This one brought me right back to high school. Vivid writing and a compelling storyline. I could see this one being made into a movie for sure.

Oh my god. This book. What a dummy I am for having this on my NetGalley shelf for over a year! I am going to have to revise my 2020 favorite books because this just blew some of the other ones out of the water. TRUE STORY is a phenomenal debut from an author who uses multiple genres, POVs, and structural tricks to create something that is wholly unique, stunning, and unlike anything I've ever read. The fantastic cover really says it all: you don't know what you're getting exactly when you open this book, but it will surprise and delight you.

Explaining this book would, unfortunately, take away from the journey I implore you as a reader to experience. It is about narrative, storytelling, writing, the grey area between truth and fiction, and processing trauma. There is also a great conversation about friendship that weaves throughout the book unexpectedly. Reed Petty's writing is so original and fresh and I just want more more more.

CW for sexual assault, alcoholism, emotional abuse.

If you ever went to high school, <i>any</i> high school <i>anywhere</i>, you probably remember hearing a rumor once, about something that happened at a party, or afterwards. The details are blurry, sketchy, and differ depending on who you talk to but everyone agrees that <i>something</i> happened to a girl, something bad. Whispers pass back and forth about whether or not she 'wanted it' or not, whether or not the boy(s) involved are culpable of wrongdoing. And maybe there's a huge scandal like the ones we've all seen from time to time hitting the news, but mostly these stories about that girl and the boy(s) drift away.

Ever wondered what happened to them? To that girl? To those boys? Ever wondered how much of the story was true, and how much of it might have gotten shaped, like in a game of telephone, changing depending on who's doing the telling and how many times it's told? That's what this book is about.

As a concept, I liked it a lot. Telling the story of the 'afterwards'. But in execution, there was sometimes a little too much going on for me to remain focused on the main thrust of the book which is that those stories, of the girl and boy(s) in high school, and that party where "the bad thing happened" can spin out and reverberate in the lives of not only the people involved, but the 'witnesses' as well and the bystanders who believe they know what happened, but maybe don't. Important subject, and a really ambitious attempt in how it was handled in this book. Will read more from this author.

This was a compelling, and heart-wrenching story that completely surprised me at the end. There was something incredibly powerful in learning about this horrible event and following the characters into the future to see how it impacted them long-term.

I can see how True Story may not be for everyone but I loved it. I love when a book can surprise me and subvert my expectations and this book did exactly that! I did not see the ending coming and it really tied the story together in the most unique way.

Not a fan. I was so eager to read this one due to the subject matter and because this author is local to me, but I was very disappointed with the twist at the end and feel that the way it was marketed was incredibly deceiving. For some people, going into this read and thinking it's a story about a girl being assaulted, and then finding out she wasn't could be harmful. I appreciate the author tackling the tough subject of the gray area that can come with alcohol and sexual assault, but this played too much into the idea that this is something that occurs often, and could feed into the argument people try to make that this is the norm rather than a rare occurrence.

An exceptionally written, compelling debut and some of the best work I’ve recently encountered in terms of unique narrative structure.

It should go without saying that this book carries a trigger warning for sexual assault, though I didn’t find it to be a difficult read compared to other novels that focus on this topic. Perhaps this is because at its heart, that isn’t the subject of the central lesson of the book. In some ways, it’s more like a catalyst for the novel’s message or—depending on how you look at it—a symptom.

Though rumors of a sexual assault and the years-long fallout from it drive the plot, what the author is really trying to convey is about the incredible power of words. The road she took to get to this point was an unusual but highly successful one.

In addition to having written an outstanding novel from a structural standpoint, Kate Reed Petty shows herself to be a master of perspective, creating singular and captivating voices from multiple points of view.

Though it has many moments of sadness, the story didn’t feel heavy to me (especially given the subject matter), and it boasts the compulsive page-turning quality of a light thriller while still delivering a far more complex and well-crafted story than most books in the genre.

I should mention that this book needs an animal violence trigger (due to a very unpleasant plot thread involving a pet cat). This was irritating because it’s my lone complaint about the book, and it really didn’t need to be included.

I had a hard time understanding the timeline of the novel. Even though I had high hopes for the story it was a DNF for me

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for providing this book for an honest review. My rating would be 3.5 stars if allowed, but instead I am round up to 4 because it is better than a 3 star book.

There were many parts of the book I liked and others that seemed a little out of place. But that could be very intentional to illustrate how everyone's lives are very unsettled after experiencing a traumatic event...either as the victim or the accused It was a good story & worth a look. It may have been more impactful if it didn't alternate formats or skip around so much.

