Book Link

Triggers: Abuse, rape

From Amazon:

A provocative psychological drama for readers who loved Black & Blue, Gone Girl, The Lucky One, and Safe Haven

Eighteen-year-old Liz is in her final year of high school when she meets James Macewan, an older student who is struggling academically and wrestling with his own demons. What begins as a simple tutoring assignment soon grows into her first dating relationship. Liz initially enjoys the excitement of being with James, but it does not take long before she cannot recognize who she is as an individual anymore. As James’s own life begins to unravel, he compensates by attempting to control every aspect of Liz’s existence. The situation eventually dissolves into a tale of violence and dehumanization that affects the characters’ lives forever.

J.G. MacLeod describes the fear and uncertainty that often come with the cycle of violence and allows readers to journey alongside Liz as she attempts to confront her abuser and heal from trauma.

Travel to the isolated town of Abalone Lake & experience the rush of first love, the pain of domestic violence, and the gravity of a decision that changes everyone’s lives forever.

My Review:

I wish this book had been available to me to read when I was a freshman in high school. But, it was written decades after I’d graduated from high school. Had I been able to read this book, I would have understood a lot about questions I was never able to ask of my own mother. Before my one year older sister and I started our periods, my mother handed both of us a booklet with diagrams to explain why we would have monthly periods and the old style pads to be worn with special lace panties that had elastic which would hold the pads in place. That summed up our education. No talk of boys or sex. Nothing. Had I had a book like this one, I would have understood high school and boys much better. I would have known when a boy was interested in me and maybe learned how boys should treat girls. That never happened. What happened after I graduated was the fact that I needed to escape the abuse my mother dished out every single day. Thus, I went from one bad situation into another with a man who became abusive when drinking and finally abusive when drinking or sober. Rape, I certainly learned that as well. Teenage girls need to know that they are not worthless, they do matter, and that not all men are abusive. I think my life would have turned out differently if I had access to a book like this one.