Review- The Mockingbirds

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
Publisher: Little, Brown
Release Date: November 2, 2010 Today!
Source: Book It Forward ARC Tours

My Rating: 4 stars
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.
(From Little, Brown)

I love it when I read a book that I've been looking forward to for the longest and it meets my expectations. The Mockingbirds has now been added to that list, ever since I read the synopsis for it I knew this was going to be an emotional and powerful read. Daisy Whitney has written a great debut novel that I'm sure a lot of people will feel very strongly about and will certainly relate to its main character.

What I loved most about this novel was that even though its focus is the very painful topic of date rape, Daisy Whitney told the story of Alex in a way that it doesn't make it uncomfortable for the reader, yes it's sad, but there's more than that in the book, it's not graphic and it's not something that will make you want to stop reading and take a break because you are emotionally drained. It did bring out a lot of emotions, specially hatred for Carter who was disgusting and delusional thinking he didn't do anything wrong, I just wanted something horrible to happen to him. I did love the amazing group of friends that Alex had, who supported her and never judged her, who helped her realize that it wasn't her fault. I thought the way The Mockingbirds worked, their mission to put a stop to students hurting each other and their punishments were brilliant, it just kept amazing me and it made it so hard to put the book down.

What got me really frustrated were the adults in the story, the way the school was ran and how they just acted like nothing was going on and just brushed everything off like it was no big deal, it was infuriating! I was just hoping that someone would notice or Alex would scream like I felt while reading it, but then that was the purpose of The Mockingbirds because the adults in the school did nothing.  Even though I've never gone through what Alex went through I was still able to relate to her and feel her pain, I just wanted to wrap her in a hug. I think this would be a great novel for everyone but specially for those that have gone through something like this, it might help them realize that they are not alone, that they will get support and encourage them to speak up.