Given the content, it feels a little strange to say that I loved this book and that it made my little feminist heart flutter. The story opens in the aftermath of a young woman's disappearance. As with most investigation type stories, the protagonist starts by unraveling the backstory to the situation and the past and present collide to bring the story to its climax.
It felt like watching one of the better CSI episodes where you may get an inkling of where the story is going but aren't sure enough to call it. I have to admit, it did not reach the resolution that I was expecting.
I especially loved all the characters and the depth they were given. Each one was different and carried around different baggage. They wanted things they could have and things they couldn't. They knew the world was bigger than themselves. I love character-driven stories and it was that aspect that made this a great read.
As far as my feminist heart, this deals with some prominent feminist issues on college campuses. Personally, I didn't feel like it was preachy, so much as that it was easy to use the systemic problems that we have come to be familiar with as the backdrop to the story, the point from which it all begins, really. Every step of the way, we are reminded of the real dangers that are still out there for women and the things that allow rape culture to continue to be so pervasive. At the same time, it also uses the story to explain those systemic problems in a way that is easier to understand than just saying something like "systemic problems". We walk through the process with our protagonist and see some examples of how the system fails women in these situations. It's no single persons fault or intention, it just is the way things are and it's not the way they should be.
I hope you pick it up and I hope you enjoy it. I hope it makes you ponder the issue and what can be done to remedy it.
1
