The Age of Rape

This is a story of a raped girl. The girl came from the wrong side of the tracks and the accused is the son of the sheriff, who can do no wrong. The book beings after Romy’s rape. She still attends the same school, but with an even higher level of intensity as the town joke and outcast. Nobody believes her and even her best friend betrayed her after the incident. After all, how could it be rape if she was actively pursuing a relationship with the accused?

Romy feels like a dead girl after the rape and the only time she feels like her normal self from before, is at her place of employment. At work nobody knows her back story. It is when her betraying ex-best friend unexpectedly comes to her work that everything explodes. It is not an action story, but there is a level of mystery involved that keeps the story moving along.

All the Rage has so many levels. The more I think about it the more I decide that it is brilliant in its own way. It moves slowly with bursts of suspense. I think that actually makes it more powerful. Everything is not always laid out for you. At times it is confusing, but to me that mirrors Romy’s character. She is confused and does crazy and reckless things to try and feel (or sometimes not feel) something.

Romy is obsessed with her perfect red lips and red nails. It is detailed many times the exact process she takes with these things before she is ready. At first I couldn’t figure out the point behind telling us this over and over. But like I said, not everything it laid out for you. I got the impression that the reason Romy is obsessed with her nail and lip routine (which I believe started after the rape) is multi-leveled. It could be that she uses it as the one thing in her life which she can control. Or, it could be a mask for her to hide behind. Another part of me wondered if the routine was actually used to draw attention so others would look at her. That they would hear her story instead of looking through her. It could be all three or even more based on what she was feeling at that certain moment.

I remember in high school learning about all the symbolism that can be found in a book. I hated it. I had a friend who wrote a short story for the class and the teacher found a bunch of symbolism in it that changed her story into something that she didn’t want to portray. Maybe that is how authors think of us now when we try and critique their work. “You are getting it all wrong!” Then again, that seems to be what makes a great story. When you can get so much more than the author even planned with their simple storytelling.

I loved this book. It had great character development and kept you thinking even after the book ended. You want to figure out why certain characters acted the way they did, why parts of the story were mentioned over and over. I wish I had read this for a book club. I want to discuss what others thought about it before everything falls through the cracks.

P.S. The book has some naughty words with a few descriptive sentences thrown in. It has a tendency to make the horror more real. It is not for those who wish to avoid such things.

Where'd She Go?

IF I STAY Series                        3 Stars

IF I STAY                      By: Gayle Forman                   3 Stars

The description of this book kept me from reading it many times. Eventually a movie preview helped me realize the storyline actually sounded interesting. The movie helped me realize it was about a girl who has the perfect family, perfect boyfriend and a promising opportunity at Julliard, only to have it all snatched away in a horrible accident leaving her to choose life after so much loss or death with her sorrows.

At any given time I have a plethora of books, too many to ever actually read. For this reason, when I try to simply my stacks, I look at reviews for the questionable books. The reviews I found for this book, specifically on Goodreads, were mostly positive. Fabulous!  It has felt like forever since I have read a really good fictional book. It is a shame that I didn’t feel as attached to this book as others seem to be. Good thing it is a quick read.

Mia wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t think her “perfect family” was actually that perfect. It felt more like they were teenage parents who couldn’t comprehend that Mia didn’t need friends, she need responsible adults. There were some moments when it seemed like her mom and dad were starting to get it right, mainly her father based around when her younger brother, Teddy, was born. However, it never seemed to last long. Once I thought they had figured things out they did something else that reverted them back to the 60’s hippy/flowerchild, everything is groovy, underage drinking and teenage sex is totally fly, irresponsible parenting style. Even though they had Mia around 23, they seemed like they were teenagers that missed the opportunity to grow-up, so they never really did. Ok, I my rant is out, moving on.

To be honest, I didn’t get into most of the relationships presented in the book. Mia’s boyfriend, Adam, was likeable, but I never really felt the passion that made me want to root for them to be together even if she did get into Julliard. Plus the sex scene where they played each other like instruments was incredibly weird. Maybe you had to be there. Frankly, I am glad I wasn’t.

There were only two relationships that seemed to work. Mia as the first to see Teddy when he was born, being one of them. They just stared at each other, kind of like a parental bond with their child. (Mia did seem to be the responsible one, even if she made teen decisions, hey, she was an actual teenager.) There were certain situations were only Mia could comfort Teddy. A moment when he had yet to outgrow her showing affection when he put a stop to others doing similar things. That was pretty adorable. In fact, Mia never seemed to really care that her parents were gone. The only time she seemed to struggle with how much she had actually lost was when she worried about Teddy.

The only other relationship I understood within the book was Mia with her best friend Kim. They went from being forced to always be together, and hating it, to being inseparable. Some of the best moments include when Mia was going to give up music and Kim convinced her not too. Not only did she recognize what a horrible decision that would be for Mia, she understood enough to present summer music camps to Mia’s parents. Kim furthered showed her friendship to Mia by making sure Adam was at the hospital by physically bringing him there. On top of that she collaborated with him to make sure he got in to see her, despite the fact that Kim and Adam were never really friends in the first place. A true friend really looks out for the other’s interests and future.

The most redeeming part of the book was the author’s decision to portray Mia’s musical instrument as the cello. I am not quite sure if it was planned or a pleasant coincidence. The haunting melody of a cello is the perfect backdrop to describe Mia’s life, current predicament and decisions she has to make. It is the one thing that truly sucked me in. In fact, it is the cello that finally caught my attention in the movie preview. Even though this book was only average for me, the storyline still has so much potential. I hope the movie can portray the attachments I was unable to feel within the book pages.

 

WHERE SHE WENT                  By: Gayle Forman                   2.8 Stars

This book is all from Adam’s point of view. Three years have passed since Mia’s accident. Adam is a big time rock star who hasn’t handled what life sent him very well. He has a small drug problem and hates playing with his band. The storyline is him finding out what really happened with Mia and why she left.

These two books weren’t really for me. I didn’t find myself really liking anything about them until about 60ish pages from the end of the 2^nd book. I can see the appeal that others might have for them, but I didn’t really enjoy reading about trying to be hip or cool or in or whatever they call it now days. I liked when it got down to the relationships and didn’t so much care about the lifestyle scenes. If the movie has a lot of cello in it, I might still want to see it.