RihannaMyElegant

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Sunday, 3 June 2012

Megan Abbott's The End of Everything

Posted on 00:33 by Unknown

Warning: Triggering and Spoilers

I bought this yesterday in the Jubilee Kindle sale on Amazon. I really have to stop buying books based on price because, so far, it hasn't gone well [Christa Allen's Walking on Broken Glass being a prime case in point; nasty misogynistic rape/ domestic violence apologist shite]. I did buy Helen Castor's She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth for 99p in the sale. I have high hopes for that book.

The basic plot of Megan Abbott's The End of Everything is the disappearance of a 13 year old girl told from the viewpoint of her best friend. The product description is this:

Lizzie and Evie are inseparable. They walk home from school together, sleep over at each other's houses, even flirt with boys together. And they tell each other everything. Or at least, that's what Lizzie thinks -- until Evie goes missing, and Lizzie suddenly realises their friendship wasn't quite what she thought.
I have to say I find this description quite creepy. They don't "flirt" with boys together. There are several scenes of "small sexual assaults"; one in which Lizzie is bullied into allowing a 16 year old boy touch her breasts whilst he masturbates. That's not "flirting". It's a criminal offence. Dusty, the older sister of Evie, is being stalked by not just one boy who insists of parking outside her house night after night but by several other boys as well. There are no healthy sexual relationships amongst the teenagers. It is a catalogue of sexual abuse by teenage boys who believe they are entitled to abuse the bodies of two barely 13 year olds. Lizzie is incredibly naive about sexuality whilst Evie knows more than a child should.

And, that's what I find really troubling about this book. What it really is about is Lizzie discovering Evie's "secrets" which amounts to the long-term rape of her sister Dusty by Evie's father. Evie "runs away" [and both Dusty and Lizzie define it in these terms] because she is jealous of her father's relationship with Dusty. Evie is an emotionally abused child living in a house poisoned by incest. It is not her "choice" to run away with the child rapist; nor can she "consent" to her rape as Evie tries to justify it to herself. Her mother remains peripheral due her drug dependency although it is quite clear that the mother knows what is happening to Dusty and only emerges from her drug haze to care for Evie after she has been raped by the man who kidnapped her. All the adults in Evie's life have let her down. Her best friend Lizzie is trapped in a delusion of "love" and is too blind to see Evie asking for help. 


The book ends with Lizzie helping Evie and Dusty cover up the incest in order to protect their father [a man who tries to groom Lizzie after Evie disappears]. And, yes, it's a book based on a 13 year old's understanding of a situation that no child should have to understand but still the book read wrong to me. I was racing to finish it with a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach hoping that the secret wasn't what I thought it would be but it was. I really didn't like this book. It just read false is so many ways. I can see what Abbott was trying to do but I don't think she succeeded.

I also remain incensed at how these books are advertised like with The Paris Wife. The sexual assault of young teenage girls by older boys is not "flirting" and its this kind of twaddle only serves to reinforce our rape culture.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in #IBelieveHer, #ReadingOnlyBooksWrittenByWomen, #WeBelieveYou, Domestic Violence, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual Violence, women-blaming culture | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Anthony Kiedis: Moving from Sexiest Rocker to Creepy Old Man
    A friend sent me a link to these images because they know I'm a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Apparently, they are from the Russian ...
  • #DickheadDetox : David Bowie, Jimmy Page and that Small Issue of Child Rape
    I won't be buying David Bowie's new album today. I've been a fan for years. Right up until I read this blog post on the 70s rock...
  • Flavor Flav is a member of the #DickheadDetox
    Flavor Flav , one of the founding members of Public Enemy has been arrested, again, for domestic violence. I have to be honest here and say ...
  • I am going to #RadFem2013.
    When I first wrote that I was going to RadFem2013 two months ago I did so with trepidation and fear because I knew what the reaction would ...
  • My Christmas Books for #readingonlybookswrittenbywomen
    These are the lovely books I got for Christmas: Rose Tremain's The Colour Rose Tremain's The Way I Found Her Maggie O'Farrell...
  • #TeamBreezy: Or, How to Spot Sexist Bucketheads on Twitter
    Twitter seems to be running a competition this past week entitled: Spot the Best Misogynist. The competition has been fierce with Chris Brow...
  • Things I Never Needed to Know as a Mother.
    You can wash the inside of Barbie's pink VW bug with a toothbrush after an entire can of Vimto was spilt in it and left to fester for se...
  • The Mumsnet Secret Santa: Thanking Those Women Who Have Changed Our Lives
    The Mumsnet Secret Santa has been going for several years now. It was started by members as a way of thanking others who had helped them b...
  • ​Don't let the Bank of England buy their way out of justice! Help spread the word!
    Below is a letter written by Caroline Criado-Perez of The Woman's Room UK asking for financial support in challenging the Bank of Englan...
  • If Men Want to Help:
    This is reblogged from Radical Wind: blowing through female outerspace If Men Want to Help: There’s been a bit of discussion lately about ho...

