(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to HarperCollins and Edelweiss.)

“Something real had happened last night. Something horrible had happened to Melanie.”



I’m in two minds about this book, because it dealt with an important topic, but for me, it didn’t deal with it well.

I found it quite difficult to connect with the characters in this story, and while I felt sorry for Melanie and what happened to her, she wasn’t an easy character to . Jan and Erika were also only okay characters for me, although it was good of Erika to try to help her sister, even if she didn’t want the help.

The storyline in this was about the three girls’ lives, and also about Melanie’s rape, but for me the rape wasn’t given enough airtime! The whole thing seemed to be treated as a background plot, and just breezed over all the time, which didn’t impress me really.

The ending to this was also a bit disappointing as we didn’t get any sort of resolution at all!



6 out of 10contemporary r2r-read read-2015 ...more23 s Lala BooksandLala516 70.3k

This book was weird. It basically read a short story you'd get in English class and then are asked to write a response to. You know those stories, right? Ones that read very dry and emotionless, offer you a conflict with a few different characters points of view, but don't provide an opinion of their own? And you're supposed to answer study questions "how does this story make you feel?" and "what could Melanie have done differently?" and "how do you think society contributes to rape victims lack of reporting rape crimes?" But in this case, the story was way too long for that kind of a vibe, but too short to get invested in any plot or characters, far too bland to enjoy...and the author basically answered all the potential study questions in her own "afterword" at the end of the book. It was all very pointless and I just plain didn't anything about it.hard-hitting19 s Obsidian2,864 1,036

Please note that I gave this book half a star, but rounded to 1 star on Goodreads.

Please note that this review discusses date rape as well as the book.

I have things to do and not a lot of time to go over what made this book a truly awful book that looked at date rape.

Focusing on three sisters (college age Jan and high schoolers Erika and Melanie) who live in New York.

What can I really say. Ms. Needell did a very bad job of developing any of the characters in this book. For such a serious subject matter I was shocked at how none of the sisters individual stories really flowed with the main plot (the aftermath of Melanie being date raped).

Jan is entirely focused on herself and her up and down relationship with her high school boyfriend Adam. When she finds out what happened to Melanie, I honestly don't think it made a blip on her radar at all. All of the later chapters are still here dealing with Adam and or obsessing over what her roommate Eliza is doing and how she wishes she were more her.

Erika I had a soft spot for from beginning to end. Apparently being model beautiful and loving math can make for a socially awkward young woman. I d that Erika thought of others and I hated how she kept getting squished down from Melanie through the whole freaking book. There was a key scene between this character and two of her long time friends and I d how she spoke up to her friend Morris about rape. I did hate how the author than had her call her sister a "slut" when they had another fight because once again Melanie was being an asshole.

Melanie sucks. I think for me, I found it to be an interesting choice that Ms. Needell made Melanie an abuser (she is) to her sister and a bully to those around her and in the end she's still the same person after. In the afterword Ms. Needell mentions that Melanie's father saying she's the boss in the end moments of the book and Ms. Needell later referencing that to show that Melanie was the boss in her life and it shows how she was healing. And I feel a jackass because my immediate knee jerk response was healing from what? No one in this family discusses anything. Everything is glossed over. Melanie throws a wine glass at Erika leaving her bloody and having to get stitches and no one says a word to Melanie about it. I just have no words for this book. And I am definitely not saying that all rape victims need to be nice people. I just don't understand what the hell was going on with this book. We are given plenty of chapters to see how much Melanie hates Erika and her family just allows her to do the things she does. I was seriously outraged about that.

The secondary characters are not given much room in this one. As other reviewers noted, Ms. Needell made the "interesting" choice to include the rapist's point of view in her story. It really wrecked the flow of the book. But most importantly, it wrecked whatever higher meaning she wanted readers to take away from this book. Based on those scenes we get the boy's confusion because he didn't hear a no from Melanie. They were both drunk and the author portrayed it at the time that Melanie wanted it to happen. But I don't know if that was his own drunken thinking or what. Why you ask? Because the author doesn't allow us Melanie's perspective at all. She is more mad after the fact that she slept with the boy because she doesn't him that way and she's angry that he wants to talk about it (i.e. he thinks it means they can be boyfriend/girlfriend) and she wants him to go away.

