Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf

by Hayley Krischer

Overview

"Ali Greenleaf's story is complex and beautifully told; full of fury, heartbreak, and hope." —Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces and How to Make Friends With the Dark

Ali Greenleaf and Blythe Jensen couldn't be more different.

Ali is sweet, bitingly funny, and just a little naive. Blythe is beautiful, terrifying, and the most popular girl in school. They've never even talked to each other, until a party when Ali decides she'll finally make her move on Sean Nessel, her longtime crush and the soccer team's superstar. But Sean pushes Ali farther than she wants to go. When she resists—he rapes her.

Blythe sees Ali when she runs from the party, everyone sees her. And Blythe knows something happened with Sean; she knows how he treats girls. Even so, she's his best friend, his confidant. When he tells her it was a misunderstanding, she decides to help him make things right.

So Blythe befriends Ali, bringing her into a circle of ruthless popular girls, and sharing her own dark secrets. Despite the betrayal at the heart of their relationship, they see each other, in a way no one ever has before.

In her searing, empowering debut novel, Hayley Krischer tells the story of what happened that night, and how it shaped Ali and Blythe forever. Both girls are survivors in their own ways, and while their friendship might not be built to last, it's one that empowers each of them to find justice on their own terms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593114117
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	68,967
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Hayley Krischer is a writer and journalist. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times, where she covers women, teenage girls, celebrities, and cultural trends. Her work has also appeared in Marie Claire, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and more. She lives in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with her husband, two kids, one dog, and three cats.

Editorial Reviews

08/01/2020

Gr 9 Up—"Have you ever seen a god fall?" Sean Nessel: soccer star, the most popular boy in school, and the object of every girl's desire. Sean gets everything he wants. He deserves it. He expects it. He's a god. Ali Greenleaf: quiet, sweet, kind of shy, and she has always had a crush on Sean. Blythe Jensen: popular, beautiful, confident, and extremely intimidating. And she's Sean's best friend. One night at a party, Ali finally decides to make her move on Sean, and things go farther than she wanted them to. After, Sean enlists his pal Blythe to befriend Ali in order to smooth things over. As Ali and Blythe form their own friendship and seem to bond over their different but shared experiences of sexual assault, it is revealed that they may have more in common than they expected. Their friendship, flawed as it is, explores the many complexities of sexual assault and how it affects girls everywhere. The social politics of the school further complicate these traumas and it becomes clear that everyone is part of the story. After internally struggling with her assault for most of the book, Ali finally decides to speak up, finding her voice and her strength. Though sensitive teens may have a hard time reading about the graphic nature of Ali's and Blythe's experiences with sexual assault, Ali's internal struggles after the fact, and teen bullying, these are feelings that many can relate to, and therefore this is an important read for teens. VERDICT A powerful and important addition to YA books on the topic of sexual assault. Recommended for high school and public libraries everywhere.—Elizabeth Blake, Fields Corner Lib., Dorchester, MA

School Library Journal

2020-07-14
A young woman is raped and then must find her way through an attempt to silence her made by one of her attacker’s friends, who is herself a survivor of sexual violence.

Alternating first-person narration from junior Ali and popular senior Blythe presents an anguishing picture of a high school hierarchy in which revered athletes behave with impunity and Blythe and three other it girls are actually known by the moniker the Core Four. Beginning at a house party, Ali is initially thrilled that her long-standing crush, Sean, is paying attention to her; her sexual assault that same night is described with heart-wrenching realism. Yet Blythe’s efforts, at Sean’s impetus, to manage the fallout from Ali’s rape shift the focus of Krischer’s debut, which sprawls out into a realistically messy look at the power dynamics at play in a toxic school environment and into the shared painful experiences of Ali and Blythe, whose mothers are emotionally unavailable to them due to their respective struggles with substance use disorder and bipolar disorder. Ali and Sean are White, Blythe is Ashkenazi Jewish and Swedish; there is significant ethnic diversity among their friends. An appendix with resources for sexual assault survivors and those struggling with substance abuse and mental health along with a deeply personal and moving author’s note enhance the novel.

A harrowing read that tells a complicated story with nuance. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews

2021 RISE: A Feminist Book Project List Selection

"Whether or not Sean is punished for his crime becomes less important than the powerful voices these unlikely allies end up granting each other." —The New York Times

"A relentless expression of survival, facets of pain and how we carry and inflict violence toward ourselves and against each other. Daring in its complexity. A powerful debut." —Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie

“A powerful, nuanced, and stunning debut about rape culture and survival that will haunt you long after you close the book. Ali Greenleaf's story is complex and beautifully told; full of fury, heartbreak, and hope.” —Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces and How to Make Friends With the Dark 

“Necessary and timely, Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf takes us on a journey that is at once heartbreaking and heart-healing, as Hayley Krischer’s unique, refreshing voice skillfully navigates the realities of sexual assault with care, insight, and authenticity. Full of truth, hope, and empowerment, this story is one you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve finished.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be

“Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf deftly examines the elaborate complexity of high school friendships, and confronts every possible shade of gray. A timely and intimate discussion of rape culture, the power of shared stories, the courage it takes to find your voice.” —Ashley Woodfolk, author of When You Were Everything 

"Their friendship, flawed as it is, explores the many complexities of sexual assault and how it affects girls everywhere. . . . A powerful and important addition." —School Library Journal 

"A realistically messy look at the power dynamics at play in a toxic school environment and into the shared painful experiences of Ali and Blythe . . . A harrowing read that tells a complicated story with nuance." —Kirkus Reviews

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