Sunday, February 24, 2013

you against me By Jenny Downham

Title: you against me
Author: Jenny Downham
Pages: 413
Published: 2010
Level: Young Adult

Summary:
If someone hurts your sister and you're any kind of man, you seek revenge, right?

If your brother's accused of a terrible crime but says he didn't do it, you defend him, don't you?

When Mikey's sister claims a boy assaulted her, his world begins to fall apart.

When Ellie's brother is charged with the offence, her world begins to unravel.

When Mikey and Ellie meet, two worlds collide.

This is a brave and unflinching novel from the bestselling author of Before I Die. It's a book about loyalty and the choices that come with it. But above all it's a book about love.


Review:

I don't really know what to say about this book. I guess the first thing would be that I love realistic fiction and this definitely portrays it well. It's about two people both affected by the drama of a rape. Mikey's sister is the rape-ee (is that a correct term?) and Ellie's brother is the alleged rapist. 

This book was strange to say the least. One moment I would be totally enthralled by the plot line and the next it just wasn't doing anything for me and I was skimming pages. 

One thing that I did like was the progression in the relationship between Mikey and Ellie because it felt so real. Even though they were from two completely different worlds and weren't really on the same side they were both dealing with the repercussions of the rape and what it was doing to their family so they had something that tied them together. 

The ending was not really what I would have liked because I felt like there were so many loose ends and I'm pretty sure that there isn't going to be a follow up book. 

Maybe I'm not into realistic fiction as much as I thought, but I would really have liked a fairytale ending and when there are two sides to the story they both can't win. 

I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I guess if you really like realistic fiction and want a book that portrays the challenges of everyday life and how rape can affect two families then I guess this is your book. For me, it was just okay. I'm not raving about it, but I'm not going to tell anyone not to read it. 

Oh and one last thing to add. I had no idea that Jenny Downham is English so it was definitely weird to read an English book with English slang because I didn't know what some of the words were referring to, but kind of cool at the same time.  So that was a positive thing about the book. 


Cover: 2/5
Character Rating: 4/5
Style: 3/5
Plot Development: 3/5
Overall : 3/5

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