Being Kalli 3/29/2014

Being Kalli by Rebecca Berto

At Nineteen, Kalli Perkins has never been in love and doesn't ever intend to be. She has her issues handled. She's managed to keep her secret of what happened to her nine years ago from her mother, although her mother's usually high anyway and barely notices Kalli or her little brothers.

One night at a party, Kalli makes a bet with her friend, Nate, that could change everything. But she didn't count on him. Nate's very capable of satisfying her, not only under her clothes but in her heart, too. She just doesn't know it yet.


I have some mixed emotions on this one, and they are not all that great. I was given a copy of this book for an honest review and that's what I am going to give. 
Overall I give this book one bubble. 

This review will contain spoilers!

I had some problems from the start. I was very aware that sexual abuse was going to play a part of this story from the very beginning, just with the way some situations were described from Kalli's point of view and from the brief descriptions we are given on Kalli's past. This is just my personal opinion but when sexual abuse plays somewhat of an important role in a story, I become very uncomfortable when the main character is hyper sexualized and we get to read in detail about how attractive the guy on the receiving end of her blow job is.

While this book may be a wonderful read for others, when I started reading more about Kalli's abuse, I could no longer handle the story. I didn't like how one moment I was reading about 10 year old Kalli and what she was feeling while being abused and then quickly changing and reading about the different kind of sex she was having, or planned on having. I feel that the author was tempting to add depth with the sexual abuse and the addict mother but was also trying to cater to what is popular in NA right now. 

I honestly never really thought that much of Nate either. I know he played a different role than a lot of the main male characters in NA, but he just seemed like a friend that was very infatuated with Kalli. 

Unfortunately, I did not finish this book because of my own personal boundaries. Maybe the book changed drastically once I stopped reading but I can't really bring myself to see if it did.