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Showing posts from February 4, 2018

The Way I Used To Be

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The Way I Used To Be  by Amber Smith (362 pages) Overview: The Way I Used To Be  tells Eden's story of abuse and how that impacted her life throughout her high school career. The novel opens right before she starts her freshmen year when her brother's best friend rapes her. Terrified and threatened, Eden tells no one, not that she thinks her family would believe her because Kevin is essentially part of her family. During freshman year, these events cause her to wind farther into herself. Then, during sophomore year, her best friend Mara decides that they need to change their looks in order to rise in social standing. She starts attracting attention of other guys while some of the other girls start to spread nasty rumors about her. Eden begins to engage in riskier and riskier behaviors to feel like she is gaining control of both her body and her personhood back. As she struggles with the horrible trauma that she's hidden from everyone, it starts to put strain on every r