Truth Be Told

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney: Review and Giveaway

Posted: 23 Feb 2011 10:17 AM PST

The Mockingbirds

Written by: Daisy Whitney

Published in: November 2010

Published by: Little Brown for Young Readers

389 Pages

Format: Hardcover
Source: Author (Won a giveaway)
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Edgy Issues

Synopsis
Some schools have honor codes.
Others have handbooks.
Themis Academy has the Mockingbirds.

Themis Academy is a quiet boarding school with an exceptional student body that the administration trusts to always behave the honorable way—the Themis Way. So when Alex is date raped during her junior year, she has two options: stay silent and hope someone helps her, or enlist the Mockingbirds—a secret society of students dedicated to righting the wrongs of their fellow peers.

In this honest, page-turning account of a teen girl's struggle to stand up for herself, debut author Daisy Whitney reminds readers that if you love something or someone—especially yourself—you fight for it

My Review:
The Mockingbirds was a refreshing contemporary young adult novel. I am so happy I decided to finally read this book. This book deals with a very serious issue, date rape, and it does so with eloquence.

Before reading the book, I began browsing others' reviews to see what everyone was saying. Some readers didn't enjoy it as much (usual), saying the entire world was kind of hard to believe. Well in reading this book, I will have to agree and say that the entire world did seem out there to me, but it was entirely believable. Let me clarify, the way Daisy Whitney wrote the novel, made the story seem so real, I was completely drawn into it. Even if the plot seems unfathomable, it's the writing style that sold it. So, I say, it is completely believable. Also, on another point, this actually does happen, in a lot of schools. I know some of the high schools in my area are really hesitant on giving harsh punishments because the students are all over achievers and bent on attending good schools.

The descriptiveness of this story was a great touch. The small details helped to give you an overall idea at who the characters where, and into what they were thinking. Small things, like at one point, the novel describes Amy's Black Converse and Skinny Jeans. I instantly had an overall idea of what type of person she was. The moments when Alex begins to remember where some of the hardest to read; the details that went into those scenes were so on point with what a girl would be feeling if that was happening. By the end of the book I thought of Alex as someone I knew, someone I was rooting for.