{Book review - The Damages by Genevieve Scott}

I’m torn on writing this review. I found the writing very well done but the story was just not good. Going in it sounded like The Damages was a thriller, a missing girl from a university campus during an ice storm and her roommate was the last one to see her in the middle of the night, but it wasn’t. Instead it’s the story of Ros (Rosalind) who is incredibly unlikeable from the beginning and how she tries so hard to fit in with the cool kids no matter the cost even if it means only being nice to her roommate in the privacy of their room.

After the slow burn of the first half of the book I was hoping the second part would redeem itself. It did not. Taking place 20 years later, Ros is just as unlikeable and awful as her younger self. I’d been hoping that we would get a chapter or Megan’s POV but unfortunately did not.

I’m sure there is an audience for this book but it was not me.

Available July 25, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced copy.

Thank you to Genevieve Scott, Penguin Random House Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced ebook copy of The Damages for me to read and review. This is an addictive, page-turner of a story! I loved seeing the main character during both of the time periods shown and the character growth she has undergone by the end of the story was excellent. The interconnected themes of identity and lies was very thought provoking and this is one of those stories that will stick with me for a long while.

During an ice storm, a young woman goes missing and her roommate is thought to be responsible. These events are revisited about 22 years later, when surprising accusations are made about those 2 days.

That statement probably made this novel seem like a mystery/ thriller, but it reads more like women's fiction, dramatic at times, thought provoking at others.

The events that occurred during the ice storm were difficult to process in it's uncomfortable honesty. Ros was insecure and craving popularity and coolness status and things seemed to be going her way until the rug got pulled from under her. She needed the wake up call she got from the whole experience but it was painful to read. Twenty-two years later, while she seems to be more realistic in her pursuit of relationships, she still proves to be the underdog.

The subject of consent comes up, what assault meant then versus now, the "me too" movement, accountability, etc. There are so many things to talk about, relevant issues pertaining to appropriate behavior, that I feel needs to be addressed but this novel shows how blurry the lines get. The ending feels unresolved, but really that is probably how it is in the non-fiction world as well.

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

The Damages by Genevieve Scott offers a thought-provoking and engaging exploration of toxic culture in schools during the 90s, as well as a compelling journey of self-discovery for its unlikeable main character, Ros. Set in around the city of Toronto, the story follows Ros, a woman struggling to find her identity and fit in, and later trying to navigate through her husband’s sexual assault charge.

Scott's writing style is quite monotone, yet it managed to keep me engaged and compelled to continue reading. Although lacking a noticeable climax, the story's charm lies in its ability to capture the reader's attention with the portrayal of realistic characters. The individuals depicted felt like people you might know in real life, enhancing the reader's connection to the narrative. However, the protagonist, while authentic, is not entirely likeable, adding depth and complexity to the story as readers witness her struggles and flaws.

The novel effectively highlights the toxic culture prevalent in schools during the 90s. By not imposing feelings upon the audience, the author allows readers to make their own decisions about the characters and their actions, fostering a deeper level of engagement, as well as prompting us to question our beliefs.

The inclusion of Toronto settings added an extra layer of enjoyment for me since I’m familiar with the city, immersing me in a nostalgic experience of the 90s era while growing up. Also, despite Ros’ mother not being a hairdresser, but often mentioned as cutting hair during the Covid era, resonated with me, drawing parallels to my own upbringing with a non-maternal hairdresser mother. This relatability established an emotional link between me and the narrative.

In conclusion, The Damages by Genevieve Scott is a skillfully written and compelling novel that expertly navigates themes of toxic culture, self-discovery, and most importantly, consent.

Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As Ros tries to navigate fitting in at Regis, and tell a carefully curated story about who she is and her own importance to others, her shaky self-esteem and need to protect herself from potential repercussions spins out of control when her roommate goes missing.

Because Ros has never told the truth about herself to others, it is hard to discern what is the truth, even as we come at the storyline from two angles, past and present. Is the present Ros telling the truth any more the past Ros didn't? Even Ros admits there are holes in her story from when Megan went missing.

This is a gripping story about consent and how it was viewed differently in the 90s. I did find it interesting that there was this belief that the idea of consent started to shift from a clear-cut idea of propriety and where the lines were in the 90s. But if we are truthful, that shift around how women were to view sex started to occur in the 60s and blew up with the #metoo movement. Women were given the impression that sex was as much our right as for a man, and our ability to say no crumbled under the pressure we all felt to be "just like the guys" in that regard.

