Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf

August 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-"Have you ever seen a god fall?" Sean Nessel: soccer star, the most popular boy in school, and the object of every girl's desire. Sean gets everything he wants. He deserves it. He expects it. He's a god. Ali Greenleaf: quiet, sweet, kind of shy, and she has always had a crush on Sean. Blythe Jensen: popular, beautiful, confident, and extremely intimidating. And she's Sean's best friend. One night at a party, Ali finally decides to make her move on Sean, and things go farther than she wanted them to. After, Sean enlists his pal Blythe to befriend Ali in order to smooth things over. As Ali and Blythe form their own friendship and seem to bond over their different but shared experiences of sexual assault, it is revealed that they may have more in common than they expected. Their friendship, flawed as it is, explores the many complexities of sexual assault and how it affects girls everywhere. The social politics of the school further complicate these traumas and it becomes clear that everyone is part of the story. After internally struggling with her assault for most of the book, Ali finally decides to speak up, finding her voice and her strength. Though sensitive teens may have a hard time reading about the graphic nature of Ali's and Blythe's experiences with sexual assault, Ali's internal struggles after the fact, and teen bullying, these are feelings that many can relate to, and therefore this is an important read for teens. VERDICT A powerful and important addition to YA books on the topic of sexual assault. Recommended for high school and public libraries everywhere.-Elizabeth Blake, Fields Corner Lib., Dorchester, MA

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2020
A young woman is raped and then must find her way through an attempt to silence her made by one of her attacker's friends, who is herself a survivor of sexual violence. Alternating first-person narration from junior Ali and popular senior Blythe presents an anguishing picture of a high school hierarchy in which revered athletes behave with impunity and Blythe and three other it girls are actually known by the moniker the Core Four. Beginning at a house party, Ali is initially thrilled that her long-standing crush, Sean, is paying attention to her; her sexual assault that same night is described with heart-wrenching realism. Yet Blythe's efforts, at Sean's impetus, to manage the fallout from Ali's rape shift the focus of Krischer's debut, which sprawls out into a realistically messy look at the power dynamics at play in a toxic school environment and into the shared painful experiences of Ali and Blythe, whose mothers are emotionally unavailable to them due to their respective struggles with substance use disorder and bipolar disorder. Ali and Sean are White, Blythe is Ashkenazi Jewish and Swedish; there is significant ethnic diversity among their friends. An appendix with resources for sexual assault survivors and those struggling with substance abuse and mental health along with a deeply personal and moving author's note enhance the novel. A harrowing read that tells a complicated story with nuance. (Fiction. 14-18)

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