12/06/2023
The Way I Used To Be - by Amber Smith
Page Count: 384 pages
(18+)
The Way I Used to Be is a YA novel written by author Amber Smith. The book, published in 2016, is a New York Times bestseller. Smith, an advocate for spreading awareness about issues related to gendered violence, tackles themes of sexual and domestic abuse in her young adult novels. The Way I Used to Be follows Eden McCrorey, a teenager who is r***d by her older brother’s best friend, Kevin. The novel is divided into four parts, with each part corresponding to a single year in high school—beginning with her freshman year immediately after she is r***d and concluding with her senior year. Over that four-year period, the narrative shows the ways in which Eden is transformed—and damaged—by her traumatic experience.
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