The Female of the Species

This was a dark, tough read for me. It tapped into a lot of raw anger, and it was definitely different to read a young female protagonist so full of rage, especially outside of a dystopian context. It's a book designed to provoke thought about sexual violence. It does less to offer an single conclusive argument, instead acting more as an observation of just how much rape culture sucks for pretty much everyone. There are certainly less graphically violent texts that explore this issue, but I think McGinnis set out to hold no punches, and one of the ways she did that is by speaking through someone like Alex.