Title: You Owe Me a Murder Author: Eileen Cook Release Date: March 5, 2019 Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers Pages: 368 Source: ARC provided by Raincoast Books Add to Goodreads | Amazon.ca | Indigo Overall: 4 STARS SUMMARY Seventeen-year-old Kim gets more than she bargained for when she is set up for murder. Perfect for fans of One of Us is Lying , E. Lockhart, and Gillian Flynn. 17-year-old Kim never expected to plot a murder. But that was before her boyfriend dumped her for another girl. Now, Kim’s stuck on a class trip to London with him and his new soulmate and she can’t help wishing he was a little bit dead, even if she’d never really do that. But when Kim meets Nicki, a stranger on the plane who’s more than willing to listen to Kim’s woes, things start to look up. Nicki's got a great sense of humor, and when she jokes about swapping murders, Kim plays along—that is, until Kim’s ex-boyfriend mysteriously dies. Blackmailed by Nicki to fulfill her end of the deal,...
Author: Alina Klein
Publisher: namelos
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
Links: Amazon | Goodreads
Source: NetGalley
Valerie always wanted to be the smart girl. The pretty girl. The popular girl.
But not the rape girl.
That’s who she is now. Rape Girl. Because everyone seems to think they know the truth about what happened with Adam that day, and they don’t think Valerie’s telling it.
Before, she had a best friend, a crush, and a close-knit family. After, she has a court case, a support group, and a house full of strangers.
The real truth is, nothing will ever be the same.
I like that Rape Girl deals with a different aspect of rape - the tendency of society to place blame upon the victim. We so often see a girl who is quietly trying to heal from the trauma of her rape or gathering the courage to finally tell someone about it, trying to work through her feelings of shame and disgust. This book is the only one I've read to take on the task of showing how reporting a rape can affect the victim and make her feel like a pariah because the boy she accuses is well-liked.
Valerie is easy to sympathize with because of her situation, which is sad and infuriating. Nobody believes her story, including her friends. Her school principal takes her out of her class that she shares with her rapist, making it look as though she is the one who did something wrong. Her situation and the way that she is treated, not only by her friend but by authority figures as well, is absolutely unacceptable. There are a precious few people who are on her side - her family, her counselor, a girl at school who does believe her. Thank goodness for these characters who represent the good in the world.
Rape Girl is a really short book (124 pages). I felt like it should have been longer, because there are some things that are rushed or brushed aside that I would have liked to see expanded upon. For example, the reader doesn't really get a sense of the healing process. The healing side of rape isn't investigated or examined, like it is in other books dealing with this topic. This disappoints me because I feel like showing that emotional growth and healing is necessary in books like these, but in Rape Girl that process is rushed and is never fully explored. I liked it, but I wanted a bit more from it emotionally and plot-wise. I still would recommend it as a short, quick read that deals with the topic of society's response to a rape victim.
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