Lucky - Alice Sebold (December/05)

I have been a bit slack in writing my reviews, but I finished Lucky by Alice Sebold the other day. I had wanted it a long time ago but never saw it in stores until I happen to see it in a second hand store the other day. I love my shopping trips, I go in for one book and come out with five. For those of you that do not know, Alice Sebold is also the author of The Lovely Bones, and now that you know that, forget of that books existence! Lucky is a true-life story of the author.

Anyways, the best way to tell you what happened in the book is to do the back of the book thing because this book is one book that I don't want to tell too many people many spoilers. People seem to want to read it, so I will tell what the back of the book said and then tell what I thought of it.

Back of book:
"In a memoir hailed for its searing candor and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as and eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutually raped and beaten in a park near campus. What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold's indomitable spirit - as she struggles for understanding.... as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and as, ultimately, she triumphs, managing through grit and coincidence to help secure her attacker's arrest and conviction..."

This was a really good book. Shocking in the fact that it was true, and actually happened. It is amazing how people react to you once you have been raped. She would sit in a courtroom and the lawyers would look for reasons that this was her fault. I could not imagine having something this horrific happen to you and then having people look at you like you did something to deserve it. I was cheering when the man that attacked her was convicted. It was the best thing that could have happened, I was so engrossed in the novel I felt like it was happening to me! Sebold is a brave woman, she puts a face to traumatic experiences and in order to do so, she exposes her story to the world. That's brave, there is no other way to put it. I strongly suggest people read this novel, for an assortment of reasons. Most importantly, if you have gone through this, this novel gives you hope and if you have not gone through it, it may help you better deal if it ever happens to someone that you know. I also would strongly recommend this novel to college students. It goes to show that school may not be as safe as people want it to be.

I give this novel a 4.5/5 for opening my eyes to something that could happen to me. I knew it was there, but I did not know that people were treated like this once it happened. The victims oftentimes get treated worse than those that did it to them.

I also read Lovely Bones. I would give that novel a 4/5.