Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

4 Stars
 
This review is brought to you by the television program Awkward. My apologies, but I watched about 47 episodes in a row last night and it does a pretty dang good job presenting awful teenagers. Also, this book almost made me have a sad so I don’t want to go there again.

Everyone knows Alice is a slut. I mean, only a slut would go to a party and have sex with not one but TWO guys in the same night. And it’s not like she doesn’t paint her lips all raspberry red every day and wear shirts that flaunt her perfect rack, right? Nice girls don’t do that. And nice girls definitely don’t “sext” a boy trying to get another roll in the sack – sending so many distracting messages that the boy ends up dying in a car accident. Alice is a whore and she deserves whatever she gets.

Alice may or may not have had sex with one (or two) guys at a party. It doesn’t really matter. All that matters is Elaine was always the H.B.I.C. until 8th grade when she caught Alice making out with her boyfriend, Brandon. Ever since then Elaine has known what kind of a ho she was dealing with. And it’s time the entire school knows . . .

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When Kelsie moved to the area a few years ago she was afraid she would find herself still a nerd, sitting at the losers table. She was sooooo lucky when Alice talked to her that first day. But, Alice has lied about sex stuff in the past and there is no way that Kelsie is EVER going back to being a no-name, bible thumping, weirdo like at her old school. Plus, Alice probably did do both of those guys . . .

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Brandon was the big man on campus with a reputation for being the best player both on and off the field. Sucks that he’s dead, but at least he went out with a bang, right????

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Brandon died, but Josh walked away from the accident with only minor injuries. It’s not like he knew how wasted Brandon was. I mean, in Healy, Texas drinking and driving is pretty much the norm. And if Brandon hadn’t been so caught up with that skank Alice it never would have happened . . .

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Everyone else has labeled Alice a slut and most are even calling her a murderer. The other day she told Kurt she wasn’t a sideshow attraction. “And she wasn’t. Not to me. She was the main attraction. But I had no way to tell her that” . . .

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Alice has nothing to say about the rumors. What’s the point? All she can do is countdown until graduation and hopefully find a way to escape . . .

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Sound familiar? Have you heard teenage girls (and boys) talk like this? Have you seen text conversations that could curl your hair? Have you looked on Facebook or Instagram lately? It’s terrifying. The Truth About Alice is a remarkable little book. Although it deals with extremely grown-up issues, I encourage parents to read it along with their children (or at least discuss the subject matter it’s about).

I started this book with zero expectations. In fact, I didn’t even remember what it was about – I had put my name on the waiting list back when it came out and it finally queued up. When I ended up with a free couple of hours and a 200 page book, it was a no brainer. I was blown away. Jennifer Mathieu has written the most honest book about real “slut shaming” that I’ve read – and having everyone else EXCEPT Alice tell the story? Genius. 

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