Book Talk: The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Publisher: Little, Brown
Date: November 2, 2010
Series or Standalone: Book 1 in series
ISBN: 978-0316090537
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages

Description:
Some schools have honor codes.
Others have handbooks.
Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.

Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way–the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds–a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl’s struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone–especially yourself.

First line: Three things I know this second: I have morning breath, I’m naked, and I’m waking up next to a boy I don’t know.

I’ve started this review about six times now (the last because it was deleted) and each time I fail at figuring out what to say. I’ll say that I honestly didn't know what The Mockingbirds was about. I knew secret society type of thing but I didn't know. I never read the back when I got it because I had heard so much about it that it didn't even matter.  Now, after reading the book, I can probably tell you that the reason I didn't look at the back is because I never would have read it.

It would have scared me and I would've walked away. And the story wasn't what I assumed it would be based off the cover--which goes to prove the age-old mantra of not judging a book by its cover. This one blew all my minuscule perceptions out of the water, and I like that. I believe in purpose behind everything and as cheesy as it sounds, there's a reason I got this ARC and there's a reason I didn't read the back. And there's a reason I read it.

What can I say about The Mockingbirds? It’s Brave. Hard. Real. Beautiful. Paralyzing. I think it will inspire MANY people to step up and speak out. It's raw and insane yet completely understandable. I could sit here and pull out line after line after line and tell yall how beautiful the prose is--and how powerful the story. But I won’t because you have to read it for yourself.

Alex’s voice is so strong and vivid in this story. She is a real, complex character who is struggling. You see the struggle within her dialogue, her frustration, her schoolwork and her withdraw from music. How do you be yourself after you’ve been date raped? This one incident can define her life or rob her of all things that mattered. Her choice—to take this guy to the Mockingbirds for justice or ignore it all—will change her whole future.

There was actually a point that I was crying in this book. Really crying. I had to put the book down so I could breathe because I was crying so hard. It was many things, all very real. It even stirred up emotions from my own childhood abuse. I got this story. It was different than my situation but I got it. I felt some of the same things Alex did.

I think this story was really brave. I think it's really beautiful and honest and that it is going to change lives and minds. Yes, it deals with the subject of date rape in an honest, heartbreaking way. And it shows girls the importance of standing up for themselves and fighting for what's right. But it's so much more than that. This is a story about taking back your life. Though Alex is never going to be the same, she is able to heal. She plays music again. Loves again. Feels safe. Takes a stand. She uses this to make herself stronger.

Source: ARC

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