I grew up in the 70s and there was this constant pressure to give in to guys, and being called a slut, or taken advantage of if you did. Girls that felt the need to maintain dignity and say no were labelled frigid or cut out of social circles (ask me how I know). Parties in general were a landmine when alcohol and drugs were involved, and self control (for one part of the population) wasn't.

All that said, this book has an important message to tell about consent. That abuse comes in more forms than just one. Consent is an important message to learn, and one we really need to teach the next generation. Perhaps books like this one will get that message across. It certainly shows the damage it causes if we don't.

Thank you net galley for giving me this opportunity to read this book.
This is a dual timeline story set in 1998 and present.
Rosalind is at university in central Ontario. She is looking forward to meeting new people and especially her new roommate. Rosalind is surprised to find out that her roommate is Megan.
Megan is not who Rosalind would like to have as a roommate. Rosalind was hoping to have a roommate who is in the in crowd.
Come January 1998 there is an ice storm and school is closed. Rosalind weedles her way into the in crowd.
On a stormy night Rosalind, Megan and other friends get a taxi to the local bar. The girls get drunk and Megan wants to leave. Rosalind sees Adam who she has a crush on and leave together. Adam asks Rosalind if Megan is ok.
Megan goes missing and nobody knows where she went.
Fastforward twenty years and Rosalind's ex is accused of a sexual assault.
I found that I didn't like the character Rosalind as she was all about herself. She didn't care what happened to anyone else.

This book is good, but it didn’t wow me. There a few timelines and I liked that it was set in small-town Canada during the ice storm in the 90’s. The campus setting was also fun, reminding me of dorm life. The MFC, Rosalind/Ros was not likeable and an admitted liar. Although Ros is a people pleaser, she is not a nice person, and only tries to please people she thinks are cool or important to her social standing. When her dorm mate,Megan, goes missing, Roz couldn’t care less. Not until she herself is seen as responsible for not reporting her absence. Megan is found a couple days laters, but Ros is now the school pariah. Fast forward to 2020, and Ros’s ex husband Lukas, who she knew as Dutch back at school, has been accused by Megan of sexual assault. For such a hot button topic with the current MeToo movement, I would have liked to have seen more drama between the characters but they all seem pretty blasé about everything. Even Benji, Ros and Lukas’s son, seems unconcerned by it all. That being said, this story will definitely work for some readers, it just wasn’t a hit with me.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #randomhousecanada for this e-Arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is from a Canadian author and takes place in a fictional town close to Toronto Ontario. I was absolutely enthralled by the first part of the story and by Ros herself. She tried so hard to be somebody she wasn't that it was embarrassing at times but I still felt sorry for her. She just couldn't seem to stop lying in order to make herself appear more interesting. That all changed after Megan disappeared during the ice storm in January 1998. We pick up the story again in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and Ros, now the mother of an 11-year-old, has just come back to Ontario from California to help out her mother who's recovering from a broken leg. She is estranged from the father of her child and has just learned that he's been accused of historic sexual assault. I wasn't nearly as invested in the second part as I was in the first half. Although Ros is nearly 40 now she doesn't seem to have matured much and still cares way too much about what people think. The resolution of the sexual assault allegation was rather anti-climactic and the end of the book was meh.

The writing was fine and I must say that I do love that cover but my reaction to the book as a whole is mixed. 3.5 stars rounded down.

My thanks to Random House Canada via Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this novel. All opinions expressed are my own.
Publication Date: July 25, 2023

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This is set at Regis University in 1997/8 where Rosalind's roommate goes missing during an ice storm, and then in 2020 when Rosalind's ex is accused of sexual assault. I thought the writing was good, and although I found Rosalind extremely unlikeable, her character and her justifications were all too believable in the 1997/8 sections. However, she didn't seem to have matured at all by 2020, and her actions and reactions were less convincing, I felt. On the one hand she took a very firm stance on #metoo and women being believed, but she still seemed willing to agree with and accept anything her ex and her appalling former university 'friends' threw at her. Her lack of self-awareness or even of any sense of identity made for uncomfortable reading, and I'm not sure whether at the end Rosalind really would have made any changes.

My first of this author and I think it was her sophomore book.

Something about dorms and school thrillers that normally get me quickly and keep me interested. The dynamics of the top cat in the school and the hierarchy of groups always lead to crazy storylines.

