Some Boys by Patty Blount

At a party one night, Grace was raped by her friend Zac.  The lacrosse playing, popular, gorgeous Zac.  No one believes her.  Not the police, not her friends, not the teachers, not her parents.  She's on her own, and the object of some horrific bullying.  When Grace gets stuck cleaning lockers with Zac's best friend, she expects the worst, but that's not exactly what she gets.  Could Ian be the one person to actually believe her??

















Very addicting.  I couldn't really put this book down, but I don't really know why.  There were a lot of cringe moments in this book, but yet I still kind of liked it??

What I Liked: The dual POV.  I thought it was super interesting to see the POV of the accused boy's friend.  Someone in his inner circle.  And also someone who had mixed feelings about Grace.  He liked her, but knew that he wasn't supposed to.  I also really liked Grace at first.  She was being bullied pretty hard-core.  It broke my heart.  But she was firm on her stance of what happened.

What I Didn't Like So Much: After a while it seemed like a big deal was made about how girls dress.  Like if they dress a certain way and something bad happens to them, it's their fault.  I wouldn't mind the author hitting on that subject if she was just going to dismiss it... but that's not really what happened.  Grace had to keep apologizing and explaining why she wanted to wear tight clothes and sexy makeup.  To literally everyone.  Her dad, Ian, teachers... it got old.  I almost started to think that the author believed that dressing a certain way is dangerous.  Either that, or she thought girls that dressed sexy were desperate for attention.  I do not believe either thing, so I wasn't feeling those parts.  I also didn't appreciate Ian constantly commenting on Grace's ass.  It kind of made me feel ill.  I get that he's a teenage boy and they are gross at times, but I don't need to read about THAT much of that side of their thoughts.  Especially when we're talking about rape here.  It seemed a little insensitive.

I also had moments where the writing irked me.  I don't know exactly what the problem was, I think some of it just felt less polished than what I'm used to.  It didn't deter me from getting into the book at all though.  I was super into the story and the characters, I just thought there were somethings that could've been fixed.  Like the relationship between Ian and Grace went from nothing to her blurting out how she's been crushing on him for years.  BLAH.  I hate when characters blurt out their feelings early on.  Some of the "parental" conversations felt forced and a little fake.  So I kind of wish it was just a little better in those parts.

The absolute worst part:  The "demonstration".  Towards the end of the book Grace does this public demonstration at her school where she covers up every inch of skin and stands on a chair or a desk or something.  It was her way to say "look, to all you guys who think that a girl dressing sexy can cause a guy to lose control... well, I'm doing you a favor so you won't rape me".  That part really almost made me stop reading.   If I hadn't been so far along, I probably would have.  I mean, COME ON.  A girl who was raped and bullied and just beaten down as much as this girl was isn't going to do this in front of her whole school.  How did she go from being this girl just trying to steer clear of everyone, to being this in-your-face person?  I didn't believe that it would ever go down IRL, and I don't buy it as apart of Grace's character.  It was probably one of the worst scenes I've ever read in a book.

The ending was choppy and rushed.  Honestly I just wish the feeling of the first part of the book would have just carried the whole way through.  It felt like 2 different books... one well done, and one BLAH, rushed, forced, preachy.

PS- Why does it always have to be the STAR lacrosse/football player.  Can't it ever be just normal student?

OVERALL:  A girl gets raped at a party and no one believes her.  She stands true to her story and it causes her to be extremely bullied.  I liked the first 1/3 to the point where I couldn't put it down, but then writing went downhill and things started irritating me.  It had potential, but I can't 100% say I liked it.

This book contains:

• Bullying
• Rape
• High school
• Divorce
• Lacrosse
• Drinking
• Parties
• Photography
• Friendship
• Romance
• Concussion issues

Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating: 2/4

How I got this book: I own it

Date Published: 8/5/2014