Isabel Ashdown's Glasshopper and Hurry Up and Wait

I read Isabel Ashdown's Hurry Up and Wait first. It was one of those multiple-narrator-exposing-a-secret books which I generally enjoy. I wasn't very sure about this one though. I'm never very fond of books which use school reunions as a plot device. It's too tired a plot device and, unfortunately, the secret far too obvious from the beginning. I wouldn't have bothered reading her other books had I not been stuck in the car and Glasshopper was the only book downloaded on my kindle app. It was Glasshopper. Glasshopper was just wrong; in many ways.  Unlike Hurry Up and Wait, Glasshopper had a male protagonist and that made the problem with Ashdown's books obvious.

Ashdown really doesn't like the women characters in her books. All of the characters are flawed but Ashdown seems to blame the women for not being able to deal psychologically with their trauma whilst the men are forgiven. In Glasshopper', male violence isn't even considered a reason worthy of exploring when the real problem is male violence. I would have snarled and then ignored had I not come across this blurb for Hurry Up and Wait which appears on Ashdown's website:

In her eagerly anticipated second novel Mail on Sunday Novel Competition winner Isabel Ashdown explores the treacherous territory of adolescent friendships, and traces across the decades the repercussions of a dangerous relationship.

There was no "dangerous relationship".  A violent sexual predator targeting teenagers does not enter into a "relationship" with them. He was a rapist. He targeted young, vulnerable girls. And, he raped them. The moment people start using phrases like "dangerous relationships" is the moment we start obfuscating child rape. Ashdown has done for child rape what Paula McLain's The Paris Wife did for domestic violence.

I would like back the 3 hours it took me to read both books and the 20 minutes I spent writing this.