Despite the subject matter this was a very good book. It achieved its desired effect by making me feel on edge throughout. Never was a book more topical that now in light of Harvey Weinstein, the Me Too campaign and other such cases in the media. This was tough, but easy to read, and gripping. I really wanted to read on and would have finished in a day if my children had allowed me!!! A great piece of writing, well done!!

This book is a mash up of various writing techniques and genres. The sorry itself I enjoyed but the character development meant it difficult for me to bond with any of them. Character that appear to be central to the story are cut away with very little fanfare and the story generally falls on the pretext of he said she said, and even at the end your still none the wiser of what actually happened. The book had glaring plot holes for me, and the ending was messy with several story arch's just left without an ending. Overall it felt like a young adult book but some of the themes felt more suited to an older audience. It's an easy summer read if you want something no committal but for me it's left me with many annoying unfinished stories.

This book was utterly brilliant! It’s cleverly put together, with a unique blend of genres and voices. The plot is also fresh, smart and hard to predict. I can’t wait to see what Kate Reed Petty writes next.

“This book is an exorcism.”

Well, this one is a REAL curve ball. Not for the faint-hearted, nor a book for those readers who like orthodox structure. This is a genre-bending novel that blends prose with screenplay, endless unsent emails with draft college submissions and multiple viewpoints, all to examine the repercussions of the sexual assault of a schoolgirl in the States with the intention of untangling guilt, responsibility and authorship.

It is HUGELY ambitious. Yet True Story is undeniably readable, despite the grave subject matter (and I advise that this book should come with content warnings for sexual assault, gaslighting, abuse, addiction, alcohols, self-harm and self-mutilation). I read this 400-pager in just two sittings. Couldn’t put it down.

A very important topic and the use of the different viewpoints was very well done, Unfortunately I've read quite a few books on this topic recently and this didn't rise above the others.

TRUE STORY if an intriguing novel about how exaggeration, rumors and lies affect the lives of several high school students. The reverberations of the falsities follow them long into there adult lives with perilous consequences. Petty also throws some horror elements in to the story. These are somewhat confusing but definitely interesting. Enjoyable read.

Now, I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover but in this instance, Kate Reed Perry's debut novel has a genre-defying, intriguing cover. It goes to show that image, colour, typeface etc can be so clearly indicative of a book's genre - and, consequently, this can really impact on our interpretation of it and our reading experience.

Throughout the novel, which can be described as 'meta', I think, Reed Perry gives readers an experience they might not have had whilst reading before. There's Richard and Max, as well as Nick - and what did happen as they took the private-school girl home? Then there's Nick who heads off to Lindsay's remote family cabin - and this section, for me, was one of the most creepy in the book, straight out of a conventional horror novel. But then: did it happen? Was it all in Nick's head? Alcohol (A LOT of it) probably played a part. And what about Q? This is a complex novel, one that deals with different tropes of different genres and leaves readers questioning what happens and to whom - and whether it actually happens in the first place.

I really admire the way Reed Perry incorporates things like the film script that is being written alongside the actual event it is based on. It's intricate and clever - and then, towards the end of the novel, things do come together to provide some sort of conclusion.

This is a great read that does so much - it's actually quite hard to explain - but I particularly loved the way you get immersed in a part of the story and then it changes - and this affects one's experiences, quite unlike anything I have ever read before.

This is a weird one, and hard to describe. The novel follows the story of a teenage rumour of sexual assault that may or may not have happened and how it affects people into adulthood. But it’s really a story about truth and fiction and writing, which I respected. But on the other hand, with it all set up as a book within a book, I didn’t actually enjoy a lot of the stylistic elements of the book (for example, the sections in a theatrical format) and found much of the really dramatic spooky stuff (Nick and the cabin in particular) to be overdone and not in keeping with the tone of the rest of the novel. So should knowing that “Alice” wrote the novel I’m reading change how I feel about the bits I didn’t enjoy? Not really, no matter how much I like the premise.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

This book was written in many different chapters styles and genres all making up the one story. It is an unusual read and I enjoyed some aspects of the book better than others. On the whole this book was well written and the chapter with Nick in the cabin was especially creepy. The book was also very confusing in some of its parts and I did not like the conclusion.

True Story is a surprising and inventive novel that blends genres and conventions to look at how we tell stories and what the truth is. One night during high school, Alice was driven home from a party by two boys. She was drunk and passed out, and doesn't remember what happened, but the rumours say a lot, despite what the boys tell the police. One of their friends, Nick, hears a different version of the story. And as both Alice and Nick get older, and deal with abusive relationships, addition, and other challenges, the truth of that night stays hidden, until it finally seems like it is going to come out.

