You Against Me by Jenny Downham
My rating: 4/5 cats
i feel such pressure to write a really great review for this book, because it is so impressive on so many levels, but the post-turkey-day fatigue is strong in me. i will do what i can.
you probably already know what this book is about, because it is really quite popular. so just quickly. to get us all on the same page, i will just reiterate that it is a story bout a rape, from the perspective of the brother of the victim and the sister of the accused, who form a relationship in the busted pieces of all of it.
which is already, like—woah.
because when you are dealing with this situation, in literature, the impulse is of course to focus on the victim. it is more powerful that way, right? to showcase the pain and the humiliation and the fear and the aftermath and how one goes about picking up the pieces of their life in a situation like that.
not so.
because here, on the outskirts, the ripples are just as strong, and this book does such an amazing job of depicting how rape affects people on the periphery of the situation—people who were not even present at the time—in such profound ways.
mikey’s impulse is to protect his sister, and to physically destroy the boy who did this to her. ellie’s impulse is to stick loyally to her family, and believe her brother when he says he is innocent.
exactly zero of the characters in this book are sympathetic or likable, but the writing overpowers their broad impotent rage or their wishy-washiness or their latent sexism or their naiveté. you will get sucked into the story, despite wanting to give everyone a good smack.
it is a tricky book, filled with nuance. mikey’s easy seduction of girls he feels nothing for starts to pall for him in the aftermath of his sister’s rape, leaving him wide open to fall for ellie, despite his intentions of manipulating her into giving him access to her brother tommy, for his deserved ass-beating. he does sort of start to understand that his own behavior towards women has been distasteful, but he continues to focus on violence as a way of solving his problems instead of really being there for his sister. he does the things that need to be done to hold his family together while his mother drowns in alcohol and absentee parenthood and his sister refuses to leave the house, but it is surface-only; mechanical. he forgets about the root of the problem, wrapped up in some antiquated code of vengeance, and neglects to support his sister emotionally, so focused on hatred as he is.
ellie is another crappy thing altogether. she is the wide-eyed, overpetted lamb of her surface-perfect wealthy family, idolizing her golden-boy older brother and knowing he could do no wrong. she is so credulous, it hurts. and she is supposed to be this great scholar, but her big idea is to GOOGLE “rape”?? come on, sister, show me those supposed smarts already.
tommy and ellie’s father is one of the worst human beings i have ever read about, as a character. not because he is the manifestation of pure evil, it is more insidious than that. but he reminds me of my ex’s father, and it is so appalling to read him. yes, he is protecting his young and that is very admirable, but phoar…the lengths to which he goes and his casual dismissal of this poor girl is really very horrifying. made me want to pull out my hair a little.
it is also a fantastic book in its treatment of the rape. because it is all he-said, she-said, and it gets difficult. because, again, these are orbital characters, not the main participants. and it isn’t a thrown-up-against-the-wall attack, it is much much murkier. and so sad and desperate and emotional.
this is a very necessary book, unfortunately. and it does its job so well. it has its weak bits, obviously, but the message is such an important one, outside of any bittersweet young love story between two fragile and confused romeo-and-juliet teens.
this shit is not okay. and i am awfully glad this book is out there for all the young girls who maybe need a book like this.
best i can do.
oh, a p.s. for greg. you would like this book because it is all about your beloved british underclass. they eat so many crisps!
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