Some Boys by Patty Blount
In many ways, this is similar to the book, Speak, that I read a month or six weeks ago. In both, a girl is raped at a party, and the boy is a scumbag. The biggest difference is that the protagonist in Speak doesn't tell anyone about what happened to her for a long time, and in this one, Grace has talked about it, and identified her attacker.
This is told in two perspectives: Grace and Ian. Grace was raped at a party by the captain of the lacrosse team. She was drunk, like everyone else at the party, and was allegedly dressed like she was "asking for it." Grace claims she was raped, but the rapist posts a video to social media "showing" she was into it. Because of that, no one believes her. She loses her friends, the whole school is calling her a slut and a whore, and one of the times she stands up for herself, she ends up having to do manual labor over spring break.
Then there's Ian. He is the rapist's best friend who once had a crush on Grace. He doesn't want to believe his best friend is a slimeball. He tries to see both sides of the story, and eventually sees the truth of the matter for himself.
Most of the book takes place over the week that Grace and Ian are forced to do manual labor. Will someone finally see Grace for who she is, not what they think she is? Was she, in fact, raped? If so, will she ever get justice?
My daughter was drawn to this book, but she wanted me to read it first to make sure it was ok for her. I am glad she did. This is one of those books that every teen should read. Maybe if they did, the societal norm of victim blaming would go away. One could only hope, anyway.
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