While not all women are privileged enough to be able to choose the way of their life (an issue that cannot be ignored, but it happens so many times), there are many ways that women can choose to participate in order to make their voices heard in their own ways.
Before we go into the deep interpretation of the book, let’s take a look at the title. The title is very interesting. In the cover, there are some animals (species) and a woman. In the first time I see the picture, it makes me questioning, does the women is included into an animal of species (according to the society)? I do sometimes agree about it when I remember about the child marriage, where a woman is forced to marry an older man. In other situation, sometimes, a girl can’t go to school just because the stigma that our society have, who says “women will go to the kitchen in the end”, or sometimes a wife is being raped by her husband, where it can’t be called as a rape even when it happens without any consensual. After read the book, it became clear that there are some possible answers about the title;
1. Women is seen as an animal, where their right sometimes can’t be fulfilled and their voices are considered meaningless.
2. The woman in the picture only represents the heart of the story (Alex), where she works at the animal shelter
In this incredible novel, the author takes readers on an unpleasant journey. It represents the society’s bad culture and violence against women. It is an impressive and very necessary to look at our society’s obsession with violence, as well as how women are treated as sexual objects (objectification of women). In the novel, there’s a lot of things that usually happens in our society nowadays, such as swearing, bullying, drinking alcohol, free-sex (consensual or not), and also murder. But Alex, a girl who restrains her hidden violent nature to keep people, around her, safe. She can harm someone who harms other. But her character is not that cold and indifferent, even her action leads to the feeling of guilty and devastation.
The story has three separate points of view, each character’s unique voice that represents the honesty. Jack, his way of thinking on life and love, are crazily perfect. Peekay lets readers in on the guilt of her perceived sins. As the core of the story, Alex just wants to be safe and to be loved. But her life doesn’t give her that.
Alex Craft is a girl with a strong revenge. Her older sister was tortured and murdered and the suspected went free. Of course, this book focuses on bad culture. The frustration of victim’s families and also the hesitation in reporting the case. I am quite sure that if this case happens to a man, the family will be brave to report it. Since the victim here is a woman, the family began to be doubt to report. Alex’s memory of her sister is becoming twisted. There is a moment where all she recalls about the face of her sister is how she looked in missing person posters. For me personally, this part is heart-breaking. How can a sister even forget about another sister who was being killed? In my perspective, the fear of Alex about safety is stronger than the mortality of her sister. This book also gives a perspective that no one looks shocked when a man calls a woman a bitch, but a woman matching his vulgar language is gasped at. As in the story, so many people gasped at Alex when she did a harsh word, but no one do the same when a man did the harsh word to Alex.
This troubled young woman battling her hatred for those who hurt others and wondering how her newfound friends would feel if they knew what she was capable of. I am sure that it will be difficult for a woman, who her sister was being killed and the suspected was being free, to control her emotion. As women, how do we handle the emotions within ourselves that are seen as ugly (according to the stigma in society)? The anger, the rage, the frustration, the sadness? Do we embrace it and keep ourselves isolated out of fear just because we are women? Or do we hide those parts of ourselves from those we consider friends and family, people were supposed to love and trust us as a woman?
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