Mara has just broken up with her girlfriend, Charlie. Since Charlie was her best friend before they started dating, Mara’s newfound loneliness is two-fold. Fortunately, Mara will always have Owen, her twin brother. He has always been the one person who could comfort and calm Mara when things were at their worst. But when Owen’s girlfriend, who is also a friend of Mara’s, accuses him of date rape, Mara does not know who or what to believe. Her beloved brother could never do such a terrible thing, but Hannah would never lie about something so serious. Mara tries to navigate her relationships with Owen, Hannah and Charlie while also dealing with a deep trauma that she has been trying to forget until this point.
Straight Talk for Librarians: This book is definitely intense in terms of subject matter, diving hard into issues of consent, date rape and sexual abuse. These heavy subject matters are handled respectfully and with the necessary gravity, but it may be a bit too much for less mature readers. Mara’s sexual orientation and relationship with Charlie are almost as central to the plot as the situation with Owen, giving readers a realistic opportunity to see LGBTQ+ characters struggling with issues both including and outside of their sexual identity. This book might make an interesting choice on a reading list for a class like Contemporary Relationships or Sociology, but it will more likely be discovered as an independent reading option. The fact that this book contains multiple traumas may draw in readers who have found themselves in similar situations, possibly warranting a trigger warning, but quality content that will promote conversations about sexual assault and consent should be welcomed, not avoided. Recommended for mature high school readers.
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