The structure and narrative of True Story are impressive: it blends a novel, thriller and horror and drama, with screenplay and college essay, as different chunks of time are told from Alice and Nick's points of view. At first, this seems like it could be a bit of a gimmick, but it is only later that it starts to make sense why the novel is written like this. The book is visceral—particularly around abusive relationships and addition—and tense, playing around with the heart-racing genres of horror and thriller whilst ultimately telling a story of how to tell a story. The different elements are weaved together well and the ending was unexpected.

This is a dark novel that touches on some intense subjects and looks at contemporary questions of how women and men are treated, but also has a playful edge that messes around with genre and possibly has an underlying message about not underestimating genre fiction.

True Story, by Kate Reed Petty, is the first book I have read from start to finish without getting sidetracked by other books in a very long time. It is also the first book, I think, I have ever read which made me want to start again straight away.

True story is unique in its construction although it has a very clear provenance from James Joyce's Ulysses.This horror/crime novel is written as a collection of literary styles, all of them swirling in a Vorticist style, to bring us a sense of truth in a world built on stories.

Petty's writing always has a sense of being a third party, almost witnessing, account. It is something about the short sentences and the dearth of metaphors and similes which give it a dispassionate, straight to the point kind of feel. Add to that her penchant for using alternate text forms to tell the story, and you have the feeling that you are putting together the story or 'case' just as if you are a detective.

It is also what makes elements of this tale so visceral and terrifying. There is something about 'witnessing' horrifyingly inevitable events dispassionately which really gets the heart thumping in frustrated terror. I found myself wanting to scream at the pages to tell the characters not to do what they are about to do, just like I do when watching horror movies... It's like watching a landslide and knowing there is nothing you can do to stop the rocks from falling.

I say there is an ancestral link to Ulysses because, just like Joyce, Reed writes every part of the story in a different format and/or a different point of view. There is standard prose in a mix of first, second, and third person syntax. There is film script. There is transcript.

What adds edge and confusion and what keeps the reader on the back foot is that within all of these styles, Reed also breaks the formatting rules. Italics instead of quotation marks, left justified dialogue in screenplays, paragraphs headers as chapter titles, there are no page numbers - only locations and the numerical sequence is linear by not consecutive. And there is font carnage!

Everything about True Story is designed to keep us asking questions and the answers are never where we expect them to be and are not what we are led to believe. This novel really does keep throwing up surprises from start to finish. In fact, the first 2 chapters had me completely baffled (don't worry, they are short), and I wondered if there was a problem with the galley I was reading.

The book is not perfect, but it is certainly one of the most entertaining I have read in a long time. The second 'chapter' doesn't quite do what I think it intends and the last chapter doesn't work for me at all. There is still essential information in it but it feels apologetic to some degree in a way I don't think the rest of the novel reflects. I also sometimes struggled to now if I was in Alice's story or Haley's.

Nick is an incredibly well drawn character - the best in the book - and I admit I find myself impresses which just how insightful Reed is about men and male behaviour. Whilst True Story is a mystery/thriller (despite the horrible cover art), it is really a seminal text on toxic masculinity and how it propogates in our world and changes our world. It begs the question 'are the true monsters the perpetrators of abuse or are they the people who create a world view which normalises, pardons, and then dismisses it?'

Men should read this book. Fathers should read this book and then give it to their sons to read. This is information the world needs and this is a mirror men need to find and fix the root causes of why and how women are so very disadvantaged and oppressed in modern society. Yes, it is a feminist text, but it is not a book for feminists.

Thanks NetGalley for this e-ARC. I am scratching my head on this one. What is the truth? Is it one's word over another? Someone's interpretation? The repercussions or culmination of actions over days, weeks, months, or even years? This seemed to be a modern style of writing from Kate Reed Petty, with moments from then and now, excerpts from scripts, and college applications strewn throughout.

True Story had interesting moments, and addressed very disturbing themes. The blame game/me too nuances were all to clear and real, and the author gave a very realistic voice to what happened between friends and acquaintances in those high school and college years and how easily the truth can be seen as both fact and fiction. Deep understanding the connections between the acts was required and seem to labour the enjoyment of this book because I had to keep going back and rereading the beginning to actually work out which characters were connected where now the storylines were unfolding. So much seem to happened these individual characters that it could see hard to believe. How could all these sub-plot lines occur and be connected? They could rightfully be their own books or own novel. From one perspective they seemed to big to bring them all under the wings of one book but was that Kate Reed Petty's actual purpose? Is the 'true story' too big to be real, and do we often dismiss the sum of all parts and not being a credible account of a major life story? The ending was a little perplexing, and I think it did no favours overall in addressing the more disturbing acts - both the actions of characters and discinct sections of the book, respectively.

