True Story

TRUE STORY – Kate Reed Petty

What would your life be like after blacking out drunk at a party and waking to learn of widespread rumours that you were sexually assaulted? How would your future decisions, relationships and experiences be tarnished by what happened that night and what everyone said about it?

Kate Reed Petty steps into the shoes of the ignorant high-school misogynist as she paints a soul-crushingly accurate depiction of the way young women are perceived and treated by their male counterparts. She lays bare the sad truth that even the guys who think they’re the ‘good’ ones have some very misplaced and harmful beliefs.

Coupled with that, the author opens up the emotional minefield that is the passion and pain of close friendships between two women. We’re reminded of what it felt like to be thrown into competitions you never willingly entered, to be held up as a comparison against someone you don’t even know, to have people talk about your most intimate experiences, carelessly.

Throughout the chapters, we’re viewing torment, tragedy and despair in such a raw and sharp way that I almost felt uncomfortable. Some sections felt like being in the room when your two best friends, a couple, get into a raging fight about something deeply personal. Petty’s ability to elicit such a powerful response in the reader is flawlessly executed in these moments.

A story within a story of lots of lessons learned and a look through a microscope examining human coping mechanisms and strategies that aren’t always successful. Petty calls out her characters flaws with empathy while letting us make our own mind up about the people we get to know through their difficult choices, horrifying experiences and gut-wrenching guilt.