READING: True Story by Kate Reed Petty

Publication date: August 4 2020

Published by: Hatchette Australia

Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Sexual Assault, High school, Abuse, Real Life, Suspense

Rating: 

Back in 1999, Nick Brothers and his high school lacrosse team return for their senior year in a well-to-do Baltimore suburb as the reigning state champs. The afterglow of their big win is bound to last until graduation; not even the pressure of college applications can get in the way of their fun. But when a private school girl attempts suicide in the wake of one of the team's "legendary" parties, and a rumor begins to circulate that two of Nick's teammates sexually assaulted her, it seems like it might ruin everything--until the team circles the wagons, casts doubt on the story, and the town moves on.

But not everyone does. Fifteen years later, four people--Alice, Nick, a documentary filmmaker, and a wealthy entrepreneur--remain haunted by the roles they played, the things they still don't understand, and how the story has shaped their lives. In sections told from different points of view, each more propulsive than the last, the layers of mystery are gradually peeled back as we barrel toward the truth of what really happened that night . . . and what came after.

I received an ARC of True Story from Hatchette Australia and these are my thoughts.

Trigger warnings: sexual assault, abuse, alcoholism

I am sitting here for the past 20 minutes trying to decide how to start this review and I am coming up empty. I can’t think of the right preface to really express my feelings about True Story. I personally thought it was brilliant; a thought provoking, captivating book, which will occupy your thoughts days after you finish it.

That being said, I want to make something clear: if you are after a horror/thriller book, this is not for you. Some people were disappointed that the twist ending didn’t have the impact they were expecting, or that it wasn’t suspenseful enough. That was never the point of the book, in my opinion, it goes so much deeper than that. The book was about these people’s lives, Alice and Nick’s in particular, and how the former’s sexual assault in high school affected their whole lives. 

I loved Petty’s writing. In addition to it being straightforward, brutally honest and to the point, it was also quiet addictive, which made even such a difficult-to-read book so un-put-downable. 
One my favourite parts was Alice’s essay drafts for college. Her frustration and desperation to write about anything but her assault, and her enormous effort to “focus on the positive” when it was practically impossible, is palpable. You can see it in the amount of drafts she writes (all included in the book), and their repetitive content. The final tutor-approved draft, showed Alice’s tenacity and ability to turn even a silly thing as shoes (who writes about shoes making an impact on their lives in a college essay??) to a feminist message. She was a sexually assaulted 18-year-old girl, who was made to focus on the positive (otherwise no college for her!) and she did the best she could, even though she would never accept the compliment or admit it to herself.

My other favourite part was when Nick goes to the cabin. It got me hooked from the very first word and I didn’t put the book down until I finished the whole chapter. Nick’s voice filled me with dreadful anticipation of something horrible waiting to happen at any time. And something horrible was happening at any given time, because that was Nick’s life. It was awful and pitiful, but it didn’t make me feel sorry for him. I felt that Nick wouldn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him, because he believed he deserved everything that was happening to him. He was clearly self-destructive, and that cost him everything in his life. I truly believe he meant well, in a sense that he did not deliberately try to hurt anyone, but so many wrong-doers try to shake off responsibility claiming to have meant well, and Nick was the poster boy for that. In the end, I admired his self-awareness and recognition of the fact that he just wasn’t meant to have a good life, but he kept trying despite of that.

At first, the twist about Nick at the end of the book didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t see how it was all connected and it just didn’t make sense to me. After more careful consideration, I realised that it’s what brings everything together in the end, and actually explains a lot.

For example, when I thought that Nick killing Q was a bit of a stretch. Of course it was, because it was fiction. Q is still alive. Or isn’t, we don’t know. It was part Alice’s wishful thinking, to finally kill the monster, and part wanting to make Nick do one heroic deed before he disappeared into fictional oblivion. Plus, his cabin chapter makes more sense when you realise it’s fiction.

In regards to the sexual assault and the revelation in the end, I believe it’s open to interpretation. Granted, Alice seemed convinced by Richard’s confession but let’s not forget that Richard is a master manipulator, he does that for a living! and he would say anything to avoid exposure. No matter if it did happen or not though, that is not the point. The point is the irreparable damage that even the smallest indication of sexual assault can do to the victim’s psyche. This experience shaped Alice’s whole adult life, that is an undeniable fact (see chapter with Q). Even if it’s ever proven otherwise years later, she couldn’t just go “Phew, what a relief!” and move on. Absolutely not. Something like that changes you forever and it is almost impossible to go back to a state when it didn’t happen. 

That being said, Alice, like with her essay drafts, finds a way to focus on the positive and manages to see a sliver of light at the end of a very dark, terrible tunnel. She decides to write her own narrative and not let anyone tell her story any more. She only knows her version to be true because it happened to her, it’s her story, which she says she used to punish those who hurt her, but also to forgive. This way, Petty expertly showcases the dichotomy between Alice’s still pervasive anger and her willingness to finally let go in the most satisfying ending this book could get.

I am aware that this book deals with sensitive matters, but sometimes we need to get a little uncomfortable in order to face reality, because these things happen all over the world every day. I would definitely recommend it to teenage girls and boys-so much more to take away from than a superficial YA romance, in my opinion.