Live Through This - Mindi Scott

Young Adult
Pages: 304
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: October 2, 2012

From the outside, Coley Sterling’s life seems pretty normal . . . whatever that means. It’s not perfect—her best friend is seriously mad at her and her dance team captains keep giving her a hard time—but Coley’s adorable, sweet crush Reece helps distract her. Plus, she has a great family to fall back on—with a mom and stepdad who would stop at nothing to keep her siblings and her happy.

But Coley has a lot of secrets. She won’t admit—not even to herself—that her almost-perfect life is her own carefully-crafted façade. That for years she’s been burying the shame and guilt over a relationship that crossed the line. Now that Coley has the chance at her first real boyfriend, a decade’s worth of lies are on the verge of unraveling.

In this unforgettable powerhouse of a novel, Mindi Scott offers an absorbing, layered glimpse into the life of an everygirl living a nightmare that no one would suspect.

Even though I have yet to read Freefall, I had heard nothing but praise about it. I was really excited to read Live Through This, specially because I enjoy reading dark contemporary and this sounded like an original concept. In my advance copy, there's an author's note at the beginning, which introduces us to the theme a little bit, and where Scott confesses that she was a victim of abuse similar to the one described in the book.  

Immediately I thought I would have liked to read that after the reading the story, because it has more details, so if you're the no-spoiler type of person, skip it and read it at the end. I'm not sure where it'll be placed in the final copy though. 

From the start, Scott's writing flows well and we are introduced to the family dynamics. The plot is laid out to be a little mysterious, and that was the part that made my interest quake. While we don't know what exactly is going on, we are taken on a day to day bases with way too many characters (I still don't care or know this Alejandra person!) and a lot of insignificant drama. I just don't think you can have such a dark plot and still expect the reader to care about lame high-schooly dance-squad dramas. And I mean that in the best way possible. Because I love books about high school drama, BUT they tend to be separate from these family-based dark plot books. In many chapters you almost forget the book's theme is abuse. Which, to be honest, bored me a little.

Unlike some other readers, the surprise didn't really surprise me at all. I figured there wouldn't really be a mystery around it if what was coming was the default. You'll see what I mean. But the end moved a lot faster and even though the ending was abrupt and I would have liked it slower, I was satisfied. One thing I'm sure of, this is a premise you won't find in other books. It's worth reading because I hadn't even known this kind of abuse even existed. It's a very confusing feeling. But if you enjoy dark reads, give it a shot!

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