SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ALI GREENLEAF

A young woman is raped and then must find her way through an attempt to silence her made by one of her attacker’s friends, who is herself a survivor of sexual violence.

Alternating first-person narration from junior Ali and popular senior Blythe presents an anguishing picture of a high school hierarchy in which revered athletes behave with impunity and Blythe and three other it girls are actually known by the moniker the Core Four. Beginning at a house party, Ali is initially thrilled that her long-standing crush, Sean, is paying attention to her; her sexual assault that same night is described with heart-wrenching realism. Yet Blythe’s efforts, at Sean’s impetus, to manage the fallout from Ali’s rape shift the focus of Krischer’s debut, which sprawls out into a realistically messy look at the power dynamics at play in a toxic school environment and into the shared painful experiences of Ali and Blythe, whose mothers are emotionally unavailable to them due to their respective struggles with substance use disorder and bipolar disorder. Ali and Sean are White, Blythe is Ashkenazi Jewish and Swedish; there is significant ethnic diversity among their friends. An appendix with resources for sexual assault survivors and those struggling with substance abuse and mental health along with a deeply personal and moving author’s note enhance the novel.

A harrowing read that tells a complicated story with nuance.