Lucky

Ever since I read "The Lovely Bones" when I was in high school, I was absolutely fascinated by Alice Sebold's style of writing and choice of topic.

I have to admit, I judge books by their cover. I have the nasty tendency to choose new books by how pretty the cover is - and that's how I was initially suckered into The Lovely Bones. With its pretty light blue cover with a girls' charm bracelet decorating the centre, I picked it up and flipped to the back cover for a synopsis.

I was hooked.

The riveting story of a young girl raped and murdered by her neighbour, I couldn't stop crying or shaking, but I also couldn't put it down.

The same goes for Lucky (DayZero #94, book #8).

The first book written by Alice - a memoir of her life starting freshman year, when she was brutally beaten and raped the night before going home for the summer after her first year at Syracuse University, New York.

I've read plenty of books in my (short) lifetime that have moved me to the point of tears. I've read plenty of books that have left me in awe. I've also read plenty of books that I haven't been able to finish because of the author's presentation of the content. But there have been very few books that have literally shaken to the core.

The first chapter of the novel - in all 27 pages of its glory - left me in tears from beginning to end, shaking, yet unable to stop reading.

I would have finished this book the day I started reading it, but alas, there is always schoolwork to be done and assignments to complete. I finished it about a week after starting. It's not a particularly long book, but it was one that I read chapters at a time, before realizing it was midnight and I had to be up at 6am in the morning. I have definitely lost sleep this week, being absolutely enthralled in this novel.

Written as a call to raise awareness of rape, this novel is a wondrous gift from Alice to the world. However it is probably not for the faint at heart, due to the excruciatingly graphic detail. There are passages in the novel that are initially very difficult to get through, but as you read on it becomes commonplace, and you almost feel like you are there, like you are in the know of everything.

Numbers don't lie:

• Canada has one of the highest reported rape statistic of 65 countries in a UN report: 78/100,000 (UN, 2002).
• Greater than 60% of rapes go unreported. For male rapes, it is over 90% unreported.
• Almost 40% of rapes happens to women aged 16-30 (Rape Survivor).
• The perpetrator is intoxicated one-third of the time (USDJ, 1998).
  
• Two-thirds of rapes are committed by a known individual (USDJ, 2005).
  
• Over two-thirds of rape occurs at home - victim or perpetrator (USDJ, 1997).

I really REALLY recommend everyone to read this novel. If you don't read it yourself, tell someone else about it. Spread the word. Tell the women in your lives, those you care about, because rape is out there and more commonplace than you think. Be good to the women in your life and to the women around you, raise awareness.

In the tunnel where I was raped... a girl had been murdered and dismembered. I was told this by the police. In comparison, they said, I was lucky... But at the time, I felt I had more in common with the dead girl than I did with the large, beefy police officers or my stunned freshman-year girlfriends. The dead girl and I had been in the same low place... During the rape my eye caught something among the leaves and glass. A pink hair tie... I will always think of her when I think of the pink hair tie. I will think of a girl in the last moments of her life.
- Alice Sebold, Lucky, excerpt