Rape Girl By Alina Klein

Just by reading the title of the book you know that Rape Girl by Alina Klein is not going to be an easy book to read. Klein was also a sixteen-year-old rape survivor like Valerie, the main character of the story, so she puts that much more emotion into the book. After looking into the book and reading about the hype I knew I had to give it a read, even though it is a very quick read, it was a emotionally heavy book.

Valerie is your average sixteen-year-old girl with the normal aspirations that someone her age would have, such as being pretty, smart and popular at school. Valerie's hopes and dreams are all of what you would expect from a high school girl. 

Then one weekend comes were Valerie's mom leaves town and leaves her in charge of the house and her little sister, Ainsley. Of course, Valerie jumps at this opportunity to throw a party while her mom is out of town, with the encouragement of her best friend, Mimi. The word about the party spread like wildfire around her school and eventually the whole school was there, including her crush, Adam, who seems to be crushing on her right back.

After a night of drinking Valerie wakes up hungover only to be awakened by Adam who let himself back into her house the next morning. Adam began to take off her clothing after Valerie tells him "no" but Adam continued on, resulting in Valerie getting rapped.

Valerie tells her mom what had happened and the police get involved. To Valerie's surprise, her best friends and all her peers at school ridicule her and say that she has made the whole thing up. She returns to a nightmare at school, walking through the halls hearing people now refer to her as the "rape girl"

The reader goes through the heartbreaking journey that a young rape victim would go through with sixteen-year-old, Valerie. Throughout the book you see Valerie's world fall apart. We see her live this nightmare at school and at home. Valerie begins to blame herself, she begins to doubt whether or not it was really rape since she was initially attracted to Adam and there was no violence. I think this is a very important book to read for teens and young adults because it shows that there are different forms of rape. Young adults should know this so that no one has to blame themselves for something so terrible happening to them.

As soon as a started reading this book I couldn't put it down because I was right there rooting for Valerie wishing I could be by her side supporting her and protecting her against those harassing her at school.  Although we see Valerie go through her weakest and lowest points in the book, the end leaves the reader hopeful because we see Valerie come out of the situation stronger than ever after she faces her best friend and Adam, after not even being able to make eye contact with them.

Alina Klein has been very vocal about her story as a rape survivor and this book is about reassuring that you can move on and "have the happy life that you deserve."

A portion of the proceeds from Rape Girl will go to Pandora's Project and RAINN