I just. Sigh. We have a later scene with Melanie accusing the boy of going forward with things even though she said no (though she doesn't recall once again what happened) which turns into a really awkward scene of them both coming out looking terrible people. And once again the boy doesn't seem to get what he was doing or what he did was wrong at all and it doesn't seem to me that Melanie even gets why what he did was wrong. This whole scene read weird to me.

The writing was stiff and didn't work at all. The sister's voices were different though. Jan's voice was mostly indifferent and indecisive. Erika's voice was timid and afraid. And Melanie's voice was nasty and mean. So there was that going for the book at least. You didn't need a big chapter heading setting up who was speaking.

The flow was terrible. I felt I was reading three very disjointed stories. And the lack of dialogue between the sisters and their parents was so weird. I just needed to see some emotion from them about anything.

The setting of New York wasn't used at all in this book besides people describing certain landmarks around.

The ending was a wash. Nothing was resolved at all. Though once again when you read the afterword you realize that the author did seem to think she wrapped things up. I really think there are other books out there that do a better job of handling the topic of rape and date rape. I read "Speak" last year and thought it was wonderful. I rarely get pissed about the amount of money I spend on books, but I am really pissed I spent $10.99 on this debut novel. If you are interested in it, I suggest borrowing from the library or a friend. 13 s Read InAGarden943 14

This book meandered a lot and could have been so much more. The writing made the characters dull and uninteresting. I gave up at 55% of the way through the book. A girl who got drunk at a party engages in sex (maybe it was rape/maybe not - they were both drunk and neither said no or yes) and goes about her life for a week nothing happened. Then an off-hand conversation with a stranger makes her decide she was date-raped and she turns into being a crusader. Now don't misinterpret me, I'm not saying date rape isn't a huge problem in our society and very wrong - it's just dealt with so trivially in what I read of this book. 6 s Jacquelyn444 230

I thought that this was very cliche and that the whole situation was just sort of glossed over and not fully dealt with. Very disappointed in this one.6 s Paige (Illegal in 3 Countries)1,269 423 Shelved as 'abandoned'

This book. I can't. It's utterly boring and can't capture anywhere near the emotion this situation of date rape brings up. Weak characters, third-person narrators that number at least four, honestly terrible writing "He was buff and good-looking in that gay-guy way" and the description of a black man as having coffee-colored skin, and general disinterest sealed the deal.

Real talk? I don't think there was a way to put this novel together that would have worked. I always try to think of other ways things I dis in books could have been written to make them work, but I have nothing on this. What's here isn't right, but nothing else is right either.arc yabc5 s Tee loves Kyle Jacobson2,481 172

This book broke my heart. I mean in a good way because I have an older sister and I can't imagine going through what those sisters went through. I mean I laughed and I cried and I had to put the book down because I just couldn't handle one of the topics raised in the book.

***Please beware that this book has Date Rape in it***

In this story we meet three sisters Jan, Erika, and Melanie. They come from a divorced family. The mother is a little off because she is looking for love in the wrong way and the father has moved away and wants nothing to do with his old life. Instead choosing to move on with his new life.

Jan is in college enjoying her freshman year. She is trying to move on with her life and not focus on her parents. While Erika and Melanie are left at home stuck in high school. Erika is the serious sister but Melanie is the wild social savvy one. She loves to do things on a whim and she decides she needs to go to this party.

Erika and Melanie end up at the same party and things go south for one of them and when the dust settles the girls are left to fight through this situation together. They will have to fight to stay together and remain sisters and let bygones be bygones.

What happens? Will the sisters be able to fight together instead of against each other?around-the-world-arc-tours december-20154 s Meem120 29

I know that this book deals with a very important issue, such as: non-stranger rape, but I could not even make myself to care for any of the characters.

