Oh dear, my 2013 reading has not kicked off the way I hoped it would. That one star which you see there is for nothing more than good intentions. I think. Though that's a bit sketchy too. Okay, let's just say that the one star you see is for what I THINK the author's intentions were but, in the end, this book was one hot mess of strained dialogue, awkward similes and a style of writing that I simply couldn't enjoy no matter how hard I tried. It's really such a shame because the idea had so much potential. If you've been kind enough to read a few of my reviews before, you may have noticed a rant pattern that centres around the issue of slut-shaming (or basically the shaming of female sexuality), it's something that really bothers me - particularly in books targeting young adults - and the possibility seemingly proposed by this book of taking a closer look at the damage done in high school (as well as other places) by words such as "slut" seemed like a great opportunity to tackle this issue. Or at least offer a different perspective to teens who may be growing up with negative attitudes to female sexuality being force-fed to them every day (or even sexuality in general, as many boys are also given abstinence-only education).
[b:The S-Word|13600711|The S-Word|Chelsea Pitcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1342406893s/13600711.jpg|19192955] is about two best friends - Angie and Lizzie - the latter of which has just committed suicide at the book's opening. We soon find out that she has been a victim of bullying because she was caught in bed with her best friend's boyfriend on prom night, scrawled words all over her locker saying the s-word that no high school girl wants to be branded with. But someone isn't willing to let Lizzie rest so easily, now the words "suicide slut" have appeared and this time they're in Lizzie's handwriting. Then comes the pages torn from the diary Lizzie kept, left around the school for different students to find and Angie, torn up by the part she had to play in making Lizzie's life a misery, decides she will find out two things: 1) who was responsible for driving her friend to suicide and 2) who is determined to make sure she continues to haunt the school.
The problem I had with this book is almost entirely about the style of writing and not the plot line itself. It's a very relevant topic and attempts to reverse the dehumanizing process that girls labelled a "slut" go through, they become defined by who they've been intimate with or who they are rumoured to have been intimate with and this makes them something less than a human being to their peers. All good stuff. But the style was a different matter, it felt disjointed and the sentences often didn't flow or were poorly constructed. Half of the time it read like one of those LIFE STORIES articles in teen magazines, the other half it read like a sociology essay on gender, race and sexuality. Much of the book didn't feel like a novel, it felt like the author's commentary on the target issues and it didn't run smoothly.
So so many tells instead of shows too. The narrator (Angie) explains to the reader why there is a double standard and rants about how it's unfair to women. What could easily have been a powerful and moving story that changed people's opinions or at least made them think about these issues a bit more, turned into something that sounded like a preachy interview. Every so often, Angie would pause in the story to explain why life was so unfair and to point out gender inequality - but this textbook style of addressing the problem actually weakened the story and it's message. Also, I found it very difficult to believe in Lizzie's diary entries because, though this book has many older teen/adult themes and Lizzie is seventeen, her diary reads more like a twelve-year-old's journal. Then there's the fact that diary-Lizzie is a I-can-see-your-halo shining beacon of sunshine and goodness, she practically feels bad every time she steps on an ant [exaggeration] - is this what it takes to make us feel bad for the "school slut"? Must she become a saint in every other way to make up for her sexuality?
But the diary wasn't the only thing that felt completely unrealistic. Some of the similes didn't sit quite right with me, one example is this "'Give it a rest,' I say casually, like I'm asking which celebrity they're most itching to bang." I found this particular comparison odd, shouldn't you say something along the lines of "like I'm talking about the weather" when you're being all casual, banging celebrities isn't exactly what pops into my head when I'm thinking of casual things but maybe I'm just more boring than I realised. Another thing that felt so unnatural I almost laughed was "It wasn't nice of her to sleep with my boyfriend", I mean, who actually says things like that? Who here could walk in on their partner and best friend getting it on and think oh my, that's not very nice, is it? But look, I have a broken nail.
Soooo... I know I said that it was more the style than the story but I guess it had quite a bit to do with both. For one thing, it's painfully easy to work out what the big secret is which drove Lizzie to her death. I imagine anyone who's read one or two "issue books" will see that one coming a mile off. Second - and this is something which annoys me so so much - people withhold information for no other reason than to prolong the story and mystery, there's actually no reason not to tell what they know and they also make it clear that they know something big straight away by saying something like "If only you knew... never mind" [not a direct quote] so that we're kept wondering what the secret is. I hate this method used for creating suspense, it's so false and unnatural.
Furthermore, I hated Angie. She was pretty much insufferable the whole way through and her decision to start her own investigation felt sudden and ridiculous. You know those childrens books where the little kid sets out on a mission to solve a mystery and starts playing detective and it's really cute and funny because they're, like, five years old? That is what Angie's behaviour felt like. Except that she's a high school senior, not a little kid, so it's not cute but forced and awkward instead. Also, her feelings about the situation with Lizzie don't feel natural, she criticises the other students for only caring about Lizzie once she's dead but she is exactly the same - she hated her as much as everyone else up until her death (but she actually had a reason to) and suddenly all is forgiven and she gets to judge everyone else? She even has the nerve to say of her classmates who criticised Lizzie: "who did these people think they were, the morality police? Talk about hypocritical." Yes, indeed, talk about hypocritical. Because Angie was one of them before Lizzie died.
So, uh, you've probably worked out this was a major disappointment for me. But surely this means that 2013 can only get better from here? Fingers crossed.
