Review: Jenny Rat

Jenny Rat by Martin Simons
Stars:
Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Social Issues
Age Group:
Page: 354

Purchase Link: Amazon | B&N



Blurb:

Jenny, a young girl who has been sexually abused since childhood and now brutally assaulted, has been reduced to utter despair. She is saved by a reclusive, shy young man, Michael, twenty eight years old, who stumbles across her dying in the gutter outside his isolated house. He is a brilliant consultant engineer who works from home with his computers, rarely venturing outside. Profoundly shocked he gets her to hospital and visits her there as she struggles to recover. Mentally she is shattered. He is greatly shaken by the intrusion into his settled life but, full of compassion cannot abandon her. She recognizes in him a hope of refuge and determines to live with him. He welcomes her. They pretend to be sister and brother but this cannot last. She has great talents as a sculptor. He encourages her, providing tools and materials as she grows, constructs and reconstructs her works and her life. She begins to chip at him as she shapes her art. He is compelled to expand outside his self-imposed solitude. She attends school and brings friends to the house. A crisis develops which they overcome with difficulty. They become lovers. As they both continue to develop and grow, their relationship alters. At first he was the stronger, advising her to take control of her own life. She discovers in herself the power to do so and knows she is responsible for changing him too. As they grow further, more changes must be faced.

My Thoughts:

"You have to create, construct, and re-construct yourself. Don't blame others for what you become."

Jenny was just a child who abused in every way and broken when she was found by Micheal. Michael was a shy man who kept to himself with only the company of a prostitute once a week. Michael had no clue what to expect when he found that girl battered on the floor but once he took care of her and sent her to the hospital, something changed in him. Against the warnings of others Michael just couldn't stay away from Jenny. Jenny was quite and scared and the only person who can bring her out of her shell was Michael. Determined to live with Micheal she jets from the hospital and seek refuge at his house. Its there that Michael tries to establish a normal sense of what home life is but there are times cross the border of what's right and wrong. Michael encourages Jenny to work on her art, while he signs her up for school to be around children her own age. As they grow feelings get stronger and both come out changed.

"Don't let people use you. Take charge of yourself, make yourself what you want to be. "

This book was originally for a book tour but there was a falling out for that and I had already signed up for this book on netgalley so I was interested in giving this book a chance. I never did read the description so I pretty much took a leap of faith and hoped for the best with this book. Sometimes it doesn't always work out well but in this case I enjoyed this book very much.

"Being is better than nothingness, isn't it?"

This book definitely is not for the faint of heart. It is complex, deep, intense, dark, but then hopeful. These two characters are from different worlds. Michael was an adult and Jenny was a minor and at times I felt like this was almost getting towards the book lolita but then again not. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself when I heard the Lolita was mentioned in the book because I was feeling the way the students who mentioned it. This book talks of mental abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, incest, and pedophila. There was so much cringe worthy moments in the books where I had to put the book down walk away and come back to it. I just can turn my back to a book and one like this I had to know how it turned out. Towards the end it was not at all what I had expected and I loved it all the same. I loved watching them both grow and change into better people. I loved that after all Jenny as been through she came out of it alive and well. My only problem was that sometimes I felt like the book dragged but thats about it. Overall I loved this book and Highly recommend you readers to check out this book!

"If we let things close in around us, cage us in, we will never achieve what is achievable."