It’s a horrific story; Tegan Wagner was a young and fairly naïve teenager living with her grandmother, sneaking out and getting into a little bit of trouble, but nothing major. Then, a friend takes her and another girl to a ‘party’, which ends up being some guy’s house. Tegan is raped by three men. The next day, her so-called friends won’t support her as she goes to the police; in fact, they don’t really believe anything happened.
Not only does Tegan need to deal with the police, all the medical tests and the like, but everyone at school knows, and she is treated pretty poorly at school. She hears so many kids saying that she made it up for attention, that it didn’t really happen, and anyway, “who would rape you?” (so intensely horrible). She goes off the rails, but seen realises that is she doesn’t sort herself out, she will go nowhere.
The style of the book reminded me of Finding Me by Michelle Knight, the girl who was held by the creepy guy for ten years. It is awful and sad but there is some kind of disconnect, so I didn’t feel all of the emotion that such a terrible story should inspire. Still, I think it is an important story to be told. I hope Tegan is doing much better now.
ireckonthat 