This book centres around the ice storm that led to the MC (Rosalind-told from her first person account) roommate's disappearance. It’s split up into two parts that show the lead up to Megan missing and then 20+ years later during Covid.

The first part was slow for me. I hated the way Roz was acting. Megan was open, inviting and kind. And Ros was a twit who cared about the fast line of jerks who pulled others down. I will note, that this is clearly something that annoys me. So my lens of life is clouding my review of this piece.

The second part of the book was where the book lost me. It was where the reader sees the missing Megan file a sexual assault case against Dutch who also had a child with Ros over the missing years between each part.

It felt confusing and discombobulated for me. I just couldn’t connect to the story at all. It wouldn’t flow for me.

Don’t let my review discourage you, it could be a me thing but it didn’t work for me.

The Damages by Genevieve Scott was not at all what I was expecting it to be. From the synopsis, I was getting a suspenseful vibe (missing roommate, numerous lies being told, etc.), and while there was definitely the initial mystery of what happened to Meghan Maine, I quickly realized that The Damages was not a suspense novel. While I'm not too upset about this fact, I did feel a bit mislead - but that might just be my own personal interpretation of the synopsis! Just thought I'd include it here in case anyone else feels the same.

As for the content of the book itself... while I enjoyed the multiple timelines, I much preferred the 1997 narrative over the 2020 one. Perhaps this is because it's more relatable to me as a recent university graduate, but whereas the first half of the novel had mystery and excitement, the second half fell a bit flat for me. Throughout the entire book, though, the writing was easily digestible, and I loved reading about various Canadian settings and references.

Ultimately, I think that The Damages is a culturally relevant novel that makes you rethink your perspective on the #MeToo movement and what constitutes SA.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital copy of The Damages to review. All thoughts are my own and are not influenced by any third party.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this eBook. I loved this somewhat subtle story by Canadian author Genevieve Scott. I found it topical and relevant and of particular interest to me since I am also Canadian and I went to university right around the same time as the characters in the book. I liked the familiar settings and references to Ontarian cities and towns. I like how she subtly dealt with the rise of the #metoo movement in a way that resonated with me and brought up some of the internal conflicts that people raised in the 80s and 90s might feel and experience.

I picked this as a "most anticipated" choice for our newsletter at Ben McNally Books. The writing was strong and it was a nuanced take on a "me too" issue. While it is definitely a page turner the author really fleshes out her characters and makes you feel how the wife is torn between believing the accused and believing the victim.

The Damages written by Genevieve Scott is a really well written novel that explores how our lives can be shaped by our past experiences.

Originally, I chose this novel because the description sounded interesting, but what I hadn't bargained for was how much I would resonate with the main character Ros. The character development was such that I felt taken back to my high school and university days as I was reading the story. The characters felt as though they could be real people - or even past friends of mine.

The story itself was an interesting portrayal of how the flawed thinking in the 1990s contributed to a lot of stunning realizations about inappropriate interactions and the importance of teaching our children about consent.

As I was reading this story it felt like a 5 star story, but in the end I awarded 4 stars because I felt that the story ended a little abruptly with - what I felt like was - not enough resolution for the characters.

But in all, if you're a kid of the 90s (or even if you're not) this can be a bit of nostalgia or a crash course on what life was like in the 90s. And I highly recommend it.

I want to thank Netgalley and the publishers for access to this advance copy. I am voluntarily leaving a review. All opinions are my own.

The first part of this novel follows the interactions of Rosalind in her first year of college. She’s trying to be cool by hanging out with the cool kids. She’s really a mean girl who makes fun of people behind their backs in order to feel better about herself. She says she’s not close to her roommate Megan because Megan is not cool. But when Megan goes missing, Ros ends up shouldering the blame. I thought it was crazy that during an ice storm the college’s solution to student safety was to make drunk college kids responsible for each other!

I enjoyed the first section, even though it was a very slow burn. The hook didn’t happen until about a third of the way into the novel. Twenty years later, there is a sexual assault allegation, and the he-said-she-said story is told entirely from the POV of someone who wasn’t even there. This is completely pointless. And none of the characters are even likeable. I wish I had DNFd at 50% when my gut told me to.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of The Damages by Genevieve Scott. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to read this book written by a Canadian author with the setting in Ontario where I have lived my life. I really enjoy being able to relate to books and having an understanding of the places mentioned. Not only does it talk about actual historic happenings (the ice storm of 1998 as well as the Covid era, and #MeToo movement), but it is very relatable. The book is very relevant and helps to explain how things that were acceptable in the 90's are now considered to be "violations" as they should be. I really enjoyed this book and rated it with a 5 star rating. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to review this book.

