Title: In Too Deep
Author: Amanda Grace
Genre: YA/Contemp
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: Available Now
Rating:
Summary:
I never meant for anyone to get hurt. All I wanted to do that night was make a play for Carter Davis. His heartless rejection was mortifying, but people got the wrong idea when they saw me leaving his bedroom, crying. That’s how rumors of rape started.
Now girls at school are pouring out their sympathy to me. Guys too. But not everyone’s on my side. The school has become a war zone and the threats are getting scary. What began as poetic justice has morphed into something bigger-forcing me to make a terrible choice.
Review:
IN TOO DEEP, a contemporary young adult novel that begs the question, how far is too far.
When Samantha Marshall enters the party of Carter Wellesley, she’s already taken things too far. Her first mistake, dressing in an all too short mini-skirt hoping to catch the attention of Carter so she can make her best friend, Nick, jealous.
Case in point of almost every teenage girl…lack of communication and using sex to make someone jealous.
Sam spends the night drinking after realizing that grabbing Carter’s attention is much harder then she thought until she sees him walk into his room. Sam follows making mistake number two. When she approaches Carter, she finds out he wants nothing to do with what she’s offering. With tears streaming down her face, she runs into another classmate who assumes the worse.
When Sam returns to school she’s the source of the weekend gossip and instead of asking when approached with questions, she lets everyone believe the lie. Mistake number three. The senior class is now divided; half thinking she was raped by golden boy Carter and the other half saying she’s made it up. The whole school is talking about the weekend party and Sam is completely oblivious to what is being said. All she knows is that girls who used to be her friends are talking to her again and on her side.
Let’s discuss Carter. This boy is accused of rape and he does nothing about it. He allows his friends to vandalize Sam’s car and locker, but does not go to his parents for help. Since this story takes place in small town Washington, news travels fast, yet he stays tight lipped and harasses Sam in the hallway and via Facebook.
Sam struggles with telling the truth, especially to Nick, her now boyfriend since he’s professed his undying love,but fails. She’s given ample opportunity to tell not only Nick after he confronts her, but the many classmates offering her support. Sam is then convinced to keep the secret by a group of girls because they were all wronged by Carter. Totally John Tucker Must Die revenge.
Carter loses a lot in this story. This is a boy who granted has some seriously messed up morals and values when it comes to girls but to be accused of rape and become the most hated person in school is probably very damaging especially when you know you didn’t do anything wrong except turn the girl down. Carter went about everything wrong. Almost makes you want Carter to quit everything and get his diploma from an online high school.
Sam is a character with extreme communication issues. Her mom walked out when she was a toddler so she was raised by her father who is not over his ex-wife. All Sam wants is to go away to college and her father won’t allow it. These two are so in need of therapy.
Sam’s mistake cost everyone, including herself in the story. The only winner, are the girls that wanted revenge but don’t have to live with anyone knowing they urged Sam to keep the secret.
As a reader I became extremely frustrated. First of all, if an author is going to choose small town Washington as the back drop, please do not make the main character’s father the Chief of Police. That was done and put to bed, time to move on. Living in small town, people talk. There is no way Sam’s father would not have found out about this from the moment the rumors spread. The school Principal was more concerned with the vandalism then the fact that one of his students was allegedly raped. If the whole school is taking about this, he’s bound to know! The adults in this story lacked morals, hence the way the teens acted.
