What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler

From Goodreads,

"Kate Weston can piece together most of the bash at John Doone’s house: shots with Stacey Stallard, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early—the feeling that maybe he’s becoming more than just the guy she’s known since they were kids.

But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills’s shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn’t have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate’s classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can’t be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same question: Where was Ben when a terrible crime was committed?

This story—inspired by real events—from debut novelist Aaron Hartzler takes an unflinching look at silence as a form of complicity. It’s a book about the high stakes of speaking up, and the razor thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one hundred and forty characters at a time."

Goodreads - What We Saw

This book starts off with a flashback to when Kate Weston was just a kid playing soccer.  We soon realie her love for soccer and her best friend Ben Cody.  Then we quickly return to the present and find out that Kate is now in her bedroom with a killer hangover.  She starts to piece the night back together and finds that she didn't drive her truck home (thankfully), but that her great man friend Ben took care of her and brought her home.  As the day progresses so do things between Kate and Ben (more on that later).  At school on Monday the cops show up and arrest some of the star basketball players because they have been accused of raping a girl at the party.  Kate starts to piece things together and realizes that things aren't what they seem.

While I was reading this book I had to continually remind myself that this was based on true events from the Steubenville, Ohio case.  We live in a world where we hear about cases of rape, but we are only exposed to what the media shares with us.  This book really shares the real details and not just the media's take on things.  I like how this was from the perspective of a girl who was at the party and was also intoxicated.  She really struggled to put the pieces together and do the right thing by reporting what she knew.  It was definitely a struggle of doing what was right and doing what everyone wanted her to do.  Kate also states multiple times that she was drunk too and it could have been her in that situation instead of Stacey.  I think this is an important message because anyone can end up in a similar situation.  This book also addressed consent.  It stated that just because she was drunk and unconscious doesn't mean she gave consent.  Consent is where it seems all rape cases lead back to.  This book really addressed the big issues of making the right decision, consent, and blaming the victim.

I really hated Kate and her relationship with Ben throughout this book.  The book starts out with us finding out that Kate and Ben were once best friends who played soccer together.  Kate accidentally injured Ben and left a long scar behind his ear.  They ended up falling out of touch.  They reconnected a year before the book takes place because they were in the same geology class.  At this point they seem to be just civil friends who say hi in the hall... nothing more.  The next thing we know Kate is leaving the party drunk and wakes up the next morning absolutely swooning over Ben.  Their friendship went from zero to 100 overnight all because he took care of her when she was drunk.  As the book progresses we see Kate doing whatever Ben wants because she is "in love" with him.  I just feel like Kate and Ben's relationship was very unrealistic.  Their relationship just progressed very quickly and I hated that.  I felt like Kate and Ben's cheesy high school relationship started to overshadow the bigger topic here of consent and victim blaming.  I just wish that the book hadn't incorporated the relationship as much as it did as a part of the storyline.

This book does have a trigger warning for rape, however I think more women need to read this, especially teenagers.  This book is based on a real event that happened.  This isn't a work of fiction.  It isn't something that someone made up to make some money.  This really happened.  I think that young girls need to be aware of rape culture and what consent means.  I would recommend this to high school students or young adults.  This was a tough book to read because of the content of the book.  I give this 4 out of 5 stars.