S. Walden

Brooke Wright has only two goals her senior year at Charity Run High School: stay out of trouble and learn to forgive herself for the past. Forgiveness proves elusive, and trouble finds her anyway when she discovers a secret club at school connected to the death of her best friend. She learns that swim team members participate in a "Fantasy Slut League," scoring points for their sexual acts with unsuspecting girls.Brooke, wracked with guilt over her friend's death, decides to infiltrate the league by becoming one of the "unsuspecting girls," and exact revenge on the boys who stole away her best friend. An unexpected romance complicates her plans, and her dogged pursuit of justice turns her reckless as she underestimates just how far the boys will go to keep their sex club a secret.(This is a New Adult fiction book with mature themes. It contains graphic sex and language and a description of sexual violence. Please take the content warning seriously.)

Going Under

Tayla 

This book was really good. I really enjoy S. Walden books. Her writing style just makes me happy. This book is heavy no doubt about it. I found that it didn't really effect me until after I was already through it. NOTE: there is a rape scene which is graphic I had a hard time with it and I'm pretty used to reading about topics of the such. Take that warning as you will. Walden captures Brooke's sense of urgency and her need to prove herself to alleviate her guilt and to bring justice to Beth. I was rooting for Brooke the whole time through. I found myself cringing at certain parts and telling her to get the hell out of dodge at others. I can say that I had a hard time putting this book down and focusing on my latin homework. I read the book in classes, passing periods, homeroom, before school and after school. You won't wanna put it down.

Samantha 

WOW! Seriously incredible book. I would have read in one sitting if my battery would have not died and I was without electricity. I am definitely going to recommend this book to others.

Kinsey

4 Disturbing Stars
  




I REALLY ENJOYED IT!!

Don't get me wrong there were times I just wanted to smack Brooke upside the head, and others where I couldn't help rooting for her at the same time! 

I really enjoyed the "romance" between Brooke and Ryan, but I wish there would have been a bigger focus on it. I felt like their scenes were few and far between. Therefore, I wouldn't consider this a romance novel, but the scenes they had..boy they rocked em!


  
    “It’s always described as melting, and I finally understood why. I thought my body was turning to liquid. I could feel my bones giving way, threatening to dissolve and leave me one big puddle of goo.”
  


This story starts out introducing us to Brooke, an 18 year old girl who just lost her best friend to suicide.Brooke blames herself because of her bad choices, which is causing her to have nightmares + panic attacks. 

She then comes up with this, in my honest opinion, completely idiotic plan to avenge her friends death by letting herself get raped, so that she can then turn the rapist in and forgive herself...yep you read that right. This was the point in the book where I kinda hated the heroine, and didn't think I could warm up to her(which I did, it just took awhile).

She starts seeing Ryan who seems to be the total gentleman. He treats her respectfully, and seems like the perfect catch. I could tell from pretty early on that Ryan was hiding something. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but when I found out, lets just say I had to re-group and think about it for awhile. He's made mistakes too. He's not perfect. I decided to forgive him though, even though I felt like he could have done something more...

I loved the relationship with her father. I thought it was extremely sweet, and I loved that it helped to soften the character of Brooke. Loved Terry as well...

As for the villains, well let's just say I think were extremely well written. The fact that they seemed like these all American guys was all the creepier. 


  
    “I realized I needed to look at evil in an entirely new light. Most bad guys weren’t running around with eyes bugged out. Most bad guys didn’t come across freaky and frightening…Most bad guys were normal, everyday guys moving through life like anyone else… They were hard to spot and that’s what made them so good at being bad… They could get away with it, and they knew it.” 
  
 

This a story of revenge, love, death, friendship, and overall redemption.

***I would recommend this novel***

WARNING: THIS BOOK HAS A VERY GRAPHIC RAPE SCENE IN IT! IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE READING STUFF LIKE THAT THEN THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU.

It's weird to say I "loved" a book with this much difficult subject matter, but the reality was that I did. The story was unique. The characters were easy to get wrapped up in - good or bad. The writing style was honest.

Lisa ✩ @lifeinlit

This is not your typical sweet, happy romance. Going Under addresses very abusive and hard-to-handle subjects, such as rape, underage drug/alcohol use, depression, etc. If you're not one to handle these heavy issues, you probably shouldn't read this book. If you don't mind "issue" books, there's a powerful story behind this one.

Brooke was the perfect MC that I long for in books. She was imperfect and definitely made her share of mistakes. She was also completely realistic and someone I could say I know personally. I often laughed out loud at some of the things that left her mouth, such as "this dress is bullshit" right in the beginning of the story. I knew from chapter 1 that I would like Brooke.

Walden did a wonderful job of addressing a very tough issue with such a sensitivity that it was a fabulous read. Her knack for drawing out the suspense, making your insides beg for the conclusion, was so powerful. My heart was pounding out of my chest for the last third of the book... so much so that I couldn't put it down, even into the wee hours of the night. I read this one with my sister-in-law, and though we were supposed to stop at 80 percent that night, it just didn't happen... I finished the story ahead of time. (Sorry, Becca!) But no worries... she completely understood when she got that far along and also didn't want to put it down. Thus, she forgave me. ;)

If you enjoy a more tragic, harsh story, as I do, with the realistic aspects off the charts, you will most definitely enjoy this book. Walden's writing style was perfect. The story was fast-paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. I was so pleasantly surprised with this book. I'm eager to see what Walden comes out with next.

Going Under

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