My mouth dropped open so many times while reading this novel. The storyline is based on an old high school rumor. The author masterfully uses a multitude of voices and original formats to tell the story of the aftermath of the rumor. Its a hit read for me.

Centering on the familiar but no less harrowing story of a high school party gone very wrong, Kate Reed Petty’s TRUE STORY chronicles the 15 years after a vicious rumor sweeps through a high school --- and the effects it continues to have on four adults still searching for the truth. With sections written in prose, college admissions essays, movie scripts and more, this is a fresh and wholly original take on an all-too-common horror story.

The year is 1999, and Nick Brothers and his lacrosse teammates are rising seniors on top of the world. They’ve made it through daunting tryouts, emotionally draining hazing rituals, and the equally terrifying process of finding their places on the team and within the brotherhood of the boys who play alongside them. Now they are the best players, the hazers and the ones admired for being comfortable in their own skin, but Nick fears that they have become too comfortable. Years of winning games and playoffs has resulted in weekends full of beer and marijuana, and the team has grown lazy, paunchy and tired. With their legacy slipping away, Nick and his teammates agree to throw a legendary sendoff party, The Party WAGLER (The Party Where We All Get Laid [Even Richard]). Richard is the “softest” of the boys, the one who never claims to have hooked up with a girl (and therefore most likely the only honest one among them).

What follows is a predictably debaucherous evening that ends with half of the boys and Nick’s crush, Haley, sobering up at a Denny’s. Everything is typical until Max, the loudmouth of the group, enters with Richard and boasts about having assaulted a passed-out girl while driving her home. Laughing as he describes her mother’s terror, Max adds that Richard left his varsity jacket with the unconscious girl. While the boys laugh it off, Haley is furious and storms out, leaving Nick to wonder if maybe, just maybe, something has gone very wrong. When a rumor about Max and Richard’s actions that night spreads through the school, town and local police force, the lacrosse team is labeled a group of wild rapists and, true to form, manage to redeem and save themselves, while the victim herself becomes so plagued by rumors and name-calling that she attempts to die by suicide.

Years later, in 2015, we meet the unconscious girl by name for the first time: Alice Lovett. She knows that she has been the victim of some kind of assault, but the worst part of all is that even she has no idea what truly happened that night. Recognizing that she will never know “the things that happened while I was asleep,” she develops a passion for horror movies and a talent for immersing herself in the voices of others as a ghostwriter. Reclusive and cautious, Alice has even parted ways with her best friend, Haley, whose constant badgering for Alice to tell her story (perhaps in one of Haley’s self-produced movies) has felt less empowering than voyeuristic and self-serving. When we meet Alice, she is helping a loud, insecure man tell his inspiring story of how he rose from a bullied, nerdy boy to the owner of a million-dollar company and all-around playboy.

But Alice is not the only character we reunite with in 2015: Petty also reintroduces Nick Brothers, now chubby, bleary-eyed and painfully dependent on alcohol. Having been dumped by “the one,” Nick is retreating to the woods for a planned weekend bender, the one that will finally put him at rock bottom and allow him to emerge, phoenix-like, as a well-adjusted and respectable man worthy of reclaiming his life and love.

Alternating between Nick’s weekend in hell and Alice’s life between high school and 2015, Petty weaves a poignant, riveting novel about the power of a story --- and how differently that power can be wielded depending on who is telling it. What is initially so striking about TRUE STORY is how easy it is to feel for and even root for Nick and his friends. In only a few short pages, Petty gives us intimate access to their sensitive sides, their insecurities and the ways that toxic masculinity has harmed and shaped them. Nick is a perfect protagonist, keenly observant and oftentimes wise beyond his years, but still coddled by society and told that he is exceptional because he is white, male and heterosexual. As Petty writes, “He was a teenage boy --- a jerk and an idiot --- but…. He just wanted to fit in; fitting in was invincibility…. [He] always felt certain he was on his way somewhere better, and always felt certain he deserved it, too.”

Alice is also a highlight of the novel. With her talent for voice, the passages written in her hand read like a nearly academic character study in the best ways. Petty uses Alice's own college admissions essays, screenplays and interviews to tell us more about her than seems possible, and once again forces us to consider the power of voice and stories. It would be a huge disservice to reveal too much about Alice in this review, but I can say that her journey is one of the most shocking I’ve ever read, and it will certainly stay with me for a long time.

