The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith - PUBLIC

Smith, Amber  The Way I Used to Be, 367 pgs.  Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2016 (Simon and Schuster).  $17.99  Content: Language: R (138 swears; 120 “F”); Mature Content: R; Violence: R.  

Eden is a good fourteen-year-old girl until the night her college-aged brother’s best friend rapes her.  Because the best friend is loved by her family and her brother, Eden thinks nobody will believe her and keeps it a secret.  Over time the secret eats at Eden and she loses who she is and her place in her family.  Although good people come into her life, she can’t cope with the good or the bad and unless she can get help she will destroy herself.   

This is a heartbreaking emotional read about rape.  Eden’s survival story is not pretty and is hard to read, but it seems realistic.  The content is rated R across the board for casual sex, sexual relationship between a 14 and 18 year old, underage drinking and drug use, intense and upsetting rape, and description of dismemberment.  

PUBLIC ONLY  Reviewer, C. Peterson.