Review: Fault Line by Christa Desir

Book Title: Fault Line

Author: Christa Desir

Published Date: October 15th, 2013

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Genre: YA Contemporary

Standalone

Book Link: Goodreads

Purchase Links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Ben could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl — sarcastic free-spirit, Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want.

But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone.

Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?

Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves.

Disclaimer: I borrowed this book from the library.

Review:

This book was one of those books I was so excited about. I missed out on getting an ARC of it, so when I got my new library card, I wasted no time in putting a hold on this book. I finished the book in one night and oh my goodness, this book was an important one. It was a messy one and it was definitely one that every single teenager & adult should read. I don't care if you are male or female, you need to read this book.

Ani and Ben fall for each other quickly and normally that would have made me uneasy but for some reason, this time, it didn't. Ani was awesome. She didn't play games, she said exactly what was on her mind and didn't let what people thought about her, bother her. Her relationship with her mother was very much like my own relationship was with my mother at her age. So I was definitely able to relate to that part.

Now Ben on the other hand, he lived with his mom and dad and younger brother. So he had much more of a "traditional family" Ben's a swimmer, a very good swimmer and he's angling for a college scholarship for swimming. At first, when he begins dating Ani, not much changes schedule-wise for him.

Everything changes after that one night.

Ani is gang raped at a party and as soon as her friend Kate, calls Ben, Ben rushes to the hospital to be with her. It's there that he learns other details of the evening. Details that are impossible for him to get out of his head.

This book is dark and gritty and sometimes I had to put the book down to collect my thoughts and/or stop crying. The book details exactly how low a person who was raped can go self-esteem wise. It's a hard book because you want to see Ani start to heal from it but this book also shows you why it's oftentimes impossible to go back to the person you were before you were raped.

It also shows you how helpless people feel as they watch you deal with this. Ben clearly wanted to help Ani, but she refused his help. She wanted to deal with this her own way. That frustrated Ben because he wanted to heal her. It was hard for him to realize that she didn't want his help. He also blamed himself for it even happening. He kept telling himself that he should have gone to that party. He should have protected her better. Ben ends up turning to Beth, the rape counselor he and Ani met at the hospital that night. He wanted Beth to tell him how to help her. How to get her to heal.

Some people aren't going to like this book for various reasons, and that's okay. I absolutely loved it and I thought it was an extremely important book. It was a fast paced book, which I actually really liked. It was an emotional book and it brought me right back to certain moments in my life that I never ever wanted to visit again. 

The ending was a bit more open ended than I expected it to be, but then I remembered that recovering from a situation like this isn't cut and dried and it's not going to just be dealt with and then the person can move on and never think about it again. I will be giving this book 5 stars. Not only because I loved it, but because I felt the author did an amazing job with this topic. I need to get my own copy of this book.