This books was mostly described from the viewpoints of three sisters whose parents split and their father moved across the world. There was no character development. There was not anything to feel for the characters. One sister was too full of herself, one was too much of a baby and another was too much of an asshole.3 s Pri Jay20 15 Read

How about no stars, wohoo for my lowest rating yet

terrible characters
terrible nonsensical plot trying to deal with serious issues in a complete nonsensical fashion.3 s Nuzaifa140 191

THE REVIEW - Visit wordcontessa.com for more

The Word for Yes falls short for me because of multiple reasons - An anti-climatic ending, poor character development, lack of depth and a somewhat stilted writing style. The book itself felt a emotionless narration of a series of events with no sense of direction.

I had high hopes for Needell's The Word for Yes partly because of the subject matter and partly because I hoped it would be a refreshing look at sibling relationships. Despite its poor execution, The Word for Yes explores some very important topics. The past couple of years have seen a rise in YA fiction that deals with consent and sexual assault including some very important additions to the discussion What We Saw, Canary and Faking Normal. However, none of these books approach consent and rape culture the way The Word for Yes does.

Our protagonist, Melanie is a 15 year old popular, mercurial character who is constantly angry and often cruel. Her relationship with her sisters is strained at best and explosive at its worst. Their parents' divorce isn't helping matters at home either. The narration alternates every chapter between the sisters and even includes a POV from the rapist. I'm a fan of multiple POVs in general however, in this case I found them to be completely pointless. None of the characters stood out in particular and I felt no emotional connection whatsoever to them. Not only were the transitions jarring, the narratives added very little value to the overall story.

The rapist's POV however, was used to portray the perpetrator as 'nice' guy. The victim herself viewed him as harmless and mostly good guy who had a crush on her. Throughout the novel, Melanie treats this guy quite terribly and her overall attitude towards him was dismissive. On the night of the incident, Melanie is drunk and initiates contact with the perp. Additionally, throughout the novel Melanie is portrayed as a mean and 'unlikable' character. However, there is no doubt that Melanie was raped. She was too drunk to know what was happening to her or what she was doing. Melanie also struggles with her feelings post-incident and blames herself for the assault. Rape is rape, irrespective of the (inebriated) state of the victim, the length of her skirt, her lifestyle or the circumstance. The Word for Yes attempts to reinforce this fact by showing readers that there are no grey areas in rape and that even the most seemingly non-violent of individuals are capable of this heinous act.

The Word for Yes attempts to delve into multiple important subjects divorce, its impact on family dynamics, sibling relationships and rivalry, date rape culture, non-stranger rape, the role of alcohol in sexual assault, feminism as well as the struggles of transitioning to college. This however, proves to be the very reason behind the downfall of this novel. The individual subject matters themselves were not given due importance and Needell barely skims over each topic in this 200+ page novel.

Despite its many flaws, I believe that The Word for Yes kickstarts an important dialogue on rape and consent.

THE RATING

2 and half Stars

QUOTE-WORTHY

Pain and injury were private, she knew that. If someone told you the story of a scar, a part of them was lying. They would omit the moment of shock and fear, the crying, the beating of their heart, the desperate look around for someone to make it better.

FINAL VERDICT:

The Word for Yes may have missed the mark in terms of execution however, it is important to applaud its attempt to discuss some difficult and often over-looked topics.
2016-lookout physical-arc-owned2 s Terri Robinette163 16

Three totally different sisters. Jan, the college student with longtime boyfriend, the peacemaker of the family. Eliza, the pretty, smart, albeit naive, middle sister who is well, rather clueless most of the time. Melanie, the baby, the mean girl, the angry, jealous and resentful one. The characters worked for me. I thought that they were good representations of people one may know in life. And just real life, I didnt always care for the characters. Sometimes I wanted to scream and shake them. Other times I was disgusted. But doesnt that make the characters more real and indicate more depth?

On the other hand, the central theme of the book was the date rape incident. I am a strong advocate for the prevention of sexual assault and rape. I have read books, attended conferences and written papers. That being said, the incident in this book left me more confused than angry or disgusted. I never thought I had a gray area. It was always black or white. Yes or no. Rape or not rape. Therefore, when I was questioning the validity of the rape, it made me feel guilty and a horrible person.

For me, the author did a good job with the characters and the side stories but fell flat on her attempt at introduce the sensitive and horrific subject of date rape. A subject that should be addressed and thoroughly represented for the targeted audience of this book. I d it but lacked the passion to love it.2 s Molly456 157

Huge thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this for review!

