True Story by Kate Reed Petty

Well, hot DANG, that final reveal was one the best-written reveals I have ever read!!! That reveal made the whole story for me, and I loved how the story came together with that reveal.

True Story by Kate Reed Petty is an original, complicated, compelling, exciting thought-provoking story. If you love to delve into a story you will love this one! You will need to delve into it to benefit from the depth of the true story being explored here. The story starts with the truth or a rumour of a sexual assault, and we are left wondering what the true story is with what happened after a night of drinking. With no memory of what happened to her, Alice is haunted by not being able to tell her own story.

The focus is not on what happened that night, but more on the toxic male masculinity, “boys will be boys,” rumours, the roles men and women are expected to play, and who has ownership of the true story.

For me, the story was all about how it was written rather than how I connected emotionally to the story. The story explores ownership over your own story and the truth and who should tell that story. It’s complicated by memory and rumours as it also explores how damaging rumours are when toxic male masculinity plays in. Not only with boys will be boys but the code to protect their own. How Kate Reed Petty goes about exploring ownership and delivers that final reveal is original and clever. She uses a few different formats like a play, college admission essays and emails with POVs like first, second and third person. At times this felt a bit much and disjointed from each other, throwing the pacing off for me. The second person felt jarring and did add some distance from connecting to the characters. After finishing the story, it didn’t matter to me anymore because I was in such awe with that final reveal and how it came together. I wish I could explain that a better, but sometimes talking about the structure of the story can tip you off as to what to expect, and it’s best to be surprised, and if you did figure things out you will feel very clever that you did. I would be surprised if you did. lol

The ending left me with so much to think about and delve into, and it will be one I will be thinking about for quite some time. I highly recommend it.