Alyssa's+book+review

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=Yr 8 English Book Review= =By Alyssa Bovezza= =Novel: The Making of Me=

The Making of Me is a true story set in Cronulla, Sydney also known as The Shire in 2002. The main scene took place at a house owned by 5 ethnic boys of different ages where ruthless assaults were encountered for the main character Tegan.

The main character in this novel is a 14 year old girl named Tegan. She experiences drastic challenges during her teenage years and manages to cope by having faith in herself whilst many close family members and friends don’t believe in her for the duration of her life. She learns through the course of her challenges that by sticking with your intuition many things can be achieved and all hope depends on yourself. Tegan values herself and her grandparents more than anyone as she can’t depend on many people through the hardships that she faces.

The author Tegan Wagner wrote this book based on her life about finding her future after she was sexually assaulted. In the beginning Tegan is a mildly rebellious teenager always looking for fun with her friend Kerry. They both come from broken families but the only difference is that Tegan has her grandparents constantly keeping a close eye on her. After a short while into the book another friend named Sophie is emerged into the picture. Like Tegan and Kerry, Sophie is a girl wanting to have fun. Later in the novel Tegan learns great lessons from her from mistakes and as she grows up she realises the seriousness of law suits. Tegan Wagner, the author of this novel includes flashbacks in her text which indicates to the reader that her story was one that she will never forget. It is told in Tegan’s point of view.

A strong relationship that occurs in this novel is between Tegan and her grandparents. They are very protective of Tegan and love and adore her with all their hearts. They always try to make the best decisions for her even though she is rebellious and does many things behind their backs. As a result of the loss of Tegan’s father due to an illness her relationship with her mum seems to fail most of the time therefore she relies on her grandparents to be there for her and support her through her struggles. Another important relationship in Tegan’s life is between herself and two police officers, Kellie and Kevin. Through the duration of Tegan’s hardships the two officers had been a massive guidance for helping her get through the times of disbelief.

A main issue that this novel made me think about was the importance of knowing everything about sexual assault. What to do in the situation, how do you know when it is happening and what to do afterwards when it has happened to you. It opened my eyes to the significance of support that is needed for someone that is experiencing such a thing and to never let them do it alone.

This book for me was not the best book as I do not enjoy reading autobiographies. I found at times the story line became a bit boring and as a reader I had to continue to push myself to read the novel as it wasn’t an intriguing as I thought it would be. Taking into consideration that it was a valuable life lesson it just didn’t pull me in as much. I would recommend this book for teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 because it does go into graphic detail about the sexual assault and uses some curse language.