content warnings: sexual assault, paedophilia, slut shaming, victim blaming, violence
representation: bisexual main character, non-binary gay side character, korean-american side character

This book is so short - not even reaching 300 pages - but it's quite possibly the most impactful book I've ever read. It's about a teenage girl, Mara, whose friend accuses her twin brother of raping her. First of all, I'm going to elaborate on the trigger warnings a little bit: for majority of the book, sexual assault is only discussed rather than seen. There is one exception to this, which is chapter eighteen. In this chapter there is a graphic depiction of both sexual assault and paedophilia. The series of events in this chapter are discussed briefly both before and after, and on the whole you can skip this chapter if need be.

Now, onto the rest of the book. Holy crap. This books discussion of rape culture and victim blaming is so incredible and insightful that I could write a full-length essay on it, so instead I'm just going to focus on one aspect: the differences between Mara and her mother. Both are feminists, as you discover very early in the book. Mara started a magazine at her school called Empower which is all about feminism, and her mum is a massive supporter of it. However, when Hannah accuses Owen of raping her, these two women take very different stances on it. Mara is conflicted, but ultimately believes Hannah and thinks her brother is lying, or at the very least omitting details. Her mum, though, immediately believes Owen, saying that Hannah is confused and there's been a misunderstanding. I loved this dissection of feminism, and the fact that Mara throws her mother's views back in her face when she's defending Owen. It was a stark reminder that it doesn't matter how close to the perpetrator you are; victims should still be believed.

Another aspect I loved was Mara's relationship with Owen, particularly the fact that even though she believes Hannah and is 100% supportive of her, she still loves her brother. She still misses her brother. She wants to believe her brother, she wants Hannah to be wrong. Reading about Mara's inner conflict was so heartbreaking because she so desperately wants to believe both of them but just can't believe what Owen's saying. No matter how torn Mara was, she never didn't believe Hannah.

I can't write any more or I will just start sobbing. This book is heartbreaking and wonderful and I would highly recommend to everyone (please do heed all trigger warnings though).