“I didn’t deserve this. Even the most confused and lost girl, even the most screwed up of us all, doesn’t deserve this.”
All Ellie ever wanted was to blend in. All her life, she’s worn the wrong clothes. Ever since puberty, she’s been teased for her figure. Now, about to start high school, she decides that enough is enough -- she’ll blend in no matter what. Enlisting the help of her neighbor Kate, Ellie gets a makeover that turns her into a stereotypical high school student. Now, instead of negative attention, she’s getting looks of interest from one of the most popular boys in the school, Caleb, the son of a wealthy politician. When Ellie disappears, the fact that she blended in so well works against her. Nobody noticed her. Nothing about her stood out. Then, one girl starts putting the pieces together and the whole story comes crumbling down.
I’m so sad. I really wanted to like this one more, but I have a complicated relationship with books like this. It’s not a fault of the book or the writer but more a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” You know, I read the summary, I read some early reviews, and I still didn’t grasp just how dark this book would be. It took me forever to read it because I could only stomach it in small batches. In all honesty, I probably would not have requested it if I’d known it would be like this.
Reading this book was hard. I’ve thankfully never experienced sexual assault and I got panicky just reading it. I can’t imagine how it would feel if you were a survivor, so trigger warnings for that, I guess. The characters dance around the actual assault, rarely referring to it as rape and primarily just referring to it as a thing that happened. But still, the gut punches are there when you’re least expecting them, and more and more details are revealed as the story continues.
It makes me so angry that a book like this is necessary. These are the times that we live in and it’s horrible. I hate that a book this horrible can also be so realistic. I hate the ending because it shouldn’t be something that actually happens. This book tears apart the argument that a girl could ask for it. That a girl could be somehow deserving of sexual assault because of the way she dresses or the people she associates with or the neighborhood she lives in. Carter has one of the best quotes I’ve read on rape culture in this book.
People don't debate what defines murder. Politicians don't argue the body's ability to fight off being killed. There's no talk of 'murder culture.' No one says that you asked for murder. What you wear doesn't excuse being killed.
There are a few twists and I’m not entirely sure how I felt about some of them. I’d hoped for a bit more closure at the end, but, like life, things don’t always tie up neatly. The book is certainly worthy of the attention that it’s getting, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that it’s a very heavy book about a very heavy topic.
Final rating: ★★★☆☆
I received a free advance copy of I Stop Somewhere from the publisher (via Netgalley) in exchange for my honest review.
I haven’t decided yet whether I’m doing the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2018 challenge, the 2018 Popsugar Reading Challenge, both challenges, or neither, but I have decided that I’m doing the 2018 Debut Author Challenge. I participated in this challenge in 2017 and honestly, it was such a great experience. Sure, one or two of the debuts I read were downright terrible, but the majority were amazing and written by authors who are now on my auto-buy list.
I’m not going to go too crazy, so I think I’ll keep my goal the same for 2018: one debut each month, for a total of 12 debuts in 2018. If you’re interested in taking part in the Debut Author Challenge, head over to That Artsy Reader Girl to sign up. Then, check out the Goodreads group, Goodreads list, and Google Doc of all eligible books.
Ah, my favorite month has come to an end, and now we look to the end of this year (I don’t care much for November and December, tbh). All I can say is that I did not even notice it pass by so fast. But it did, and now I look back on how it went: Firstly, my Goodreads challenge: if you have been paying attention, yes, I decreased my challenge limit from 260 to 226 – I wanted it to be somewhere…
September, oh, September, you glorious month! I took a break from reading mostly galleys this month and indulged in some books off my TBR. (Also, I low-key started a Scribd subscription and I am a bit too excited about the number of audiobooks that I have access to) The month started with me racing to finishing as many as possible for the last 10 days of The Reading Quest. Then a break of a week…
Is it just me or did July just race by? I can barely remember this month and that’s not only because of how stressed out I was! To be fair, any day that I haven’t read feels ephemeral and with the 3 week long reading slump I had, things were looking close to a time jump. Anyway, it was probably not the best month of the year, but I still managed to catch my second wind in the last week so let’s…
2017 has been determined to kick me when I am down, and honestly it has not been that great of a time in these two months. Personal and mental issues aside, I have been struggling with what now looks like a mountain of galleys. Hindsight is 20-20, as I now regret requesting or adding so many ARCs and most of my reading has been devoted to thin that ever-expanding field. Of course, this has left…
Hello, everyone! How has 2017 treated you so far? Reading going good this year? Not for me – 2017 is already kicking my ass. I thought this was the year I would push further than 2016. I was riding on the high of being constantly ahead of my reading challenges last year, and got sloppy. An important thing to note – I was successful at last year’s Goodreads challenge because I kept myself ahead; I…
