Title: Raw Blue Author: Kirsty Eagar
Published: June 29, 2009
Genre(s): Realistic/Contemporary
Page Count: 274
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Carly has dropped out of uni to spend her days surfing and her nights working as a cook in a Manly cafe. Surfing is the one thing she loves doing... and the only thing that helps her stop thinking about what happened two years ago at schoolies week.
And then Carly meets Ryan, a local at the break, fresh out of jail. When Ryan learns the truth, Carly has to decide. Will she let the past bury her? Or can she let go of her anger and shame, and find the courage to be happy?
I’ve put off reading this book for years. I thought to myself “oh yeah, just another YA story about a girl with problems that she works through”—and don’t get me wrong, I really like books that fit that description. But I’ve read a lot of them, so I wasn’t about to rush into Raw Blue in a hurry. Well. Let me tell you a thing. This is not just “another YA novel” (I would honestly not term it YA—the characters are in their twenties and things get a bit graphic) and this isn’t like anything I’ve read before. This book is basically one of the best things ever. Kirsty Eagar just kills it with this book.
See, I’ve read a fair amount of realistic fiction type books in my time. I’ve read a decent amount of books that deal with rape and its aftermath before. But not of them were as brutally real as Raw Blue was for me. Eagar doesn’t turn Carly into a cowering ghost who wears Rape Victim as a label for all to see, and neither does she pretend that Carly hasn’t suffered and isn’t dealing with her past. Dropped out of university and working a low-end job that only just covers the bills, Carly lives her life and does her surfing thing, but to say that she’s doing all right would be a lie. This book is honest and poignant and emotional, but never fake or overdone.
And in terms of surfing, I found that aspect to be really realistic, too. Either Eagar has firsthand experience or she’s really good with the research. Surfing is a huge part of Carly’s life—it’s the only thing keeping her stable, and though I sometimes find books that focus a lot on the protagonist’s “activity” of choice to be frustrating or badly done, that was certainly not the case here. Surfing opens up a lot of doors for Carly—on the water she meets a new friend, 15-year-old Danny whose synesthesia tells him the Carly’s on the edge, and Ryan, a man who supports Carly as she starts to deal with her past.
If there’s one thing I absolutely hate about these kind of novels, it’s when the troubled girl meets the magical boy who helps her “fix” all her problems. That is not what happens in Raw Blue. Ryan is wonderful. He’s kind and gentle and completely invested in Carly’s happiness, but finding a new, healthy relationship does not change the reality of Carly’s past trauma. I love how Eagar was able to show that you can have good sex and still be haunted by what your rapists did to you, that you can be uncomfortable around men but still connect with one in a meaningful way. Raw Blue really shows healing as a process, not some black-to-white snap-transformation. And at the end of it all, it’s not Ryan who’s saving Carly—it’s Carly who, with the support of her friends, is saving herself.
The going is rough, and Raw Blue doesn’t end with Carly as some perfect, happy young woman. She’s not. She’s made steps over the course of the novel, but she’s still working towards being happy and being herself, and she has to work to keep what happened in her past from affecting how she lives her life. Eagar doesn’t pretend this is an easy process, but I think the important thing about this book is how much it humanizes Carly. She’s not just some faceless rape victim with a generic story and generic recovery. All sexual assault experiences are different, it’s unfair to lump them together, and Carly’s journey towards healing is her own. Raw Blue recognizes this, and rather than this book just being a “rape novel”, it’s just a novel whose protagonist happens to love surfing and happens to have been assaulted. These things don’t define Carly; they inform her actions and her thoughts, but she is more than a label or a statistic. That’s what this book shows.
In terms of impact and emotion, it’s hard to do better than this. Kirsty Eagar has concocted the perfect blend of humor, emotion, and authenticity to create a novel whose story is real and true. Raw Blue doesn’t pull punches and it’s difficult to read at times, but it’s so genuine and empowering that the struggle seems worth it. Carly’s story is important because it shows her as a survivor, a woman, and a human being.