I really don't to write negative , so I'll keep this short. I didn't this. I didn't connect with any of the characters. I thought Jan was blah, Erika was annoying and Melanie was blah. The mother didn't seem to care that much AT ALL that her daughter had been raped. The actual subject for rape was 40 pages of this entire thing. It was so glossed over that I just thought it was wrong for this book to be a book about rape and rape culture.

The dialogue in this was horrific. Nobody talks this way, not even adults. Sometimes I would re-read the dialogue and just wonder wtf.

I was so looking forward to this, books about rape and rape culture are so important. But sadly this doesn't add anything to the current canon of books dealing with this very important topic.2 s Lauren1,191 366

Woof. Frankly I'm kind of dumbfounded. The ending totally sealed the deal that this book was just... no. , what? For a book centered around such an important issue, it left such a small impression. Everything that happened was breezed over in a weird way. So surface-level, no resolution or growth, anticlimactic. It's going to take a while to form a coherent review.
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I didn’t this book and I kind of feel uncomfortable reviewing it. I feel weird about saying that a book with SUCH an important topic… felt pointless. I actually haven’t read a lot of books that involve date rape or anything similar, but I know there are powerful ones out there. How can something this be breezed over, when it’s meant to be the point of the book?

Let me back up a little bit. The synopsis says that three sisters try to move on from the aftermath of something that happens at a party. I mean, sure, that happens? But it wasn’t what I was expecting. They all kind of hate each other and – spoiler alert – that doesn’t really change at the end. In fact, NOTHING changes at the end!

Melanie is raped at a party by a guy who is one of her best friends. This impacts her family and her in different ways, but no one is changed by what happened. By the end of it, Melanie kind of moves on and forgets it happens in some ways. She has ONE conversation with a guy she s and just feels completely better. It’s in the books where the main character’s depression is ~cured~ by a boy that comes into her life. At least in those books, the guy spends time with her and maybe they fall in love. Melanie’s acceptance happened in one conversation.

Her sister Erika ends up being the one to tell her mom and the high school counselor. She hates that Melanie gets mad at her and yet there’s one incredibly random scene where Erika calls her a slut. HUH? Where did that come from? She spent the whole book being upset by what happened and wanting to help her sister. I know some people have that terrible attitude towards sexual assault victims, but Erika didn’t until that one scene?! Why.

There were so many characters and they all were so weirdly half-involved. No one was necessary and everyone blended together. Even the main characters! Jan was in college. Melanie was the one who was assaulted. Erika was the other sister. Ok. The character who I d and related to the most was Eliza, Jan’s apparently ~crazy feminist~ roommate. By the way, Jan assumed she was a lesbian because she was a feminist and involved in women’s issues around campus. AND at one point, one of the other sisters (truly don’t remember which one) mentions that her friend’s dad is “good-looking in the buff gay-guy way.” Um, okay, then.

The writing was weird and only added to the surface-level skimming of issues that the book had. It was so detached from the characters and their storylines. I didn’t feel anything for anyone, which makes ME feel a bad person! This book is about date rape and no emotion was brought out of me? I truly don’t see how that’s possible. So many events happened in hindsight, too. I didn’t see what happened when the guy was called to the principals office; I was told about it afterwards.

Frankly, the ending was the worst part. In the midst of all this stuff, the girls’ parents get divorced and the dad moves to Hong Kong for a while. The book ends – okay obvious spoilers ahead – with their dad coming home from China. Melanie asking for Chinese food. Melanie taking a shower and thinking about how she loves her dad. She has a conversation (before her dad gets home) with the guy, comes home and sees her dad, and feels better about everything somehow. I just… don’t get it. There was no resolution or growth or closure. So anticlimactic, I kind of sat there dumbfounded for a few minutes.This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.Show full review2015-read arc-borrowed genre-contemp-rom ...more1 Just a person 995 291 Shelved as 'did-not-finish'

Genre: ya contemp
Source: Harper Teen via Edelweiss
Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being free.

