The Way I Used to Be, Amber Smith
The Way I Used to Be, Amber Smith
4 Rating(s)
List: $25.99 | Sale: $18.20
Club: $12.99

The Way I Used to Be

Author: Amber Smith

Narrator: Rebekkah Ross

Unabridged: 9 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/22/2016


Synopsis

New York Times bestseller! In the tradition of Speak, Amber Smith's extraordinary debut novel “is a heart-twisting, but ultimately hopeful, exploration of how pain can lead to strength” (The Boston Globe).

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year—this provocative debut reveals the deep cuts of trauma. But it also demonstrates one young woman’s strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence, of first love and first heartbreak, of friendships broken and rebuilt, all while learning to embrace the power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.

About Amber Smith

Amber Smith is the New York Times, USA TODAY, and internationally bestselling author of the young adult novels The Way I Used to Be, The Last to Let Go, Something Like Gravity, and The Way I Am Now. An advocate for increased awareness of gendered violence and LGBTQIA+ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help foster change and spark dialogue. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her wife and coauthor, Sam Gellar, and their ever-growing family of rescued dogs and cats. You can find her online at AmberSmithAuthor.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily May on January 21, 2024

I seem to be in the minority on this one. There are many thoughts running around in my head about this book and it's hard to decide how to write a review without sounding completely insensitive. If this were a real life account of a rape survivor, then things would be different. Every survivor has th......more

Goodreads review by Emma on April 29, 2018

I feel as if the best way to describe this book is the unforgettable experience I had listening to the last 3 hours of the audiobook at 1:30 in the morning in the pitch dark while bawling my eyes out and completely unable to breathe. It was THAT amazing. CW: rape *graphic* (Additionally, there is qui......more

Goodreads review by Bryce Rocks on June 05, 2024

**trigger warning** i didn't want to read this book. i read to escape my life. i want to read about perfect boys who would never hurt anyone and perfect worlds where these boys exist and strong girls with powers that no one could ever hurt. i dont want to read about horrors ive lived through because......more

Goodreads review by Wendy Darling on March 16, 2016

A single act can change your life forever.In Eden's case, the five minutes in which she was raped send her into a spiral of desperation and despair, so that there are times when she doesn't even recognize herself anymore. This book is divided into four sections, each one following a different schoo......more

Goodreads review by Huda on December 20, 2023

4/5⭐ A book that everyone should read once in their life This is such a lovely novel, full of real, raw emotions that will make you cry, feel sorry for the characters, and feel for them. I really needed an emotional read like this one! THIS WAS THE BOOK I WAS LOOKING FOR TO MAKE ME CRY, SOB, GET ANGRY,......more