Publication date: January 23 2018
Published by: Atria Books
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Rating:
Sophie's husband James is a loving father, a handsome man, a charismatic and successful public figure. And yet he stands accused of a terrible crime. Sophie is convinced he is innocent and desperate to protect her precious family from the lies that threaten to rip them apart. Kate is the lawyer hired to prosecute the case: an experienced professional who knows that the law is all about winning the argument. And yet Kate seeks the truth at all times. She is certain James is guilty and is determined he will pay for his crimes. Who is right about James? Sophie or Kate? And is either of them informed by anything more than instinct and personal experience?
Despite her privileged upbringing, Sophie is well aware that her beautiful life is not inviolable. She has known it since she and James were first lovers, at Oxford, and she witnessed how easily pleasure could tip into tragedy. Most people would prefer not to try to understand what passes between a man and a woman when they are alone: alone in bed, alone in an embrace, alone in an elevator... Or alone in the moonlit courtyard of an Oxford college, where a girl once stood before a boy, heart pounding with excitement, then fear. Sophie never understood why her tutorial partner Holly left Oxford so abruptly. What would she think, if she knew the truth?
Everyone refers to Anatomy of a Scandal as a courtroom drama, and yes, there is a court case depicted in it, but that only takes up about 1/3 of the book.
For me, this book is, or at least should be, about Holly and Kate and how, to this day, people find it impossibly hard to grasp the concept of consent.
Holly's whole life changed when, after being accepted to Oxford University entirely by merit, she gets raped by a member of the Libertines, an exclusive boys' club full of entitled, privileged assholes, who vandalise and destroy just for the fun of it, never taking responsibility for anything and never getting punished for anything. In the contrary, they go on to become very successful men, occupying prominent positions in government or other prestigious businesses.
In present day, one of these upstanding citizens named James has become the right hand man of England's PM (another Libertines member) is married to Sophie, and has two kids. He also gets accused of rape by his mistress of approximately 6 months. Kate is assigned to the case as the prosecution lawyer and we get to read the events as they unfold from all 4 POVs. There is one more POV if I remember correctly, but the mail characters are those four.
Beginning of rant
**First off, I was so thankful to Sarah Vaughan for limiting James's chapters to only three. I didn't want to be in his head, I didn't want to know how he was thinking because there could not possibly be any excuse for what he did, so I really did not want to hear his opinion about anything. Three chapters were enough, and that last discussion with his wife made me want to put my fist through something.
But don't be fooled. James is not an isolated case, a one off. James is the voice of, if not all, definitely the majority, of white privileged men. He is the man who leers at women but gets away with it because he's attractive. He is the man who chooses not to hear women saying no because he is powerful. He is the man who lies and manipulates incessantly without guilt to get what he wants because he is entitled. And he is the man that always gets away with all that because he is a man, and he is attractive, and he is powerful, and he is entitled.
And that's just fucking terrifying.
Unfortunately, this book doesn't provide any hope that any of that is going to change anytime soon. Right from the start, Kate tells us that proving rape occurred within a relationship, is very difficult if not impossible.
Um...why?
Why do people just assume that rape only occurs between two complete strangers, usually one waiting in an alley in the dark with a knife ready to jump unsuspected victims? How can people be so blind? Especially women, who, to my great astonishment, are more hesitant to convict men of rape in a relationship than men are 😲
I am not suggesting to disregard the facts, no. But not be too quick to categorise the incident as "a bad sexual experience", or "she is just being petty" because more often than not, it is not that simple. I personally know a lot of women who were in a relationship and agreed to sex they didn't want because it was either convenient, or they didn't want to cause a fuss, or, and this is my personal favourite, it was their "duty". That is the sad truth ladies, and if we don't start changing our mindsets and our archaic preconceptions firmly planted by the patriarchy, no real change will ever take place. God knows men won’t ever change, so we are going to have to.**
End of rant
Sophie was a woman I tried feeling sorry for, but I found I couldn’t. She was not very relatable, to me at least, and her snobbish, entitled younger self put me off. She chose to marry a man who she knew cheated on her on many occasions. Granted, that is not a reason to divorce someone if that's what you want to do, to each their own. Neither do I think she would ever think James capable of something so hideous and keep quite or easily forgive. However, I do believe that her actions in the end were not so much to deservedly punish James for the crimes he has done all these years, but rather driven by personal revenge, to get back at him, to show him that he could not humiliate her like that and get away with it.
Kate’s story while compelling, there wasn’t much of it. For the second half of the book Sophie’s was the prominent POV when it should have been Kate’s imo. The one thing I was looking forward to during the court case was Kate’s cross examination of James. Unfortunately, it fell flat and was underwhelming at best.
The ending wasn’t satisfying, but that was to be expected. There is a tiny hint of hope, that bad people always get theirs in the end one way or another, but I am too much of a realist to buy into it.
Overall, Anatomy of a Scandal is a book that started out really strong, with Vaughan doing an amazing job setting the mood and developing characters, but I would have like it to remain strong and riveting throughout, instead of going weak towards the end.
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