I have done this several times on my blog. Books that just don't work for me. I know my reading style pretty well, and I can tell whether I will the book or not accurately about 80-90% of the time. If I finish a book, then there are aspects of that book that I enjoyed. I never talk about the author in a negative way, I only say what doesn't work for me. Normally if I finish a book, I give it at least 3 stars, meaning that I d it.

Stopped at 12%

I wanted to read The Word for Yes because it deals with a very important issue--the date rape culture, and if drunk sex counts as consensual sex. The family dynamics also seemed to be one that would appeal to me.

However, Melanie and me did not click. She seemed really whiny and judgmental, and it didn't give me any precursor, a reason to relate to her, and a reason to connect with her before thrown into what felt an info dump of the family getting and dealing with divorce. Melanie said things big people annoy me. and I just couldn't. I feel the characters were all introduced too quickly, I wanted more time to figure them out.

That isn't to say that the writing is poor or the characters are poorly constructed, it's personal on my end.1 Les220 9

NYC sisters dealing with changes in their lives after Dad takes off for Hong Kong and Mom starts flirting with another guy. The oldest starts college at Brown and has to deal with her over-the-top roommate and her boyfriend turning into Eeyore. The middle is emotive, all wrapped up in doing the right thing ( being a vegetarian and tattle telling on her younger sister). The youngest is a bitch who can't stand her middle sister.

Then one night the two younger siblings grudgingly attend a party together. Mom told Miss Perfect to keep an eye on her sister. Instead she hangs out with her friends; her sister get hammered and winds up trying to undress a guy. When he rejects her, she grabs a friend and takes him upstairs. She initiates things but then passes out; he takes advantage and rapes her. Her sister eventually goes looking for her and finds her comatose and panty-less. The victim doesn't remember what happened and there weren't any direct witnesses (the guy was in a bathroom when she was discovered); she doesn't want to discuss it and physically threatens her sister if she tells anyone.

But Goody Two-Shoes decides that, for her sister's own good, she's going to blab the story (including naming the suspected guy) to her counselor who is then obligated to tell their Mom. Needless to say, the victim isn't very appreciative of her sister's inability to keep her trap shut and their relationship implodes further (culminating in an ER visit).1 Crystal | decorating.reader420 213 Read

This one gets to be my first DNF of 2016. From the first chapter I had a feeling this book and I weren't going to be compatible, then I stumbled across this line "Big people annoyed Melanie" and my *back away* flashers really started going off. Well I decided I would try anyways, I made it to 30% and I'm just done. The writing is rigid, and just not working for me, and the characters are unbelievably flat. After reading some and talking with some people that have already read it I just definitely don't see a point to continue. 1 Julie1,616

I made it over 50% with this book. many different point of views come up including Gerald. we see from Jan, Melanie and one other. an incident happens, and brushed by the topic. I couldn't get into the book anymore. just felt more talking than anything else. also parents get separated during this book , girls are dealing with this.dnf1 Louisa7,477 82

Fantastic book, loved reading about these sisters, and them dealing with the aftermath of the youngest being raped. Great story, though it felt it ended abruptly without resolving half of what was started! 1 Funmbi144

cover-love drowned-in-detail hardcover ...more1 Jessi178 93 Read

Nope, I'm out. The writing style is awful and then there's this gem: "Big people annoyed Melanie." Ugh.contemporary1 Cyra Schaefer181 4

Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 16th, 2016
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Source: ARC from Miss Print's ARC Adoption
Pages: 208
Add it on Goodreads!!

Summary (from Goodreads):

After their parents’ divorce, Jan, Erika, and Melanie have to get used to the new world order: a father who’s moved to another continent and a mother who throws herself into moving on. Jan, off at her first semester of college, has plenty to worry about, including an outspoken roommate who’s kind of “out there” and an increasingly depressed and troubled long-distance boyfriend. Her younger sisters, left at home in New York City, and dealing with all the pressures of life in high school, aren’t exactly close. Erika is serious and feels awkward and uncomfortable in crowds, though her beauty tends to attract attention. Melanie is socially savvy and just wants to go out—to concerts, to parties, wherever—with her friends. The gap between all three girls widens as each day passes.

Then, at a party full of blurred lines and blurred memories, everything changes. Starting that night, where there should be words, there is only angry, scared silence.

