What We Saw

Title:  What We Saw
Author:  Aaron Hartzler
Genre: Realistic Fiction/YA Romance
Pages: 321
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Kate Weston lives in a small town in Iowa called Coral Sands. Kate's city is one that worships, idolizes, and treasures their basketball team, and each member of the Coral Sands varsity basketball team is a role model to all young, aspiring members of the community.  None of the team members would ever do anything wrong- right? And so the whole city can hardly believe it when on one normal afternoon during a high school lunch hour, four precious players are arrested for raping a girl at a party held earlier that week.  A party Kate had been at.  A party Kate's dreamy, fellow varsity player boyfriend had been at.  But when it comes to a choice between boyfriend and justice, Kate must choose what she feels is right.  Even at the cost of what people dread most: change.  

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Let me just say, I loooooved this book.  What some people may not have picked up is that this novel is based off various, true events.  Oh and it's written by a guy.  So you get this awesome book filled with one little feminist trying to do what's right in a sea of people doing the wrong thing- written by a guy.  Is that not awesome? (Seriously, it gives me hope about the world.)

Ok, so let's talk about plot here.  I marked this down as YA Romance, but I feel like I should explain my reasoning for that before you write it off as a true romance novel.  Romance is not my genre, and typically, neither is Realistic Fiction, but occasionally, you get a real gem like this.   The romance in this book is not the main plot. It's more of a subplot.  The big conflict, the real problem, is the rape case.  That's what the book is centered on.  However, the romantic subplot is part of the conflict.  It's part of the emotion the reader feels. It's part of what stalls Kate's decision making process. 

So, why did I like the plot so much? Well, it really teaches an amazing, 21st century lesson: that sexual assault is never ok.  It has such a deeper meaning then what you see on the outside, which would be some cliché book about a girl and her perfect boyfriend getting caught up in some party trouble.

Anyway, this book was most certainly worth my time.  Though that's not saying much, as it only took me 24 hours to read. (It was that good.)  I definitely recommend this one, so do check it out!

Wrapping this up now....

"The closer you look, the more you see." 

It's a quote that comes up often in the book, and is seen on the front cover.  While it applies to many things within the book, it also applies to the book itself.  The closer you look at the book, the more meaning it has.  I truly loved how deep this book goes, and how much it captivated me- start to finish.