book was tricky for me. While this is a story to be told, I just don't know if it was developed enough to provide the characters justice. I think it will be a great book discussion book.
notlikethebeer's review against another edition
3.0
A compelling look at r*pe culture within an elite boarding school. I particularly liked that The four main characters were great, although Javi and Aileen definitely could have been more developed. I also like that it ended quite messily, without a perfect conclusion, and with the acceptance that, within r*pe culture, the right people don't always win!
I think at the moment there are so many YA books out there about r*pe culture and feminism that it's hard to really excel in the genre, and for me this wasn't a stand out. However it was good in it's own right.
Spoiler
the two main characters didn't get together!I think at the moment there are so many YA books out there about r*pe culture and feminism that it's hard to really excel in the genre, and for me this wasn't a stand out. However it was good in it's own right.
resslesa's review against another edition
4.0
I love the points made by this book and was intrigued by the characters and situation. I felt it was a little slow and the characters’ voices didn’t always ring true to me.
southernbellebooks's review against another edition
2.0
Overall it, a fairly decent read but I thought it was incredibly choppy and all over the place in terms of storyline. It was pretty hard to follow and there were way too many times when I had to read something over and over to understand it.
bestdressedbookworm's review against another edition
2.0
This book is; every YA book about bullying meets bold and the beautiful meets cruel intentions and it bored me to tears. At page 96 when nothing of note had really happened I started to lose interest and at page 150 I started to skim. Although the book, like so many before it, deals with some serious issues, there was no real interesting spin too it. It’s a story I have read many times before.