Categories

  • #BuyingOnlyMusicByWomen (2)
  • #celebrityculture (9)
  • #culturalfemicide (64)
  • #dickheaddetox (21)
  • #EverydaySexism (38)
  • #EverydayVictimBlaming (3)
  • #FeministFriendlyFilms (5)
  • #IBelieveHer (33)
  • #IDidNotReport (16)
  • #IWD (1)
  • #ListeningOnlyToMusicByWomen (6)
  • #maleviolence (24)
  • #RadFem2013 (5)
  • #rapeculture (84)
  • #ReadingOnlyBooksWrittenByWomen (60)
  • #shoutingback (4)
  • #silentnomore (16)
  • #SilentSunday (19)
  • #supportingwomenartists (7)
  • #waronwomen (87)
  • #WeBelieveYou (36)
  • Abortion (17)
  • Abortion Rights (4)
  • amenorrhea (4)
  • Benevolent Sexism (7)
  • Birth Control (9)
  • Black History Month (1)
  • Body-Shaming (2)
  • Boycott (21)
  • Breastfeeding (8)
  • Bullying Culture (4)
  • Canadian Literature (2)
  • capitalism (1)
  • Caroline Criado Perez (1)
  • Celebrity Culture (28)
  • celebrity endorsement (1)
  • Child abuse (13)
  • Child Maintenance (2)
  • Child Neglect (5)
  • Child Rape (19)
  • Childbirth (4)
  • childcare (1)
  • Children's Films (9)
  • children's literature (6)
  • Children's Movies (1)
  • Compulsory Heterosexuality (4)
  • Cultural Appropriation (4)
  • Cultural Femicide (66)
  • Disablism (11)
  • Divorce (1)
  • Domestic Violence (77)
  • Eating disorders (6)
  • Edinburgh Book Festival (3)
  • Everyday Sexism (4)
  • Exited Women (1)
  • Facebook (2)
  • Fairy Tales (5)
  • Family (1)
  • Family Annihilators (4)
  • fashion-beauty complex (34)
  • Fat-shaming (2)
  • Female Artists (8)
  • Female Genital Mutilation (4)
  • Femen (6)
  • Femicide (5)
  • feminism (123)
  • Feminist Activism (91)
  • Feminist Theory (11)
  • Fertility (1)
  • fibromyalgia (1)
  • Financial Abuse (1)
  • Free Speech (19)
  • Gender Stereotyping (10)
  • Gendercide (14)
  • Gendering Children (11)
  • Genocide (3)
  • Girl Guides (1)
  • Gun Control (1)
  • Halloween (1)
  • Handmaidens (16)
  • Handmaidesn (1)
  • Harmful Cultural Practises (27)
  • Hate Crime (1)
  • Healthcare (3)
  • Heteronormativity (4)
  • Holocaust (3)
  • Homophobia (5)
  • Housing Benefit (1)
  • Human Rights Watch (1)
  • Humanism (1)
  • Hyper-masculinity (22)
  • hyper-sexuality (22)
  • IBelieveHer (1)
  • Infertility (3)
  • Injunctions (2)
  • International Boycotts (1)
  • International Women's Day (1)
  • Intimate Partner Violence (5)
  • JumpMag (3)
  • Language (6)
  • Lesbian separatism (1)
  • Lesbians (1)
  • Lesbophobia (1)
  • literature (6)
  • Louise Mensch (1)
  • Male Entitlement (41)
  • Male Violence (27)
  • Male Violence Against Women (143)
  • manplaining (2)
  • Mass Media (4)
  • Menstruation (1)
  • military-industrial complex (4)
  • Million Women Rise (2)
  • Misandry (1)
  • Miscarriage (1)
  • Misogynistic Advertising (25)
  • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame (27)
  • Misogyny (193)
  • Misogyny in Film (7)
  • Misogyny in Music (4)
  • Misogyny in television (5)
  • Mooncup (2)
  • Motherhood (1)
  • Mumsnet (19)
  • Music by women (3)
  • Netmums (1)
  • Neuroscience (1)
  • Neuroskeptic (1)
  • NIA (3)
  • Nincompoop (18)
  • Nincompoopery (6)
  • Nobel Peace Prize (1)
  • Objectification of Women (56)
  • Olympics (2)
  • Parenting (1)
  • Patriarchal Conformity (35)
  • Patriarchal Fuckability Test (47)
  • Patriarchy (64)
  • PETA (7)
  • Petition (4)
  • Pink Stinks (2)
  • PIV (2)
  • Polanski (2)
  • Porn Culture (16)
  • Pornography (18)
  • Poverty (9)
  • Pregnancy (1)
  • Prostitution (11)
  • Pussy Riot (8)
  • Racism (21)
  • Radical Feminism (19)
  • Rape (53)
  • Rape Crisis Scotland (2)
  • Rape Culture (95)
  • Rape Myths (5)
  • Reality Television (7)
  • Reclaim the Night (2)
  • Reproductive Rights (4)
  • Right to Privacy (2)
  • Roman Polanski (4)
  • School Uniforms (1)
  • Scotland (1)
  • sex entertainment industry (12)
  • Sex Tourism (1)
  • Sex Trafficking (2)
  • Sexist Advertising (16)
  • Sexual Harassment (3)
  • Sexual Violence (59)
  • Silent Sunday (2)
  • Sisterhood (8)
  • Slut-Shaming (17)
  • Slutwalk (3)
  • Stockholm Syndrome (1)
  • Substance Misuse (2)
  • Sudden Infant Death Syndrome [SIDS] (1)
  • teenage pregnancies (1)
  • The Women's Room UK (2)
  • Torture (2)
  • transactivism (1)
  • Transgenderism (2)
  • Transphobic (1)
  • Trident (1)
  • Twitter (2)
  • UK Feminsta (1)
  • Vagenda (1)
  • Vagina (3)
  • Victim Blaming (24)
  • Violence against Women (142)
  • Violence Against Women in Scotland (4)
  • War on Women (81)
  • Welfare State (6)
  • White Supremacy (4)
  • Womanism (2)
  • women (8)
  • Women Academics (1)
  • women and law (2)
  • Women Artists (2)
  • Women Athletes (2)
  • Women Bloggers (23)
  • Women in Prostitution (1)
  • Women Writers (67)
  • women-blaming culture (53)
  • women-only spaces (3)
  • Women's Films (2)
  • women's health (1)
  • Women's History (18)
  • Women's History Month (6)
  • Women's Holocaust Testimonies (1)
  • Women's Liberation (8)
  • Women's Library (1)
  • Women's Literature (24)
  • Women's Music (2)
  • Women's Poetry (7)
  • Women's Rights (17)
  • Women's Stories (5)
  • World Breastfeeding Week (1)
  • World Wildlife Federation (1)

