I read this book all in one go, so that should tell you something right there. It’s Canadian teenager Hermione Winters’ senior year. She’s co-captain of her school’s cheer team, and she’s very serious about it. For her and her best friend Polly, cheer is a sport, and she is an athlete. In fact, for her small town school, the Palermo cheer team is the best sports team they have. But at cheer camp, right before the start of senior year, Hermione is drugged and […]
Giving voice to the silenced
I faintly remember the reporting of the Catholic Church scandal in Boston back in 2002, but I definitely have seen the aftershocks in many churches beyond the Catholic faith having to deal with sexual assault scandals and the inability of the churches to protect their parishioners from molestation and assault. Therefore, I was highly interested when the movie Spotlight was released and then won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2015. One of my students had read the book Betrayal for his book/movie project, and […]
An excellent, heavy book about rape
Rape is a serious subject, and it’s being discussed much more openly and frequently these days. It’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s good that we’re slowly dismantling misperceptions and letting survivors tell their stories, and it’s bad that rape culture is still a thing and people are still being stubborn assholes about shaming the victims and not actually bringing rapists to responsibility. I won’t get on my soapbox, but I am trying to read enlightening and educational material to help guide conversations […]
It’s all fun and games until someone gets waterboarded. Or raped. Or murdered in a snuff film. You know what, fuck it.
I had such high hopes for this one, guys. Pretty Girls had positive reviews, strong word-of-mouth, and I really pretty cover that I could Instagram the hell out of. You see?! And yay, mini cupcakes! But by the time I was almost done with this book, trudging through the last 100 pages, all I could think was, “I’m getting real tired of this shit.” I don’t know if you’ve managed to piece this together yet, but I read a lot. Good books, bad books, […]