No Virgin by Anne Cassidy
Nov. 10th, 2016 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
My name is Stacey Woods and I was raped.
17-year-old Stacey Woods has plans: she wants to go to college and study fashion design. She’s nothing like her younger sister, Jodie, who got pregnant at 14 and now does nothing with her life except stay at home, jeer at Stacey’s ambition and palm her son Tyler off on Stacey and her mum whenever it suits her.
When Stacey meets the handsome, posh Harry (on suspension from his school) in a Shoreditch café, she’s attracted to him. Vulnerable from an argument with her sister and the discovery that her best friend, Patrice, has been keeping secrets, she takes Harry up on an offer to introduce her to a buyer at Selfridges who could help her with her fashion career. But what starts as a magical day of skipping school soon turns into something more sinister and Stacey is left trying to piece together the events that led to her being raped and deal with the effects …
Anne Cassidy’s YA novel believably deals with the emotional trauma of a rape victim but is hampered by Stacey’s soap opera style background, a jealousy storyline that didn’t work in the context of the events but more importantly, it feels like only half the story and the ending is not particularly satisfying (which is part and parcel of the subject matter but still felt half-baked). The point of Stacey’s home life appears to exist solely to give her a source of frustration and alienation that would drive her to accept Harry’s offer and as a result the portrayal didn’t feel quite believable enough for me. Similarly the way Stacey’s insecurity leads to jealousy in her friendship with Patrice didn’t ring true – especially the set up regarding her birthday, which felt very artificial. For such a serious subject, the antagonists were really under-developed and it’s a shame that Cassidy shows the crime in such a convoluted way because for me it undermined the seriousness of the offence – particularly disturbing was the depiction of Harry as both enabler and a victim in his own right. I did believe in Stacey’s reaction to the rape – including the way she questioned her behaviour and whether it was rape – but while the ending represented a step forward for her, I didn’t find it satisfying in the context of the subject matter. Ultimately, this book just didn’t work for me, although I would check out Cassidy’s other work.
The Verdict:
Anne Cassidy’s YA novel believably deals with the emotional trauma of a rape victim but is hampered by Stacey’s soap opera style background, a jealousy storyline that didn’t work in the context of the events but more importantly, it feels like only half the story and the ending is not particularly satisfying (which is part and parcel of the subject matter but still felt half-baked). The point of Stacey’s home life appears to exist solely to give her a source of frustration and alienation that would drive her to accept Harry’s offer and as a result the portrayal didn’t feel quite believable enough for me. Similarly the way Stacey’s insecurity leads to jealousy in her friendship with Patrice didn’t ring true – especially the set up regarding her birthday, which felt very artificial. For such a serious subject, the antagonists were really under-developed and it’s a shame that Cassidy shows the crime in such a convoluted way because for me it undermined the seriousness of the offence – particularly disturbing was the depiction of Harry as both enabler and a victim in his own right. I did believe in Stacey’s reaction to the rape – including the way she questioned her behaviour and whether it was rape – but while the ending represented a step forward for her, I didn’t find it satisfying in the context of the subject matter. Ultimately, this book just didn’t work for me, although I would check out Cassidy’s other work.
NO VIRGIN was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd November 2016. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
17-year-old Stacey Woods has plans: she wants to go to college and study fashion design. She’s nothing like her younger sister, Jodie, who got pregnant at 14 and now does nothing with her life except stay at home, jeer at Stacey’s ambition and palm her son Tyler off on Stacey and her mum whenever it suits her.
When Stacey meets the handsome, posh Harry (on suspension from his school) in a Shoreditch café, she’s attracted to him. Vulnerable from an argument with her sister and the discovery that her best friend, Patrice, has been keeping secrets, she takes Harry up on an offer to introduce her to a buyer at Selfridges who could help her with her fashion career. But what starts as a magical day of skipping school soon turns into something more sinister and Stacey is left trying to piece together the events that led to her being raped and deal with the effects …
Anne Cassidy’s YA novel believably deals with the emotional trauma of a rape victim but is hampered by Stacey’s soap opera style background, a jealousy storyline that didn’t work in the context of the events but more importantly, it feels like only half the story and the ending is not particularly satisfying (which is part and parcel of the subject matter but still felt half-baked). The point of Stacey’s home life appears to exist solely to give her a source of frustration and alienation that would drive her to accept Harry’s offer and as a result the portrayal didn’t feel quite believable enough for me. Similarly the way Stacey’s insecurity leads to jealousy in her friendship with Patrice didn’t ring true – especially the set up regarding her birthday, which felt very artificial. For such a serious subject, the antagonists were really under-developed and it’s a shame that Cassidy shows the crime in such a convoluted way because for me it undermined the seriousness of the offence – particularly disturbing was the depiction of Harry as both enabler and a victim in his own right. I did believe in Stacey’s reaction to the rape – including the way she questioned her behaviour and whether it was rape – but while the ending represented a step forward for her, I didn’t find it satisfying in the context of the subject matter. Ultimately, this book just didn’t work for me, although I would check out Cassidy’s other work.
The Verdict:
Anne Cassidy’s YA novel believably deals with the emotional trauma of a rape victim but is hampered by Stacey’s soap opera style background, a jealousy storyline that didn’t work in the context of the events but more importantly, it feels like only half the story and the ending is not particularly satisfying (which is part and parcel of the subject matter but still felt half-baked). The point of Stacey’s home life appears to exist solely to give her a source of frustration and alienation that would drive her to accept Harry’s offer and as a result the portrayal didn’t feel quite believable enough for me. Similarly the way Stacey’s insecurity leads to jealousy in her friendship with Patrice didn’t ring true – especially the set up regarding her birthday, which felt very artificial. For such a serious subject, the antagonists were really under-developed and it’s a shame that Cassidy shows the crime in such a convoluted way because for me it undermined the seriousness of the offence – particularly disturbing was the depiction of Harry as both enabler and a victim in his own right. I did believe in Stacey’s reaction to the rape – including the way she questioned her behaviour and whether it was rape – but while the ending represented a step forward for her, I didn’t find it satisfying in the context of the subject matter. Ultimately, this book just didn’t work for me, although I would check out Cassidy’s other work.
NO VIRGIN was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd November 2016. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