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (260)
    • ►  August (23)
    • ►  July (33)
    • ►  June (31)
    • ►  May (37)
    • ►  April (32)
    • ►  March (38)
    • ►  February (38)
    • ►  January (28)
  • ▼  2012 (240)
    • ►  December (28)
    • ►  November (34)
    • ►  October (50)
    • ►  September (28)
    • ►  August (36)
    • ►  July (33)
    • ▼  June (27)
      • Petition to Scottish Government to Prevent Cuts to...
      • The Vicky Bliss Mysteries: Great Feminist Books; U...
      • FFS: School Uniforms DON'T improve children's lear...
      • Edinburgh Book Festival: Cultural Femicide at its ...
      • Women Power: Family Planning Saves Lives
      • So Saudi Arabia is Sending 1 Female Athlete to the...
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Compeed Bl...
      • Loving the NHS: Why Privatisation Kills
      • Apparently, Angela Merkel has a vagina.
      • Girls In Science: How to Patronise and Offend in 4...
      • FemFresh: Got to love a Feminist Smackdown
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Perrier Water
      • Father's Day: The Patriarchal Whiny Prize.
      • Loving Aurora Teagarden [and Looking For Recommend...
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Tampax Pea...
      • Louis Theroux Utterly Stupid View of Porn
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Always and...
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Pepsi Max'...
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: Durex uses...
      • Scholastic: Reinforcing Harmful Gender Roles for P...
      • #BuyingOnlyMusicByWomen
      • Language, Feminism and Reclaiming the Nincompoop
      • "Girls": Objectifying and Belittling all Women; Al...
      • Misogynistic Advertising Walk of Shame: National H...
      • The Petition Round-Up Redux
      • Megan Abbott's The End of Everything
      • Shocking Event: Dominic Monaghan Forgets that Holl...
    • ►  May (4)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile