Safe by Susan Shaw

Title: Safe

Author: Susan Shaw

Publisher: Dutton Juvenile

Release Date: October 24, 2007

Date Read: March 12 - 13, 2011

Rating: 3/5 stars

Goodreads

Summary

Safe. To Tracy, safe means having Mama close by. Years after her mother’s death, Tracy still feels her presence. But the moment Tracy is forced into a car as she is walking home from school one day, safe is ripped away. In the aftermath of an unspeakable crime, thirteen-year-old Tracy must fight her way back to safety and find comfort in her mother’s memory once again.

Susan Shaw returns with a raw and moving story of a young rape victim’s journey toward healing, empowered by poetry and music, family and friends.

Review

I've read a few books over the years about victims of rape or sexual abuse but never with so young a protagonist. (Excusing the prologue of Living Dead Girl). While it did make the crime more horrific it also meant that the dialogue and emotions she was feeling unrealistic for her age and situation. Obviously someone would be severely emotionally damaged and would turn to an outlet like piano, but was the seclusion and delirious-ness also realistic? I loved the part where she would test how far she could leave her house. As an analysis of preteen behaviour and friendships, Safe is a wonderful testament to how girls react when something tragic happens. As a novel, it left me wanting more and not really understanding where the novel was going. I had assumed that the rape would lead her down a dark path as a teenager but instead the entire novel was over the course of the two months following the day. I've never read something that stuck so close to the rape event but at the same time it didn't allow the reader to fully understand how someone grows and changes their personality and lifestyle. 

Favourite Quote: "After it all happened, I went over and over that last minute, and I could never come up with anything that said, Tracy! Watch out! Even Caroline's slammed green door didn't say that - but it should have."

Recommended: Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson), Living Dead Girl (Elizabeth Scott), Girlhearts (Norma Fox Mazer)