My Whole Truth by Mischa Thrace (review)

When seventeen-year-old Seelie is brutally attacked at the horse barn where she works, she fights back with lethal force. A focus on the gory condition of the boy she killed and her visible injuries may have been the reason why the police or the doctors neglected to ask her about other details of the attack, and Seelie can't bring herself to relate the fact of her sexual assault. Despite clear evidence of self-defense, she is charged with the murder of Shane Mayfield, the son of a local judge. Throughout her ordeal, Seelie depends on the care of her three best friends rather than the mother she can barely stand, but she still withholds the truth, fearing that her friends will see her as irrevocably broken. Hints throughout of Seelie's feelings for her best friend, Lyssa, as well as the truth she is hiding, become explicit toward the climax of the book and ultimately lead to favorable personal and legal outcomes for Seelie. The multiplicity of revelations makes this play out as an episode of Law & Order: SVU, but the legal omissions and friendship drama mark it as a conveniently packaged YA version that may not be realistically ripped from the headlines but is still satisfying. KC