I was perusing my library one afternoon when I came across this book sitting on one of the shelves. I had never heard about it before, but after reading the book, I was instantly intrigued.

Trigger warnings: rape, date-rape drugs (GHB)

 

The sheriff’s son, Kellan Turner, is not the golden boy everyone thinks he is, and Romy Grey knows that for a fact. Because no one wants to believe a girl from the wrong side of town, the truth about him has cost her everything—friends, family, and her community. Branded a liar and bullied relentlessly by a group of kids she used to hang out with, Romy’s only refuge is the diner where she works outside of town.

No one knows her name or her past there; she can finally be anonymous. But when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing after a party, and news of him assaulting another girl in a town close by gets out, Romy must decide whether she wants to fight or carry the burden of knowing more girls could get hurt if she doesn’t speak up. Nobody believed her the first time—and they certainly won’t now — but the cost of her silence might be more than she can bear.　

 

Rape is very real. Very dangerous. And is STILL overlooked so much in society.

I was quite confused at the beginning of the book. The plot jumped around a bit, so it took me a while to determine the timeline of the novel, but after reading a few chapters, I gathered that the novel begins a few months after Romy was raped. What is so heartbreaking is that she actually came forward about the rape and told people, but what happens to her? She gets ostracised in her community, and because she accuses the Sheriff’s son, well… It doesn’t really help her case.

One of the thing that I really loved about this book were the parental figures. Her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Todd, were so supporting and helped Romy in everything. WE NEED MORE PARENTAL FIGURES LIKE THIS IN YA! Even though she felt like an outcast within her community, she had a brilliant support system at home, but also at work with Leon and Holly.

 

“I don’t believe in forgiveness. I think if you hurt someone, it becomes part of you both. Each of you just has to live with it and the person you hurt gets to decide if they want to give you the chance to do it again. If they do and you’re a good person, you won’t make the same mistakes. Just whole new ones.”

― Courtney Summers, All the Rage

 

So, those are all of my good points.

However…

The romance.

Why?

There was so much potential for the author to make this female character who is strange enough to come to terms with what happened to her by herself, but no.

She has to get into a relationship and the boy is the answer to all the problems. The boy makes her feels whole again, makes Romy feel like she’s no longer ‘damaged’. And to be honest, this made me so angry. Why does the heroine always need a man to make her feel good about herself? Especially in a case like this. I understand it to a certain point where Romy felt like a relationship would never be possible because she felt broken and unworthy. I GET IT, ok? I understand that – when she finally found someone who really liked her for HER – she felt incredibly happy.

But there’s much better ways of going about including a romance in a book about rape culture than this.

Overall, this was an enjoyable book. Obviously, I did have some problems with it, but not enough for me to put the book down and DNF.

 

 

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