When I got my hands on this one, I was intrigued by the plot and imagined a bit of a dual timeline, multiple POV style story. However, this was not what we got.

Ros is the sole narrator of this novel, and this is challenge because for much of the book she is largely unlikeable. I think this was done purposefully, showing the struggle of identity vs fitting in and the role that plays in the lives of so many college students, and in particular, young women. Unfortunately, in the second half of the book, I still didn’t really like her, but this time because she is just so ordinary and dull - it’s a character ‘development’ that fell flat.

This book touches on serious and important issues - in particular, SA and the #metoo movement, along with the social, cultural and political shifts that occur across decades and influence our actions and beliefs around difficult topics.

The Damages follows Ros, whose roommate went missing during a winter ice storm from their university's dorm room. The story goes back and forth between the events of 1998, and then 2020.

The storyline was pretty good, but I found that I didn't love the main character, which made it a bit more difficult for me to enjoy the story. Young Ros was horribly self-conscious, and would do anything to "be cool", and while I get it and have to an extent experienced those feelings myself when I was younger, I found her to be quite mean and sad.

I like how the author included the ice storm (I remember hearing about it in the news) and covid, and also the #metoo movement. I won't spoil anything but I also liked how she handled and explained the disappearance of the roommate. I would likely read more from this author in the future!

This is my favourite book of the year so far. Not because of the subject matter, (That part gives me a sicky feeling in the pit of my stomach) , but because the writer does an excellent job of dealing with the subject matter in a then and now kind of scenario. Basically it shows you how we dealt with sexually assault, sex, and other things, in the nineties compared to the #metoo era. It was an amazing to see a writer stretch the ink on their computer, typewriter, hand , or however the author writes their books. It was raw, dirty, and felt like real people reacting to the news because Genevieve Scott created a very human book.

I like to start with the bad of every review that I do because I want you to see if you are going to like it enough to pick it up. If you are not a fan of stories about such a dark subject, then this is not for you. If you are not a fan of unlikable main characters or side characters, then this book will not be for you. Other than that, everyone should find something they like in this book.

What I liked about this book, is that the writer was able to bring me back to the land of Fruitopia, party of five, and how we talked about sex in that time period. I also really liked the fact that the writer did a great job of making me despise Ros so much, but understand how human her reactions were. to the events in her past and future. I thought it was a very remarkable read, even if I had to read so little at a time because the world she created was so deep and real.

If any new writers out there want to learn how make a book about unlikable people stick with you, then this is the book they should pick up and learn from. Hell, they could also learn how to drop enough reference's in there to not feel like a magazine Ad, but enough to get you to flash back to that time.

As you can tell I really enjoyed this book and because the author did such a good job, but will warn you that this not for everybody. On a side note, if anybody has Sarah Pooley's contact information, this might be the perfect book for her to adapt into a feature film.. Cough, Cough! One of us can dream, okay both of us can dream.....

Keep reading but remember to stay out of trouble!

Chris Humphrey

*Thank you Penguin Random House Canada and Genevieve Scott for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!*

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

This book is (in a word) lovely. It is poignant and relevant currently, making you think about "what would I do" or what has happened. I will say you should look up trigger warnings prior to reading this book (SA, pandemic).
Part takes place in 1998, and part in 2020. Due to 2020, it references COVID pandemic quite a few times - and I know some people find that less than desirable in a book because it's too real. It discusses the #MeToo movement ass well and its importance, the naysayers.

The 1998 references were making me smirk - between the music, the posters, the mindsets... I was instantly transported back.

I didn't LOVE the main character, but I don't really think we are supposed to. She is a fairly annoying mc and not many redeeming qualities for the first... 90% of the book, haha, but it also is a good tale of "surround yourself with those who make you be better". As a fellow Canadian I also appreciated the Canadian landscape and references in this book. Genevieve Scott is a great storyteller, and her writing style is beautiful and descriptive, drawing you in. I still thoroughly enjoyed this story and it's a solid read. It won't make you feel good and fuzzy, but it will sure make you think.