Review: The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

4 delicious snickerdoodles.

Cover Love: I like that it is simple and understated, but I'm not sure it would have been what drew me to the book.

Why I Wanted To Read This Book: I read the synopsis somewhere and was very intrigued. Here's the synopsis from GoodReads:
Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way--the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds--a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone--especially yourself--you fight for it.

I Kept Reading Because: It was a page turner. It was so well written. It had a good plot, strong, but not over the top characters and it was well paced.

Romance?: Yes. It is a part of the book, but not the biggest part of the book. And actually, I think that Alex could have ended up with one of two boys, both of whom I really liked.

What I Liked (& Didn't):
I was very glad that there were no super vigilant-y type characters. Nobody went way over the top in their defense or prosecution of Alex. I was afraid it would turn out that things would get out of hand and there would be a death or something. There was nothing like that. The author did a great job keeping the focus where it belonged--on Alex and her recovery.

And I really liked Alex. She was written so well, not annoying as a victim. She had her moments of self-doubt but she was a very normal seeming high school girl.

It made me so sad that the boy who date raped Alex truly didn't realize what he did was wrong. He would probably have called her later to keep hooking up--but he didn't have her full name. Again, he wasn't written as this over the top user of women, just a very horny high school boy. Not that he was a good guy, but he also wasn't an uber-villian.

And Themis Academy-GEEZ! The homework those kids are assigned made my head hurt! I wouldn't have lasted a day there in high school because I was never that driven.

The one thing I liked about The Mockingbirds is that because the case was never out in the open, hopefully the prosecuted people will actually learn from their mistakes and become way better people when they move on.

What I Would Like to See:
On Good Reads the title says "The Mockingbirds #1" so I am certain there will be another one. And that will be good, there are all kinds of things that could go on with this type of book. What I think would be very interesting is if they did a case where the accused is actually innocent. What would the repercussions for the accuser be then?

To Sum Up: I think this would be an important book for many teenage girls to read. You never know where or when something small (like drinking at a party) becomes something major. Due to some swearing and Alex's memories of the incident I probably wouldn't put it in my middle school library, but would if I was in a high school!

Book requested and received from Little Brown. Thanks Julia & Sara!