Title: Shine
Author: Lauren Myracle
Genre: YA Contemporary Fiction
Number of Pages: 350
Rating: C+
Recommended?: No
Trigger Warning(s): Sexual assault, references to pedophilia, homophobic hate crime, drug addiction
WARNING: THIS BOOK REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS
Oh my God, I had so many issues with this book. I love Southern Gothic and small towns with dark secrets, and the concept itself had a lot of potential, but it just ended up falling flat for me. The protagonist is a sixteen-year-old girl named Cat who is determined to find out who put her gay friend Patrick in a coma. Cat had become more distant from Patrick after her brother Christian’s friend Tommy sexually assaulted her.
Patrick, Christian, Tommy, and their mutual friend Beef hung out together, even though the others sometimes picked on Patrick and singled him out. Now Patrick is in the hospital after being the victim of an brutal hate crime, and Cat believes Tommy did it because she knows his potential for cruelty. Cat starts doing her own amateur investigation through their small redneck community in North Carolina, marked by extreme poverty and methamphetamine use.
She’s frustrated by the lack of concern shown by the cops and the locals, as if to some degree Patrick deserved what happened to him. The cops say they think ‘someone from out of town’ did it, but Cat feels they’re just making excuses to dismiss the problem. The writing in this book is fine, and there are some interesting characters. The author gets a good sense of the rural small-town setting, with the variety of gossips and local color.
Cat doesn’t trust her brother because she feels like he didn’t protect her from Tommy, and here’s the thing- she’s right. The book tries to let Christian off the hook because when he caught Tommy raping Cat he interrupted the assault by blowing up Tommy’s motorcycle, but that doesn’t change the fact that Christian still invites him over to the house and hangs out with him. Who does that to his little sister? What’s worse is Cat seems to minimize the assault, going from (justifiably) angry to wishy-washy and conflicted when she realizes Tommy didn’t kill Patrick.
OK, he’s not a murderer. But he still raped a child. Cat sort of adopts this position of ‘everybody makes mistakes’ and compares Tommy’s disgusting behavior to her own neglect of her friends and not being there for Patrick when he needed her. What Cat did was actually an understandable trauma response, especially when Patrick was sort-of friends with Tommy. Cat also gets romantically involved with an acquaintance of Patrick’s who blows up at her at a public library for no reason and calls her a ‘mountain ni–er.’ But don’t worry, he’s a stand-up guy most of the time!
I knew who the actual perpetrator was from early on, because of course it had to be the person Cat didn’t expect. Then there’s Robert, this creepy little kid with fetal alcohol syndrome. He has non-existent boundaries and keeps turning up like a bad penny, and part of me had to appreciate just how off-putting and unlikable the author made him.
It’s implied the antagonist groomed and molested Robert, but it’s abruptly forgotten, and nobody seems to be interested in helping Robert deal with what happened to him. I understand this isn’t the kind of community where cops get called to a lot but there was just zero accountability. Christian lets his little sister’s rapist come over and party at their house and we’re supposed to think he’s a good brother because reasons.
It’s highly unlikely Tommy has changed, and he could easily do the same thing again with no consequences. I felt like Cat should have been angry. Being angry is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s also a way to protect yourself and fight to stand up for other victims. The way the whole situation with Tommy is handled is irresponsible and actually seems to place blame on Cat.
It also makes it seem like Cat will continue to be a victim and that she can’t stop making excuses for people, like the guy who called her a vile slur who she actually ends up dating. I know these things don’t always have easy answers, but the author seems to largely disregard the disturbing themes in her own story. As a result, the conclusion is unsatisfying and troubling.
Sarah's Corner 