I met McGinnis at OLC after I read this book and she was just as amazing as I suspected. Now I own a signed copy of this book that reads:
"Jeri - Trust your Instincts!" and it has her card that reads:
"Writer Writer Pants on Fire"


Review from Good Reads, Jan 29 2017:

This book took me 2 days. With a teething one-year-old at home.

So great! What a timely novel! This should be a must-read for all teenagers - male and female. The narration is shared by 3 people, 2 very different girls and a boy. They are all seniors at the same school and are all affected by the kidnapping, rape, and murder of one of the girls' sister before the story starts.

There is graphic teenage sex and discussion thereof, but if anyone thinks that this isn't realistic they DEFINITELY need to read this book! This is a cautionary tale for females about the dangers in this world if you're a girl. It's a cautionary tale for males about the dangers in this world if you underestimate the power of females.

No means no. Lack of explicit consent means NO. "Boys will be boys" is a destructive and out-dated mentality in our culture. Girls want to have sex, too, and that's okay - it doesn't make them a "slut" (ugh I HATE that word!) Report abuse! Yours and anyone else's! It will most likely prevent the abuser from striking again.

My favorite quote: "I live in a world where not being molested as a child is considered luck." p 239

I want my precocious daughter to read this novel, but she's just turned twelve and I'm not sure I'm ready for her to read about blow-jobs and pussy yet. agh. I will remember this novel for her when she's 14 or so, though! ( )

Content warnings for this book: rape/sexual assault, physical assault, brief but graphic violence, references to child abuse, animal cruelty, substance abuse

The Female of the Species is marketed as a book about rape culture, but that trendy phrase barely scratches the surface. It's a book about rape and the social pressures that enable rapists to walk free; it's about guilt; it's about violence begetting violence; it's about not wanting to report a sexual assault to the police because you'd have to admit that you were out drinking with your underage friends; it's about not reporting a sexual assault because your friend was the rapist.

McGinnis suggests that sexual violence is a complicated issue that cannot be bubbled down to statistics about one sex's tendencies versus another's. In this book, people of all genders and ways of life contribute to an ongoing culture of violence and rape. Male characters like Jack and Park inappropriately touch others without consent and hesitate to take responsibility when things go too far. Female characters like Claire and Branley use sexual manipulation and slut-shame each other on bathroom walls. These characters are sympathetic and complex, and the reader is invited to understand where they're coming from while also condemning their actions.

Almost no one in this town knows how to handle rape culture; teachers look the other way when students mime out exaggerated sex acts, and policemen make rape jokes in the middle of presentations on date rape. In the middle of the cluelessness and willful ignorance stands Alex, our protagonist. She is the voice of reason, the one who calls others out for being unfair or misjudging... And she's also a cold-blooded murderer. Do with that what you will, 'cause I sure don't know how to handle it.

Alex, and the moral questions her character raises, were my favorite parts of this read. Something is definitely "wrong" with Alex. Most days she is rational and deeply empathetic, but she also occasionally is compelled to violently kill bad people. Alex's "condition" does not fit an easy psychological definition (she's clearly not a sociopath). Without a diagnosis to explain her wild actions, I found this book tipping over into like magical realism, like maybe Alex was actually a vigilante ghost-angel. That's not to say that Alex is flat; I identified so strongly with her self-doubt and self-hatred and adored her for trying so hard to be good. But identifying with her did not lessen the uncanny sense that Alex may never have even existed.

I'm kind of worried that some people read this and happily endorse Alex's most violent acts - i.e. "all rapists should burn, it's just that simple." Alex herself doesn't think this; she lives in constant guilt over the people she's killed. This is meant to be a moral quandary of a book, not an example of the perfect solution.

In essence, The Female of the Species asserts that, yes, men are more likely to commit violent acts than women, but they also engage in a thousand smaller behaviors that lead up to the ultimate violent act; and women contribute, too; and, as Alex proves, women can also be incredibly violent. ( )

Female of the Species follows Alex, Jack, and Peekay throughout their senior year of high school following the rape and murder of Alex's sister. While it does follow the lives of these three protagonists, it focuses on society's acceptance of rape culture and how it affects people. Specifically, it examines the fear people have of reporting sexual assault, as well as how people deal with sexual assault after it happens, both in healthy and unhealthy ways.

It calls into question why we respond the way we do and challenges stereotypes on female and teenage sexuality and challenges traditional slut shaming. It also shows the differences between a community working individually to remove a problem vs a community coming together to enact change.

While it is an incredibly tough topic to read on, it is a very well-written book and holds a lot of importance. I thought the way it was discussed in this book was constructive and can help build to a better society through the discussions and actions this book can bring up. It was well-written, with multiple characters growing and not just the protagonists.

The reason I gave it 4.5 star instead of 5 stars is because the story can blend together at times, making it difficult to decipher how much time is actually occurring throughout. If you go into it knowing that this all occurs over the whole school year and not just a few weeks, and that the healing journey is not completed at the end, it could very easily be a 5 star book. ( )

If I hadn't read the last 30 or so pages, this would have gotten a 5 star rating. ( )

If I hadn't read the last 30 or so pages, this would have gotten a 5 star rating. ( )