The Way I Used To Be Book Review – A Book That Gets On My Very Nerves

Title: The Way I Used To Be

Author: Amber Smith

Blurb (GR): Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year.

It’s not that I resent the book, I just find it very messed up. Very, very messed up.

Eden is a high-school student, who lived a happy life, but then she got raped. By her brother’s best friend. Now she transforms into a new girl, more cooler, fashionable girl. But… oh my god this is a very hard book to explain I’m going to give up on it. Just read the blurb.

First off, I found the plot very confusing. Our main character Eden gets raped. But she thinks, that no one will believe her, because the person is really close to her family. Then she transforms from a shy, nerdy girl, to Regina Honey from Mean Girls. Then she falls in love, something happens, and she breaks up, and some other messed up stuff happens.

How could she do that when she was raped! It’s like she forgot about everything, and became this changed girl, which is so annoying. And her journey to cope with this was not good either. Instead of turning to people, she turned to drugs.

                                           How do people enjoy this?

Maybe it’s her journey (which I did not like), maybe it’s her ability to cope with it (which I also did not like), or something else. I just know that I did not like how things turned out in this book. I hated the ending, which was… you guessed it very messed up. I didn’t enjoy this one bit. I think I maybe being generous with 2 stars…

Eden – Hated her from the beginning. I found her really dumb in the beginning because she never told anyone about the incident. She only did that because she was scared no one would believe her. But, she still should’ve taken the chance because… why do you need a because? She got raped ! And how she changed and acted like a total Regina Honey! And her attitude with all those boys were really confusing. One minute she was pulling them closer, than she was pulling them away. I just hate her!!!

She was really the main character in there soo, she’s the only one I can write about.

8/10. As much as I hated the story and it’s characters, I can’t deny that the writing style and structure was good.

What do you think about this book? How do you feel about these types of books (the life of a rape victim)? Let me know in the comments!

 

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