In writing about the power of the rumor at the heart of TRUE STORY, Petty turns her novel into an almost meta exploration of story. She pulls at her readers’ emotions, dragging them along every dark possibility and then just as swiftly upends their expectations, forcing them to consider how easily they can be swayed by a good storyteller --- and Petty is one of the very best. Her use of different formats and voices never once fails to meet the incredibly high standards she has set for herself. Yet somehow, even when I was not quite sure where her writing was taking me, I always ended up dumbfounded by her talent and breathtaking observations about life, womanhood and power.

TRUE STORY is an inventive and completely original novel, even when judged on format and technical ability alone. But if you take Petty’s skillful writing and combine it with her timely commentaries on sexual assault and consent, and add to that the sheer poignancy of her characters' transformations, you have something else entirely: a true masterpiece.

Excellent, a must-read novel that toggles between genres but feels so cohesive and modern. I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks after,

There were parts of this story that I loved, and parts that I didn't love. The beginning and ending of the story were intriguing, but the middle was very surreal and it really dragged on. If the middle of the story was removed, I would love this book. As it is, I just kind of like it.

This is one of those books where the less you know going in, the better....
Just know that this is about truth and lies, rumors and their fall out..... about telling our stories, how they shape our lives, who gets to tell them and on whose terms...
Just know that it’s a mashup of style, format and POVs- part high school drama, part psychological thriller, part horror/crime/noir told via straightforward narratives, emails, home movie scripts and annotated college admission essays.
Just know it’s really, really good and once I started it, I could not put it down.....

This one started off really slow for me and I almost stopped reading it. But, once I got past Nick's part in high school, the story had me hooked. I love stories with different character POVs and once I got past the high school portion of the story, it was interesting to see the story come together with both Alice and Nick.

I was intrigued by the premise of this novel. There are two versions of the story of what happened between a drunk-to-the-point-of-passed out female high school student, Alice, and two male members of the lacrosse team, Richard and Max, who gave her a ride home from a party. Both versions come from the young men: in one there is sexual assault and in the other they simply drop her off home. Nick, a friend of Richard and Max, and Haley, a friend of Alice, choose the story they believe to be true.

Years later, Alice is in an abusive relationship, Haley makes documentaries about women who’ve suffered sexual assault, Richard is a successful entrepreneur, Max is dead, and Nick is an alcoholic.

The novel is a weird, but deliberate, patchwork of points of view and styles. There are scripts of horror movies that Alice and Haley wrote in middle school, an interview, a collection of emails, a horror-tinted weekend which is scary but doesn’t quite work in the context , even a section written in the second person (never my favorite) as well as regular first and third person accounts. Nick and Alice are the main protagonists, but both Richard and Haley are ever-present.

But I never felt I quite got the rhythm of the novel: it seemed to be going one way then would abruptly change to something quite different which made it hard to settle into. The different facets shown add up to some sort of coherent picture in the end but maybe not the one I was expecting.

Thanks to Viking and Netgalley for the digital review copy

Interesting premise and writing style, or I should say, writing styles. This story was written in the forms of prose, movie scripts, emails, and college entrance applications. The story goes that a drunk girl is driven home by fellow high school boys after a night at a 'legendary' party. There are rumors and whispers at school about what happened in that car. Did the rumors of this non-consensual sex really take place? A too sensitive topic muddled and difficult to follow.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

The premise of the book was timely and it was an interesting take on a story line that is unfortunately all too familiar. I don’t think I’ve read anything that specifically addresses the terrible damage caused by rumors of assault. However, I did not enjoy how choppy the writing style was. Nick’s character was all over the place and I didn’t understand the purpose of using the script and college essay format in parts of the book.

True Story is about the ways in which a story, rumor or belief can affect someone's life, regardless of what it is, and regardless of whether it's true. It also asks the reader to consider whether the nature of the telling affects what they believe. I admire the fearlessness of the author's approach: it's an interesting, involving, thought-provoking way to explore particularly knotty subject matter.

To me this book was mish mash of stuff all put together and it was hoped it would come together. I got the ending that there was no (spoiler alert) Nick, but there was so much time and effort spent on him that I kind of felt cheated. Also was Alice or was she not assaulted in the back of the car or did the boys just say nothing happened to get out of trouble. And what was that whole thing with Q anyway? Alice was strange, so was she kind of a hypochondriac or was he poisoning her? There were so many sidelined stories and then the ending-after reading the ending I could have cared less about any of the characters!!