The Mockingbirds (The Mockingbirds #1) by Daisy Whitney

The Mockingbirds (The Mockingbirds, #1) by Daisy Whitney

Hardcover, 332 pages

Published November 2nd 2010 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

“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.” – Goodreads

My Opinion: Wow. This book was wow. I remember feeling like this when I first read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Both of these books talk about the effects of being raped. And what I really liked about the book was that the author actually experienced this. She was raped. I love it when authors write about their experiences because if it is something bad, for them its a healing process. However, for the reader, it makes the story so much better because we get to experience what she went through. We can feel what she went through. Alex was REAL. I laughed, I cried, I smiled. The book just connects with you.

Alex is a girl that experiences being raped and she goes through this whole process of remember little things and on top of that she knows the rapist and sees him everyday in her class. She decided to talk to the Mockingbirds. Now, I find that what the Mockingbirds represent is something that the school, Themis Academy, should have been responsible for. The school bugged me because of their inability to comprehend human behavior. Just be you expect it to be always good, doesn’t mean that it is. The should have been on top of things like this. I hope that an actual school doesn’t exist that is like Themis Academy in the real world.

I loved that Alex stood up for herself and talked about it even though it pained her, and I love that she was able to move on. I find it amazing that the only consequence though it that the thing you love gets taken away. What is to stop a person from continuing after the academy? I really loved that you can see what Alex’s mind goes through when she thinks that it could have been her fault, it just goes to show the genuineness of the feelings of a person that has been raped.

Thank you Daisy Whitney for writing such a  great novel. I can’t wait for the second one which comes out in the fall of 2011. I wonder what the new case will be.

Overall: 5+ out of 5