Trigger Warning: Rape, Trial
This is a hard book to assess on it's own as it is so much of a companion piece to the first book of this duology, No Virgin. When we leave Stacey at the end of the first book she has been immensely brave and sought help following her rape. We rejoin the story around 9 months later and the trial of Stacey's rapist is about to begin.
The fact that Stacey is waiting for the trial means that this book gets off to something of a slow start. She is still struggling with her feelings for Harry, her rapist's brother and we see, through flashback, how she has reported the crime and told her parents about it. Stacey is a very well written character and the first part of this book really helps us to get to know her. In some ways her life has moved on - she is in the final year of her A levels and has a part-time job but it soon becomes clear that the rape has had a massive impact upon her confidence and her plans for the future.
As in the first book, Stacey is in that awkward time of wrestling between the maturity of adulthood and the grip of childhood so her decision making is not always foolproof and at times I found myself longing for her to take different action to the path she chooses.
This book offers a real insight into the processes of a rape trial and how unkind it is to the victim. Obviously justice has to be carried out for the accused but the trial is a cruel ordeal for Stacey.
I've enjoyed both of these books, if that is the correct word. Anne Cassidy writes characters so well, and even those who don't feature much are 'real', even if they are weak and feeble personalities. The fact that this book explores so well the way in which women react to rape in such a short novel is really telling - this book deserves to be widely read.
This is a hard book to assess on it's own as it is so much of a companion piece to the first book of this duology, No Virgin. When we leave Stacey at the end of the first book she has been immensely brave and sought help following her rape. We rejoin the story around 9 months later and the trial of Stacey's rapist is about to begin.
The fact that Stacey is waiting for the trial means that this book gets off to something of a slow start. She is still struggling with her feelings for Harry, her rapist's brother and we see, through flashback, how she has reported the crime and told her parents about it. Stacey is a very well written character and the first part of this book really helps us to get to know her. In some ways her life has moved on - she is in the final year of her A levels and has a part-time job but it soon becomes clear that the rape has had a massive impact upon her confidence and her plans for the future.
As in the first book, Stacey is in that awkward time of wrestling between the maturity of adulthood and the grip of childhood so her decision making is not always foolproof and at times I found myself longing for her to take different action to the path she chooses.
This book offers a real insight into the processes of a rape trial and how unkind it is to the victim. Obviously justice has to be carried out for the accused but the trial is a cruel ordeal for Stacey.
I've enjoyed both of these books, if that is the correct word. Anne Cassidy writes characters so well, and even those who don't feature much are 'real', even if they are weak and feeble personalities. The fact that this book explores so well the way in which women react to rape in such a short novel is really telling - this book deserves to be widely read.