“A gripping, ripped-from-headlines tale.” —People “Spellbinding.” —Megan Abbott, The New York Times Book Review Tracing the fifteen-year fallout of a toxic high school rumor, a riveting, astonishingly original debut novel about the power of stories—and who gets to tell them2015. A gifted and reclusive ghostwriter, Alice Lovett makes a living helping other people tell their stories. But she is … makes a living helping other people tell their stories. But she is haunted by the one story she can’t tell: the story of, as she puts it, “the things that happened while I was asleep.”
1999. Nick Brothers and his lacrosse teammates return for their senior year at their wealthy Maryland high school as the reigning state champions. They’re on top of the world—until two of his friends drive a passed-out girl home from of the team’s “legendary” parties, and a rumor about what happened in the backseat spreads through the town like wildfire.
The boys deny the allegations, and, eventually, the town moves on. But not everyone can. Nick descends into alcoholism, and Alice builds a life in fits and starts, underestimating herself and placing her trust in the wrong people. When she finally gets the opportunity to confront the past she can’t remember—but which has nevertheless shaped her life—will she take it?
An inventive and breathtaking exploration of a woman finding her voice in the wake of trauma, True Story is part psychological thriller, part fever dream, and part timely comment on sexual assault, power, and the very nature of truth. Ingeniously constructed and full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing until the final pages, it marks the debut of a singular and daring new voice in fiction.
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WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTT? This book was so well thought out and great! He said/she said versions and what can happen when rumors spread. Everyone has their own truths and figuring out what is the actual truth is difficult. This story was told through Alice’s POV (the victim) and Nick’s POV (a friend of the accused) and it was just so well done.
I loved this book. I have never read anything like it. Told through various platforms and POVs (a screenplay, emails, text messages, first person, second person), this riveting story is so hard to put down. I don’t usually “binge” books, but I did with this one and read it in just a few days. I had to read the ending twice to really understand what happened, but it did not detract from my enjoyment of the novel.
The synopsis of True Story by Kate Reed Petty says it is part fever dream and I could not agree more. Like I legitimately have never seen something more accurate in a synopsis before. There are parts of this book where I actually had to check my physical copy to make sure I wasn’t missing anything in the audio, and it has the most unique format and writing style. I am also blown away by the fact this is a debut novel, and I have to hand it to the author for creating this amazing, shocking, heart-wrenching thing. I thought the audio was really well done, and I enjoyed the different narrators (Kristen Sieh, Alexander Cendese & Cassandra Campbell). However, this is one of those books where it would be good to have the physical copy as well. This is told in a mixed-media style, and that with some of the Nick parts got a little confusing on audio.
I can’t even begin to list how many heavy topics the author took head on in this book, and it has a shocking ending that I never saw coming. There are so many parts of the novel that I was just like “what?” and it is definitely the genre-bending read that I see other reviewers calling it. True Story is one of those books that is great to go into blind and just see where it takes you, and you will then find out why the cover is just so fitting. I am actually still processing everything that happened, and it is going to take a while to wrap my head around it, but I highly recommend this novel where nothing is ever as it seems.
Wow. This was a very unique book. It is a story of lives affected by something that happened while the characters were in high school. The story is told by Nick, a lacrosse star in school, who is friends with Richard and Max, and who has a crush on Haley. It is told by Alice, who was best friends with Haley. The two girls would write and act out horror films. They grew apart while in high school, but reconnect years later.
One night after a party, a bunch of them are at a diner when a story is told. The story takes on a life of its own and changes the trajectory of the lives of those involved. Some lives are irreparably changed.
This is written like no other novel I have read. It is written in scripts, in college application drafts, in manuscript form, and in flashbacks. It is an interesting story and is written with raw emotion. It is a horror story of what can happen.
I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
#TrueStory #KateReedPetty #Edelweiss
I literally cannot believe this book exists. A mind-blowing, page-turning, un-put-downable, heartwarming, empathetic, formally inventive horror suspense thriller, with a life-affirming and timely feminist message? What? This would be an amazing fifteenth novel for a person to have written and it is Kate Reed Petty’s first one. What an incredible talent!
Kate Reed Petty is such a gifted writer that she can make even a college application essay feel utterly heartbreaking. And in True Story, she has given us a riveting and totally innovative novel about the power of lies to shape the truth, a book built like an elaborate jigsaw puzzle whose picture becomes thrillingly clear only after you’ve locked in the very last piece.
Brilliant — a darkly gripping enigma of a book. Petty boldly plays with genre and voice to tell the story of an assault and a rumor that shapes the trajectory of a woman’s life. The result is a beautifully prismatic and profound meditation on victims and perpetrators, lies and truth, and above all the dangers and powers of storytelling and what it means to finally claim your voice.
True Story is a brilliant achievement — original, powerful, and playful, flipping formats like a kaleidoscope whose fractals rearrange with each twist until the truth comes into final focus. But beyond its formal daring and assurance, it’s a thoroughly engrossing read. I may have held my breath through the whole thing, and I will think about it for a long time. This is a shapeshifting, sneak attack of a novel that leaves a permanent imprint.
I loved it. Such a smart, powerful, ambitious book, very high concept and so effectively realised. Definitely one to look out for this summer.
True Story is a spectacular first novel — innovative, convincing, daring, suspenseful, heart-wrenching, and altogether astonishing. Kate Reed Petty is a force. What a beautifully unified, richly imagined, and skillfully composed work of literary art. I hope it wins the prizes Petty deserves.
Kate Reed Petty examines how one decision affects multiples lives for decades to come in a story that grips you by the throat and keeps you turning the pages.
At a high school party, Alice gets blackout drunk and is given a ride home by two boys who then brag about what they did to her before dumping (literally) her at her front door. You can imagine what this does to Alice–the rumors, the scurrilous gossip. Her friendships and relationships with her parents topsize, and she struggles to give her life stability.
Told through the perspectives of Alice and Nick, a fellow lacrosse player and teammate to the two boys who took Alice home, True Story examines several threads. Truth, as Kate Reed Petty shows, takes on different appearances to different people. Alice’s truth, for instance, is informed by what the two boys spread around town. Their truth, naturally, is different. As for Nick, Reed Petty takes what could be a static bystander and turns him into a cautionary tale of the toxicity of not speaking out.
Reed Petty also looks at white male privilege. You get to see one of the boys as a 30-year-old, and the scenes featuring the grown-up him are chilling. His response to his teenage behavior will horrify you. (In fact, there is a line about life being scary that calls out Pennywise, making it easy to compare that terrifying clown to this man.) When you consider what Alice has experienced in the years since that awful night and compare them to this man, it will be difficult not to scream with rage.
The timeline zigs and zags from the past to the present between Nick and Alice’s perspectives. As much as you feel for Alice and want vengeance on her behalf, you might find yourself feeling something similar for Nick. A particular scene featuring him made me heartsick. Sexual assault has collateral damage, Kate Reed Petty shows, even in characters you would think would be unaffected.
I wish that the grown-up version of one of the perpetrators had been better developed. There is so much I want to know about him. The same with a friend of Alice’s from her teen years. I remain curious about the two of them.
I could not put this book down, reading it late into the night. I had to know if Alice and Nick would be okay. Reed Petty’s ending is one that must be discussed, which makes this a fantastic pick for a book club.
Read this one and then hit up the comments to let me know what you think.