YA Book Review: In Too Deep

Book Title: In Too Deep
Author: Amanda Grace |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: Flux Books
Genre: YA Fiction
Series/Standalone: Standalone
Format: paperback

Cost: $9.95

Pages: 228

How I got it: BEA 2012 

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Publisher
Publication Date: Feb 2012
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:

Carter didn't rape me. People at school think he did. Suddenly, new friends are rushing to my side, telling me that Carter hurt them, too. They say he's getting what he deserves. Maybe I don't want to fix this. Sam is in love with her best friend Nick, but she can't seem to tell him. So she decides to flirt with golden-boy Carter Wellesley, hoping Nick will see it and finally realize his true feelings for her. On Monday, everyone at school is saying that Carter raped Sam. He didn't, but Sam can't find the words to tell the truth. Worst of all, she's afraid she'll lose Nick if he finds out what really happened. As graduation approaches, Sam discovers that living the lie isn't as easy as her new friends make it sound--and telling the truth might be even worse.

I've heard a lot about this book. Kristi the Story Siren gave a great review that made me want to read it.  When I saw Flux Books at Book Expo America 2012, I was super excited and I quickly snagged a copy.  It's a small quick read, it took me one day, not because I loved it, but because I needed to see this car wreck through.  It's written for the young adult audience, so perhaps that's why it's like being in the mind of a little child, but if this was trying to be like Speak it failed miserably.

This book made me so mad I wanted to scream. This character was weak, stupid, deserved a bitch slap and then some. The character was beyond immature for her age, and made an accusation that was disgusting then tried to make it sound as if she was the victim,  I F**king hated this book, the concept, heck even as I'm typing this I'm getting mad all over again.  This book was not hashed out, it was a piss poor job of a story, if they had wanted to discuss how it affected the boy, cool if it had been told from his point of view this would have been a good story, this vapid, insipid idiot of a character?? If they had told the story as say someone else made the accusation and she was actually trying to clean it up?? Maybe then it would be different but she WENT along with the lie, KNOWING it was a lie; yes she never actually told the lie, but when given chances to fix it she allowed it to stand and allowed others to embellish it. She had a million chances in which to correct the mistake and didn't and I'm not here for it. 

This kid's life could be over, all these people someone is going to tell an adult and you f**king worrying about losing some dude...who asked you point blank to tell him the truth. Bitch your priorities are all f**king wrong get it together; especially because your father is the SHERIFF, how do you think this is going to go down?? Granted his friends were douchebags and they shouldn't have threatened her, because really that's not helping the situation. How many chances did she have to fix this before it got this far??? Yes the guy in this scenario is an idiot and an asshat, but NO ONE deserves to be accused of raping someone (unless of course they are actually a rapist).   If during her lying it had come out that he had raped another girl then I would say yeah, keep telling the lie because then maybe justice will be served, but it's all because he didn't treat them nice. 

There are no heroes in this story, the accused is one step up from a bottom feeder and the female lead is a dummy. I'm so done with this story. The only good part?? The ending because just as I suspected someone told a parent and it made it back to her dad.  I felt no sympathy for her at all as she dealt with the fallout.

 I know I wasn't the only one who thought so, as one of my fellow BEA buddies flipped out when she read it. My sister also read it because we heard so much about it, she read it on the way home; right after we got back from NY she texted me " You remember how excited we were about this book?? Yeah lower your expectations like lower yeah and keep going lower Yep right around there would be good. She could have solved all of this in fifteen minutes but she didn't she's an idiot" And I totally agree with her.

This is one the worst books written on this topic in my opinion especially in light of the events that was taking place when this came out. Nope I HATE THIS BOOK.  When books like this come out, it helps to feed into the belief that girls and women lie about rape, and while there might me a minuscule amount of idiots like this character, the vast majority of women aren't lying and their voices are being silenced by those who point out the few who did lie.  I feel no sympathy for the character because she knew it was a lie and the minute she figured out what was happening she had plenty of opportunity to correct the mistake.  

While I'm happy her classmates were willing to back her against her 'attacker' the truth is way too many young women are slut shamed by their peers after an attack. There are no lessons in this book, She didn't learn anything, the friends who egged her on didn't learn a lesson, no one went to jail,nothing was accomplished. She simply blew up her life and if gods forbid she was ever really attacked??? No one would believe because this story would always come up.

As a woman who has friends & a family member who were once victims; I feel like this book makes light of the devastation to family, friends and of course the victim.  Many victims never come forward because they won't be believed or they don't believe they will be heard and here she's believed even when it didn't happen. Her panic attack when she's confronted and her acting as if something did happen when the only thing that went on was an embarrassing tale of rejection?? Yeah, she's not a likable character at all.

I can't recommend this book to anyone because it's truly not worth it to me to pass on. Or perhaps it can be used as a cautionary tale, of what can happen when a lie gets out of hand.  IDK, but I do know that even though I despise this book, it could be a good conversation starter. Speak being on end of the spectrum and In too Deep the other.
 ★☆☆☆☆

Happy Reading