Carter didn’t rape me. People at school think he did. Suddenly, new friends are rushing to my side, telling me that Carter hurt them, too. They say he’s getting what he deserves.
Maybe I don’t want to fix this.
Sam is in love with her best friend Nick, but she can’t seem to tell him. So she decides to flirt with golden-boy Carter Wellesley, hoping Nick will see it and finally realize his true feelings for her.
On Monday, everyone at school is saying that Carter raped Sam. He didn’t, but Sam can’t find the words to tell the truth. Worst of all, she’s afraid she’ll lose Nick if he finds out what really happened.
As graduation approaches, Sam discovers that living the lie isn’t as easy as her new friends make it sound—and telling the truth might be even worse.
Review:
After reading Amanda Grace's emotional and gut wrenching But I Love Him, I was dying to read more by her. Therefore, when the chance finally came up to read In Too Deep, I dove right in, curious to see how this one would live up to her previous release. While I didn't enjoy it as much as But I Love Him, I was still fully fascinated as well as taken aback by the story of how one lie can change everything. This book had me hooked from the first page to the last, and best of all, the Amanda's prose once again provoked many feelings out of me.
In Too Deep had an interesting premise, and after reading the summary, I was curious to see how Amanda would present it. As everyone knows, lies are bad, but in Sam's case her lie, or really, her willingness to go along with the lie, is ESPECIALLY bad. It was insane to see just how far everything could spin out of control. Constantly, all I wanted was to yell at Sam to tell the truth, to make everything right, especially when it was causing pain to not only the "bad" people in the book as well as the "good" people. However, I feel that the message it portrayed was more important than the easy-fix that could have occurred, and that's where the magic in this one occurred.
Sam, as you can probably imagine, was a hard character to like, even in the beginning. As mentioned before, I wanted Sam to tell the truth from the get-go, but at the same, I could feel a little understanding in her need to not do just that. It allowed for a lot of inner dilemmas for Sam, as well as overall growth, to occur. Nick, however, was a character I absolutely adored. He was such a sweet guy, especially to Sam, which made Sam's lie even harder to stomach at times, because her was this AMAZING guy, who was head-over-heels in love with her, and she was screwing it up. It was just at UGH kind of thing, but as mentioned before, the story wouldn't have delivered the punch it did without it.
Lastly, Grace's writing was fabulous! She writes such hard hitting and emotion paced books. What I love most about her books, though, is how she won't shy away from the bad moments in life, the ones where everything comes crashing down, because it's what makes them so memorable in my mind. Sometimes I just want a book that is that realistic, even though it doesn't exactly provide the HEA endings I usually crave.
In all, In Too Deep is a fascinating book, one that I highly suggest to fans of gritty contemp.
Grade: B+
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