Summer Reading #12

The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

This was another one that is on the nominee list for the 2017 TAYSHAS list, and judging by what I have read so far, the theme of this year's list is rape. This is the third book that has dealt with this subject, and of the three, this one wasn't as well done.

During Christmas break of her freshman year of high school, Eden is raped in her own bed by her brother's best friend. He threatens to kill her if she tells anyone, so she doesn't tell anyone. This eats away at the person Eden was. She starts smoking, smarting off to her parents, drinking, and sleeping with random guys. None of these things are terribly surprising, given the circumstances. The problem is that there are too many holes.

This book encompasses Eden's entire high school time frame. There are times when leaving one school year for another where things happen, things that seem important, but there's no explanation why. Also, the school year won't even be over before we are subjected to the next school year, and the reader never knows what happens during the summers. Case in point: between her junior and senior years, something happens between Eden and her parents to the point that she starts referring to them by their first names. What happened? No idea.

And that's the problem I have: too many gaps. Also, the book doesn't have any heart until the end. The very beginning and very end, Eden seems real, but all those pages in between, not so much. I almost feel as if the author doesn't really know what she's writing about because there was no feeling, and there was this disconnect.

I know this is a sensitive topic, but it can be written about in a way that makes you feel something for the people it happened to. I have read several books on this topic, and this book just didn't measure up.