And in the aftermath, Jan, Erika, and Melanie will have to work hard to reconnect and help one another heal.

At once touching and raw, Claire Needell’s first novel is an honest look at the love and conflicts among sisters and friends, and how these relationships can hold us together—and tear us apart.

I was really excited for this book, but was actually pretty disappointed by it. From what I knew about this book before I picked it up, it was a book about rape culture and had the point of view of the rapist in it. I found that to be really interesting and knew I had to read it. I have read several other books this past year about rape culture that I really enjoyed and found to be powerful books. I'm no expert on the subject, but I thought this one just missed the mark.

Jan, Erika, and Melanie are sisters. Their mom just basically kicked their dad out and he is off to Hong Kong to work on his new book. Their mom works for a fashion magazine and is often off at business meetings or other work related things. Jan is off at her first year at college and it seems Erika and Melanie are always off at parties/friend's houses or making rude comments to each other.

Jan is the oldest sister. She has just started her first semester at Brown college, I think. She starts off fairly sheltered and kind of judgmental, but really finds herself in college when she makes real friends and finds that things that she thought mattered before really don't matter now. She was probably my favorite character and the only character in this book that I felt had any growth at all in this book. I really felt her point of view in this story was pointless though. It doesn't feel to me it adds anything whatsoever.

Erika is the middle sister. Her point of view felt incredibly juvenile to me. I feel there is probably a reason for that, but I never picked up on what it would have been while reading the book. She is really pretty and tall and has done some modeling. She's also really smart and into math and science. In the book everyone acts she doesn't know how to act around people, but I guess I thought she acted fine around people????

Melanie is the youngest sister. She is a giant brat, spoiled, angry, rude, generally horrible. I hated her. Throughout this entire book, she is constantly going on and on about how much she despises Erika. I really don't even think she had a reason? It's been a couple days since I finished the book, but I don't remember any good reason she had to hate her sister so much. She literally never had anything nice to say to her or about her. Not once. Something horrible happens to her and her plan is to just pretend it never happened and avoid the person who wronged her. But that goes out the window when Erika tells the school counselor about it, which is probably the only reason that she had to hate her. I don't think that she ever manages any healing in this book at all. At the end she is still just a horrible, angry little girl that I wanted to slap.

This book also featured the point of view of the rapist. His perspective is only featured twice. Once during the act and once quite a bit later on when he realizes how big of a pile literally everyone thinks he is. I thought that reading his perspective would be something different and interesting, but I thought that these parts were essentially pointless as well.

I said, I really don't think that any of the characters had any growth whatsoever. Except Jan. She's probably the realest character in this whole book. The only one that I could find myself able to relate to in any way at all.

The writing in this book was really....... vague? I don't know if that's the best word to describe it, but whatever it was, I didn't care for it. I don't feel anything was really resolved. The way I interpreted this book while reading, I feel at the end, you could basically just go back to the beginning and start over for how much resolution I found to be in it.

I didn't feel ANYTHING happened in this book. It's basically just a story that follows these three sisters through the six months after their father gets kicked out of their house. Jan is finding herself at college, Erika is being generally clueless and Melanie is being horrible. There is ONE thing that happens in this book at all.

I really don't even know what to say. I didn't hate this book, but I really didn't it either. It completely let me down and I was really excited that I actually got my hands on this one early.

Overall, I personally wouldn't recommend this book. If you want to read a book on rape culture, read All The Rage by Courtney Summers or What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler. If you're SUPER curious about this book, well, it's short. You won't waste that much of your time. Lori SchaferAuthor 63 books135

I was glad to see that this book is not highly rated, because I really, really disd it. First, I did not care for the writing style - it almost seemed the author took a young adult topic and then wrote the book in more a middle-grade style. Second, I felt no emotional involvement with any of the characters - perhaps because none of them seemed to have any emotional involvement with the events of the book. In fact, the only character who I thought was actually sympathetic was the guy who did it! I've read several other very well-done YA books on date rape in the course of my research for my own project, and this one I thought really missed the mark.

