True Story

I wrote it my own way. I made it a thriller, a horror, a memoir, a noir. I used my college essays, emails and other found documents to ground the story in truth--they're the closest thing I have to "evidence," proof that my memories, however few, are real.

What does it mean when the worst happens and you can't remember it? A drunk teen-age girl is given a lift home by two members of the lacrosse team. She only found out what happened in the car because the boys bragged about it. A man goes to an isolated mountain cabin for a final bender before he gives up drinking, for real this time. He doesn't know how the accident happened, but he'll carry the evidence of it with him for the rest of his life. A wealthy entrepreneur hires a woman to show more ghost write his motivational self-help book.

Kate Reed Petty uses the tropes of different genres and a variety of characters to explore memory and how an event can shape a life even if the person doesn't remember what happened. I enjoy novels that use the conventions of genre to dig more deeply than genre usually permits, and this one was so well done. There's a central story that emerges and as the different seemingly disparate threads come together, the novel twists into different things as it goes. There are screenplays written by middle-schoolers, emails, and sections that fall into different genres, that combine to form a cohesive, and very interesting whole. I'll be thinking about this one for some time to come. show less

This is a book that, once I got into it, I could not put it down. It is yet another book about writing and storytelling, but I find that this subject always seems fresh to me, and here the subject is telling your own story--how do you do that when you aren't even sure what your story is? It uses the tropes of horror to good effect, resulting in a kind of "found footage" novel. I also thought the insights into both alcoholism and abuse were particularly sharp. Different and dark, another winner from the Shirley Jackson Award shortlist.

In 1999, seventeen year old Alice accepts a lift home from a party. Drunk, she passes out, and is horrified when the next morning she hears the two lacrosse players have been bragging about sexually assaulting her while she was unconscious. Though the boys quickly retract their boasts when confronted by the police, the claim continues to haunt Alice, who has no memory of the night and therefore never knows which story is true.

Though the premise of True Story is reasonably straightforward, it’s execution is unconventional. Described as genre-defying, which is reflected in the novel’s unusual cover, the story covers a period of about fifteen years. The narrative shifts between two perspectives, that of Alice, and a friend of the two show more boys, Nick, and utilises various formats to examine the direct and indirect aftermath of that night.

“I wrote it my own way. I made it a thriller, a horror, a memoir, a noir. I used my college essays, emails, and other found documents to ground the story in the truth—they’re the closest thing I have to “evidence,” proof that my memories, however few, are real.... We’ll have to call it fiction, of course (we both know the danger in presenting a woman’s story as truth). But I’m trusting you to see this is true. And even if you don’t believe—even if nobody believes me again—I will know this is true, because I made it; because it’s mine.”

At its core I think True Story explores the complex intersection of truth and belief, with Petty suggesting that the concepts are more fragile and interchangeable than we like to acknowledge. For Alice the truth of what happened that night is unknowable, she can’t trust the word of the boys involved, and while Nick is convinced that nothing happened, Alice’s cousin, Haley, is equally sure something did.

“It’s your story,” you would say. “If you don’t let it out, it will take over your life.” But the story is mine only as the victim owns the prosecution, or the whale the harpoon. Telling it has always been the privilege of the perpetrators, who have the actual facts, and of the bystanders—like you—who believe they know.”

Without the truth, Alice lacks control of the narrative, and this leaves her struggling to trust herself, leading to her becoming ensnared in an abusive relationship. This contrasts sharply with Nick’s capability for self-deception, he never doubts that what he believes to be true, is.

I appreciated, rather than enjoyed, True Story. I did find it provocative and interesting but I think it has more literary than genre appeal, and I prefer the latter. show less

Oooooooof. There is no review that will do this book justice. There are 4 months left in 2021 but I'm pretty confident this will make my top 5 books of the year. I'm so beyond impressed that it is the author's debut novel like wtf; it is incredibly well-written, creative, masterful pacing, and such a nuanced complex take on rape culture. It starts off with the typical narrative of sexual assault rumour involving athletes of a high school, and then it takes us through different formats of storytelling and POVs that all accumulated into the big reveal. I had goosebumps at the end. Trigger warning for an animal death; it was horrendous but necessary for the story. If you are going to read one book this year, read this.

