REVIEW FOR Someone I Used to Know by Patty Blount

TITLE:         Someone I used to Know

AUTHOR:    Patty Blount

GENRE:        Social Theme YA

RATING:       

Reading this book is harrowing.  The subject is rape and sexual assault and our main character Ashley has experienced both.

While this book is fiction, it reads as a true story.  Ashley is a YA who feels insecure about herself and falls right into the games being played by Victor and his football team in the form of a "horrific version of a scavenger hunt".  What makes it worse? her own brother, who she adores endorses this "game".

The writing is deep and raw.  This book doesn't spend a lot of time on describing the rape, but rather focuses on the before and after and how it affects each and every person in Ashley's world.  

This story is so well written, it feels like a dissertation on rape, digging deep into Ashley's feelings about herself, the rape and her family.  Extremely family oriented which is where the focus lies.

I cannot describe how deep the author delves. I have read many, many books on the subject and I have never read a fiction book on rape with such detail.  At times, you feel as though you can actually see it through Ashley's eyes.

Told in Ashley and her brother Derek's points of view, it it fascinating  to see how this event affects each in a very different way, yet, at the same time, they are so alike.

Sad, scary and empowering, this is an amazing read.

Also makes you think about how you view woman (although I am one) and how sexual innuendos and assaults are so much more prevalent than we think.