Lucky

by Alice Sebold

This is a book about a rape and its aftermath. About a college freshman and her struggles to get past being a victim.

It's a hard book to read. The first 50 pages made me feel physically ill. I had to put the book down and take a break from it. Remember that people aren't awful. But I wasn't able to put it down for long. There's a very developed sense of connection to the reader, as if by listening to her story, by hearing her out, I could lessen the pain for the young coed who reminded me so much of girls I knew. So I started the book on Friday and finished it on Sunday.

The Lovely Bones (her previous novel) made me cry. This one made me ill, and made me angry. I don't have any quotes from it because it's not so much that particular turns of phrase made me think, but the work as a whole. Not a fun book to read, and I don't really know who I would recommend it to, but as a work that absorbed the reader and conveyed an awful experience, it was amazing.