Debut novel by a writer known for short fiction, it has been acclaimed as "singular and daring". It tells the story of a woman finding her voice in the wake of trauma. It tells a powerful story, but I'm not a fan of this storytelling. I often felt like I was reading a series of shorts from a creative writing class only loosely interconnected.

True Story is a bold, unusual debut novel. Combining different perspectives and different modes of writing, it sets up a story where everybody or nobody could be telling the truth.

The story is about two people, Alice and Nick, who (sort of) meet as teenagers. Alice doesn’t remember anything about that night, while Nick remembers what he was told in great detail. The novel then follows them as they lead separate lives through the rest of high school and into adulthood. Alice is scarred and forever defined by the events of that night. For Nick, high school was the high point of his life – belonging to a team, being lacrosse champions – and it all goes downhill from there. As Alice grows stronger, it’s time the truth came out of show more that night but there are powerful people who don’t want that story told. But whose version of events is the true story?

I was attracted to this book by the cover – how can one story represent so many different covers? Through the different parts of the book, the author tells the story in the first person, via emails, college admission essays and horror movie scripts. Each part does have a different mood to it, from the ‘team bonding’ in the high school lacrosse team that goes way too far to Alice’s drafts for her essays telling a more sinister story. Some of Nick’s sections read like a horror movie due to the setting of an isolated cabin in the woods to when he just can’t get his life back on track. Alice’s are similar, from a toxic relationship where she becomes a ghost of herself to hiding out away from her abuser. The story does have a twist at the end which some could possibly see coming, but even then it’s a bit of a ‘what did I just read’ kind of moment. It also invalidated several characters’ memories of the events which seemed to be very real and traumatising to them.

The different ways of telling the story didn’t always work for me. Some are much more attention grabbing than others (e.g. the initial story told my Nick) while it just gets a bit silly towards the end as Nick is racing to save Alice’s dignity while she’s already confronted the people she needs to. The horror movie excerpts didn’t really add much for me (maybe it’s meant to be a palate cleanser in between longer stories). The way the events of the fateful night were handled are a little strange, particularly when it comes to Alice (did anyone think to get her checked out medically?). It’s a daring attempt for a novel, but it didn’t always pay off for me. Sometimes I was invested fully, others I was just reading with the intent to get to the next section.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com show less

I actually don't know where to begin with this review. True Story is a much hyped new release and I can understand why as it's high concept fiction offering a mixture of genres. I'm not entirely sure I really 'got' it though.

It's billed as a campus novel, psychological thriller, horror story and crime noir, hence the four different covers, and the story is told in different ways: conventional narrative, film script, college application and emails. I found it all very easy to read and I raced through it, although I have to say I preferred the conventional storytelling device out of all of them.

The story is about a sexual assault on a private school girl after a college party in 1999 America. The girl, Alice, was never sure exactly what show more had been done to her by the boys who took her home that night, and it had a huge effect on her life over the years that followed, as you might expect. The other major character is Nick, not one of the boys in the car, but an onlooker, complicit by being part of the gang of lacrosse players, reluctantly backing up his friends.

It's all very cleverly tied together in a way that isn't always obvious. I think this is a book I will remember and think about as there are parts that really worked for me, and it's such a thought-provoking story of a girl being taken advantage of and the power of rumours. However, there were also sections that didn't quite work for me where I couldn't quite figure out what part they played. I think it's the quality of the writing that got me through, rather than the unconventional structure.

There's a strong message in there about the power of the truth though. Whose truth? Is your truth really the truth? I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. Nonplussed is the word. True Story. show less