maybe 1.5/5? 2/5?
TW: sexual assault, trauma

For a book that touches on such an important topic, I'm really disappointed that I didn't like it. I read this for a YA lit class in uni, and I had never heard of it before, which makes me even more disappointed in it.
If you don't know, this novel follows Tori the day after she is sexually assaulted by her ex-boyfriend. To cope with the trauma, Tori vows to become more tough, more hard, so that no one can walk over her or try to take advantage of her again. She soon discovers, however, that this isn't the way to cope, and a little girl at a women and children's shelter helps Tori to learn just that.
To be blunt, I have several issues with this novel. First off, the writing is too simple, too utilitarian. It's clunky - to use the phrase of my roommate - and it makes this tiny, 200 page book feel as though it's dragging along as it points to things to tell you about. Especially the very beginning and end. "I did this because of this. And also this. Then I did this."
I also was disappointed in Tori. Not because she was trying to cope with trauma, but because she's so mean towards the other girls in the novel. She sort of grows out of this, but it's never pointed out just how hard she is on the girls around her. She resorts to calling a rival soccer team the "Blue Bitches," she calls out girls (in her narration) on what they wear and how they look. I know all teens are judgemental and self-centred, but Tori never really learns exactly how harmful and constructed thinking these things are.
So yeah, I wouldn't recommend this, but I also wouldn't totally stop you from reading it.