http://lorilschafer.com
Sydney (sydneysshelves) West767 70

Ended up DNFing at 75%. Yes I made it THAT far. But I hated the main characters. None of them were interesting. In fact one of them was a raving bitch. Sadly she was the one who was raped, so it gave me guilty feelings to hate her while reading. But i really hated her and the way she treated her family and friends. It was just so uncalled for. RUDE. The writing was also just so... bland. For such an imporatant topic, I felt the topic was just presented and then left well this is bad. But other ideas weren't challenged. Things are talked around. And the author seriously did a lot of telling instead of showing and discussing. I couldn't do it anymore. Waste of my time. 2018-reads mental-illness ya-contemporary Giselle131 3

Favorite Quotes:
“It wasn’t true, what people said, about computers and cell phones keeping people connected no matter where they were on the planet. Where you were mattered. Especially with people. The people right in front of you were always the important ones.”

“-any of those descriptions for girls her-girls who were pretty on a good day, but never beautiful, girls who were certainly smart, but never brilliant; thoughtful, but not radical.” Jayme11 1 follower

The sentences were beautiful, and I think subject matter such as this needs to be addressed for young audiences, but this book had way too many characters and things going on for me to feel much of anything for each of them. Katie Hurse573 34

A good generalised look at rape culture, but at times it felt a background plot device... didn't work for me.dissertation PinkAmy loves books, cats and naps 2,383 230

DNF 47%
I should have read more before starting. Shawnti1 reviewRead

Its a good book but not something I would read again. Ruthsic1,764 30

After their parents’ divorce, Jan, Erika, and Melanie have to get used to the new world order: a father who’s moved to another continent and a mother who throws herself into moving on. Jan, off at her first semester of college, has plenty to worry about, including an outspoken roommate who’s kind of “out there” and an increasingly depressed and troubled long-distance boyfriend. Her younger sisters, left at home in New York City, and dealing with all the pressures of life in high school, aren’t exactly close. Erika is serious and feels awkward and uncomfortable in crowds, though her beauty tends to attract attention. Melanie is socially savvy and just wants to go out—to concerts, to parties, wherever—with her friends. The gap between all three girls widens as each day passes. Then, at a party full of blurred lines and blurred memories, everything changes. Starting that night, where there should be words, there is only angry, scared silence. And in the aftermath, Jan, Erika, and Melanie will have to work hard to reconnect and help one another heal.

The Word for Yes deals with non-stranger rape; with rape that occurs in a drunken moment; with a person who was close to you. Jan, Erika and Melanie are three sisters, who are facing a change in their lives - their parents are separating and Jan is off to college. The relationship between them is a bit complicated - Jan, being the oldest, gets her respect as the big sister. But for Erika and Melanie, things haven't been right since childhood. Melanie is mean and bullies her sister endlessly for being different. When Melanie gets raped by her friend at a party, it throws the older sisters into a chaotic moment, as to how to deal with it.

For a book that was about a sensitive topic such as rape, it mostly skims over the fact and the resultant affect on the characters. On a technical level, the voices of the characters weren't distinct, so there was a disconnect with them from the start. Then comes the fact that Melanie is not a able character and her 'healing' is misguided and misdirected as hatred towards Erika, who was the one who informed the elders about the incident. Melanie wants to keep things quiet and deal with it in her own way, I get it, but hating and being jealous of your own sister and being vindictive and cruel towards her when she was only trying to help? Yeah, I didn't know what to take from the story, since the focus is on her hatred towards Erika. Jan is self-absorbed and despite being the eldest, doesn't actually do anything - if she had intervened, perhaps Erika would have been spared the vitriol.

What the novel does succeed in is bringing to light the rape culture that is so unconsciously prevalent that anyone speaking up is considered radical, as evidenced by the reaction to Eliza. Also, the fact that just because a guy has been 'nice' doesn't mean he is entitled to anything, not even an excuse for his behavior. The ending felt a bit mismatched with the pace of the book (which means, the plot was going nowhere) and the confrontation felt inorganic in conception. It felt something to just wrap up the storyline, and since rest of the book felt superfluous, I wasn't really impressed with the writing of this book.

Received a free galley from HarperTeen, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.arcs contemporary young-adult Emma3,083 452

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