Published in October 2015, thanks to NetGalley for the digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
When Emily is at one of her school football games she sees someone being attacked and does nothing. Convincing herself that Lucas, one of the football team who comes onto the scene just after her, will do the right thing and call the police she leaves. Neither student says anything, and it is down to Belinda – a student with a learning disability – to save herself.
As a consequence for Emily and Lucas’s lack of action they are instructed to volunteer in a class for students with learning disabilities. Not that this really does anything to help Belinda deal with what happened to her, but it allows the writer to get her message across that we need to look beneath the surface of people and see what they’re really like rather than judge them on appearance/reputation.
Initially, it looked like the focus would be on the attack and its consequences but the writer seemed to skirt around this issue. It was never explicitly discussed and it seemed to be more of a device to get Emily and Lucas – who would never have ended up in the same room – together. For this reason I wonder if it was necessary.
We jump viewpoints and this is a little confusing at first, but it does allow us a clear insight into the minds of Emily and Belinda. Though their lives are very different, we come to see how similar they are.
The story itself is quite slow. There’s not a great plot here, but it is a thoughtful attempt to encourage people to consider others and how we often miss out on opportunities due to our tendency to prejudge others. Unfortunately, it all felt too earnest to really make me want to tell others to read it.