Hi guys! I’m here with yet another First Impression Friday!

I’m excited to participate in my second First Impression Friday!

This meme was created by J.W. Martin @Storeys of Stories and the rules are quite simple:

Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

In the tradition of Speak, this extraordinary debut novel shares the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault.

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year—this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman’s strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken and rebuilt, and while learning to embrace a power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.

Goodreads Synopsis 

Today I started reading The Way I Used to Be by: Amber Smith. I’m 17 pages in and so far and I can tell this is going to be a heavy read; I’m not really sure if I’m going to like it. I think I may, but I’m not sure I’m going to be wowed by it. We will see. I don’t know if I’m in the mood for a heavy read, but I will continue to read it.

It’s really hard to say what I’m going to think/rate it when I’m not even 20 pages in, but from the beginning it’s hooked me in enough to keep reading, which is a good thing.

I think I’ll end up rating it 3 stars.

Have you read this novel? What did you think of it?