UNTIL TODAY

The realities of child sexual abuse, told from the victim’s point of view.

Kat has been living with a terrible secret since she was a small child. For most of her life, Greg, her dad’s lifelong best friend and law partner, has been abusing her and manipulating her emotionally to keep the crime quiet. Now in high school, Kat tries to stay away from Greg, but she’s worried that her 6-year-old sister, Sarah, may become his next victim. Yet she can see no way to stop the abuse, and Greg has kept her terrified and silent. When she meets a small girl who clearly has been beaten by her father, a popular school principal, she learns that her best option indeed is to report the abuse, but Greg is ready with a scenario that finds her to blame. Emotionally estranged from her own parents, she doesn’t know where to turn. Fluttert is not graphic with descriptions of the abuse, though readers will be able to guess at much. She keeps Kat’s trauma and her reluctance to speak at the center of her tale. The character of the abuser, Greg, always in control, stands out as highly realistic.

A solid cautionary tale.