Well, I found this book rather odd. I both hated it and was mesmerised by it. I didn't have an interest in any of the characters, I found them all self indulgent and shallow. Two days after finishing it I am still thinking about it, which I guess is interesting in itself.
Certainly rather different to anything I've read before, and I would find that I would recommend it, but not to everyone - not to people who enjoy a fast read, but to those who like a challenging one.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A terrifying portrayal of the aftermath of sexual assault. I enjoyed the style very much - I thought it was inventive & unusual. The depiction of survival & ultimately redemptive power of friendships based on loyalty & love was refreshing & important. Subject matter sensitivily handled & thought-provoking.

Amazing. One of the most gripping books Ive read in a long time and with a turn twist I didn't see coming. Read it!

This was an interesting read, told in a variety of ways from college applications, to film scripts, to a diary. I did get a little confused by the plot as it switched from one format to the next - I was reading quite quickly because I did not engage with any of the characters. In fact, I found them to be shallow, selfish and unpleasant. There is no love and forgiveness in this book. The themes of assault, rape, coercive control, alcoholism, revenge, etc. are strong and the ending came as a bit of a shock.

Well this was an interesting one! I noticed the blurb describes it as 'genre defying', and I guess it really is! The story centres around a group of school friends, notably Nick, RIchard, Max, Haley and Alice. One evening after a raucous party, Richard and Max get involved in an incident which is then the basis of the rest of the book. You see how that incident has affected each of the characters as they progress through the next few years of their life. Each chapter is told through various viewpoints, for example first person, or an interview, or a script from a movie. It's a clever way of doing it, but especially so as you don't know who is telling the truth about what exactly happened all those years ago.

A clever concept, took a little while to get my head around at first, but I grew to like it. I especially liked Nick's character, as because he wasn't directly involved in the incident, he is learning more about the difference between rumour and fact at the same time as us, and how he's realising the different path his life could have taken....

True Story is just amazing! I cannot believe what I just read. It's a genre-bending novel that gives me absolutely everything I need in a book. It has interesting characters, despair, horror, hope, love, feminism. It mixes all the subjects extraordinarily, surprises the reader with new ways to tell the story.
The story starts with a group of teenage boys, privileged and self-assured lacrosse players that just want to party. One of their parties triggers a rumour mill on what actually happened at this party, what was done and who is telling the truth. We catch up with the group later in their lives, when they are struggling with a whole new set of difficulties, all still in a way haunted by the events following the party.
I am amazed at the ease of the author to portray the male privilege of the events, how easily the story ended with a pat on the back and "boys will be boys". I could so clearly imagine those boys, and how they were justifying their actions. Later we get the horrifyingly good portrayal of alcoholism and abuse in a relationship. The story is perfectly developed and brings us closer to the characters. Even when there is not much action, the story is rich in characters thoughts and feelings. I was falling deep into the story and I couldn't stop reading. The ending highlights perfectly why we need to tell our stories, why we need to tell the true story.
Brilliant read, highly recommend to everyone. It is a mix of literary genres put together with prose, essays and movie script that together creates an amazing, timely story.

This book was a great read which kept me engaged and curious at all times. The author has managed to create a story using different styles of telling the narrative: at times a movie script written by two of the characters, other times a college application essay in various versions/drafts, inner monologue, etc.

The story as such seems to be simple: a young woman is assaulted by two young men after a party.
The aftermath and effects of this one night are shown in this beautifully written book. The end of the book ties nicely with the beginning which left me wanting to re-read it immediately after turning the last page.
I find the book extremely relevant in today’s culture especially in light of movements such as #MeToo and can thoroughly recommend it.

An impressive genre-blending debut, and one I think will be best enjoyed by going in pretty much blind. I devoured this in just a few hours, finding it near impossible to put down. The premise: it's the year 2000 and a teenage girl, Alice, is sexually assaulted by two young men after a party. The narrative then follows her - and a guy, Nick (who was at the party but not directly involved) in the immediate aftermath and then 8 years after the incident. The blurb describes it as "by turns a campus novel, psychological thriller, horror story and crime noir", which I'd say is pretty accurate - it's structured pretty ambitiously but Reed Petty definitely pulls it off.

I enjoyed this enough that I was able to overlook a few flaws, but it's really a great read which I found both compelling and thought-provoking. Recommended!