Is rape to heavy a topic to deal with?

sorry, *TOO* heavy a topic?

somebody, give me my inner editor back, amirite?

No, teenagers have already heard the facts of life, both the romantic, idealistic side and that of man at his worst. Properly handled, rape should reflect what it actually is...a crime of power and violence towards women, NOT a sickly sweet and "Oh, she asked for it" thing. It is not a crime of passion. It is not the woman's fault, even if she wants to blame herself.

Remember, a rapist enters and leaves the same thing he was before the rape, but in that few minutes, the victim is changed for life. There may be forgiving, but not forgetting. Victims never "get over it," we simply get on with life.

Now, what else do you want to know about it?

well, I skate around teh scene itsself adn everyone talks about it after teh fact, but it seems to me like bringing it up is a huge mood killer, since teh rest of teh story is relatively upbeat. plus, since I'm aiming at younger teens...

I guess I was just seeking reassurance, but I can't really be given that until people read my novel...

thanks for the advice.

I think it depends on the age of your readers. It may be a little too heavy for an 8 year old, but if it is YA, I don't think it's too heavy. (I'm curious as to how you will answer the 8 year old's question and whether or not that will "suffice" for the plot line.)

I think identity is CRUCIAL for YA readers (and everyone), so having your character curious about his paternal heritage IS important - if it's important to the plot/story.

Good luck ~

CN

Yeah, uh
Everyone just ignored the eight year old's question... at least in teh rough draft...

I think you're right about teh identity thing. And now I think--maybe if it comes out of left field--i should just go all out adn make it one of those stunning, last minute revelations at teh end!

don't know why i didn't think of it before... even if people are thrown out of teh story, they're not gonna quit reading it with 3 pages to go...

imma G-nyus!

oh, adn you guys helped, too...

I don't think that's out of bounds at all for YA. It's dark, yes, but readers of that are are in the midst of struggling with many of life's thorny issues, like how sex is both this great and wonderful thing that everybody wants, but on the other hand it can also be the worst thing (short of murder) you can do to another person. If you can help clarify for readers (without beating them over the head with the morality message) that to be great and wonderful, sex has to be _consensual_, then you'll have done justice to a difficult issue and helped your readers to grow as people too.

And lots of other YA books have dealt with rape. One of the best, IMO, is an published diary called "Go Ask Alice." It deals with a whole lot of the darker issues of the transition from child to adult, including rape (or at least coerced, if not outright forced, sex), drugs, running away from home, et cetera. You could do worse than to read it and take some writing lessons from it.

I would say to just consider how it fits into your story. What is the significance of the fact that your character's mom was raped - why did you choose to include it? If the rape has no purpose, you might as well not mention it at all. If it does have a purpose, then it’s perfectly fine for it to be there.

That said, approach it in a way that’s suitable for your readers, and stick with the tone that you’ve established in the rest of your story. As long as you do that, it should be fine.

If the whole question to be thrown out there is "Who's my father?", you can simply give her a more ambiguous backstory concerning her former lovers. She would be neither the first nor the last to give in to the heat of passion and therefore not being a hundred percent sure of her offsprings ancestry.
Allthough there's a saying that "Only the mother knows the true father", even that's not always the case. ;-)

If the fact that she got raped serves a point of importance to her character, or the identity issue at hand that goes beyond the mere question of fatherhood for the child, then by all means include it.
Though, I'd be hard pressed how you would explain that to a 8-year old. Hell, I'd be hard pressed to explained that to a child of any age.

well actually, the victim/mommy dies from complications at birth.

it's more about teh rapist adn his possible son.
the rapist was confused and angry--it wasn't a sexually driven crime--and he's truly sorry, but will he be forgiven?

Wow, difficult territory.

Rape is per se not a sexually driven crime, sex doesn't enter into it at any point beyond the fact that it uses a to be very gender specific act of violence.
Personally the idea of redemption for a rapist doesn't sit easy with me, murder can be understood and excused sometime but rape? I tend to believe that in order for something to be truly forgiveable it has to be understandable, rape is as far from that concept as one can ever get IMO.

However, I'm curious where this shall lead. We forgive, in theory, not for the sake of the person we forgive but for our own sake. We forgive to aknowledge the fact that we have to let go of past events, no matter how terrible, in order to be able to go on with our lives. But if the mother is dead, who will he ask forgivness from?
His son that is barely able to understand what his father pleads forgiveness for?

From a strictly personal point of view I'd say never ever try and drag sexualized violence and the concept of forgivness for the perpetrator into YA lit, you are entering into a grey area here where things get incredibly muddled and confront teens with a moral dilemma I don't believe the majority of them to be able to fully grasp.

well, it becomes a moot point because everybody dies anyway,

but teh guy's defense is 'I was angry and confused, adn I know it was wrong, and I can't take it back, so all I can do now is try and make it right. Isn't that better than doing nothing?'

But I leave teh decision up to teh audience because he dies in teh end.

I don't think it's unheard of for a rapist to be sorry about his crime; I work with a lot of people with mental illness, and wehn they go off their meds for whatever reason, they can do things like attack people because they're not feeling well adn not thinking straight. Afterwards, they're mortified, but they are ultimately forgiven.

My character's not really mentally ill beyond teh point of severe depression and resentment, but he definitely wasn't thinking straight.

I think if handled properly that rape can actually be a very helpful for teens.
For example, think of the book SPEAK. It's about a girl outcast at school. She's not an outcast because she's ugly or a transfer to the school but because she called 911 at a party during the summer because she was raped. She overcomes it (though of course no one ever forgets being raped, no one gets over it - you cope and deal with it and instead of being a victim hopefully you become a survivor) and takes control. If the situation isn't described than it shouldn't turn people away. If it is described than it shouldn't be graphic. But what you're doing sounds like it'll only be mentioned and explained. I think that it should be fine :)