Scars by Cheryl Rainfield follows the story of Kendra, a girl who has survived sexual abuse and is currently in therapy to help her cope. Despite the therapy, Kendra feels that she has to cut in order to not feel the pain. Despite her pain, she meets a girl named Meghan and falls in love. But when her abuser seems to be catching up to her, Kendra must face her past in order to overcome it.
So this book was recommended to me by one of my professors, and I have to say, while it deals with issues that are important to address in young adult literature, I wasn’t exactly impressed with the writing in this book. A lot of the dialogue seemed forced to me, and the story line seemed like something that has been done many times before. I believe there are better books that deal with this topic available out there, that are better written.
I also didn’t really seem to connect with the main character in this book, and I don’t think this helped my reading. While I do think there are people who would connect to this character, I think Kendra was too defined by her cutting. To me, she seemed like a flat character, one that needed more complexity as the main character of the book. And while this book can be applauded for it’s inclusion of a lesbian couple, I felt it was too closely connected to Kendra’s abuse, like that was the reason she liked women more than men, which is problematic when it comes to LGBTQ literature.
While there were a lot of things I didn’t like about this book, I do still think it can be a powerful book for someone who can strongly relate to this character. It still deals with issues that teens need to read about in literature, and I still think that’s important.
Next, I will be reading Eve & Adam by Michael Grant. Until then, happy reading! 🙂