Sexual Assault Awareness Month (Book List)

CW: Sexual Assault, rape culture

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

So, in honour of bringing awareness to sexual assault, rape culture, and consent, and combining these topics with my love of literature, I’ve created a book list of books relating to topics in sexual assault, rape culture, and consent.

These books are — by no means — the only books out there about these topics, these are just books I’ve either read, heard about, or seen at Chapters.

If you have any suggestions to add to this list, please feel free to comment or message me, and I will add them!

I’ve also split these books into categories, in order to help you better decide what to read!

*= books I’ve read already — so if you have any questions about these, I would be happy to answer them!

Poetry:

• Milk & Honey, Rupi Kaur *
• The Bones Below — Sierra DeMulder *
• Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth — Warsan Shire *
• Purple Sparks: Poetry by Sexual Assault Survivors
• The Rape Poems — Frances Driscoll

Adult Fiction:

• To Kill A Mockingbird — Harper Lee*
• Luckiest Girl Alive — Jessica Knoll
• Perfect Match — Jodi Picoult*
• Kite Runner — Khaled Hosseini*
• Room — Emma Donoghue*
• The Tenth Circle — Jodi Picoult*
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — Stieg Larsson*
• The Lovely Bones — Alice Sebold
• Salem Falls — Jodi Picoult*
• The Color Purple — Alice Walker
• Push — Sapphire
• White Oleander — Janet Fitch*
• A Thousand Acres — Jane Smiley
• The Shanghai Girls — Lisa See

Graphic Novel:

• Take It as a Compliment — Marian Stoian

Adult Nonfiction:

• Asking For It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do About It — Kate Harding
• Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town — Jon Krakauer
• Girl in the Woods — Aspen Matis
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — Maya Angelou
• Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church: The findings of the investigation that inspired the major motion picture Spotlight — The Investigative Staff of the Boston Globe
• Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide — Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• Whipping Girl: A Transexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity — Julia Serano
• A Stolen Life — Jaycee Dugard
• One Hour in Paris — Karyn L. Freedman
• Still Room for Hope — Alisa Kaplan
• Lucky — Alice Sebold

Teen/Young Adult

Teen/Young Adult Fiction:

• What We Saw — Aaron Hartzler*

· Thirteen Reasons Why — Jay Asher*

· The Perks of Being a Wallflower — Stephen Chbosky*

· Speak — Laurie Halse Anderson

· Exit, Pursued by a Bear — E.K. Johnston *

· The Way I Used to Be — Amber Smith*

· Faking Normal — Courtney C. Stevens

· Fault Line — Christa Desir

· Sold — Patricia McCormick

· Identical — Ellen Hopkins

· Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock — Matthew Quick

· You Against Me — Jenny Downham

· What Happens Next — Colleen Clayton

· Swagger — Carl Deuker

· All the Rage — Courtney Summers

· The Word for Yes — Claire Needall

· Every Last Promise — Kristin Halbrook

· Punch Like A Girl — Karen Crossing

· Inexcusable — Chris Lynch

· Such a Pretty Girl — Laura Wiess

· Boy Toy — Barry Lyga

· The Mockingbirds — Daisy Whitney

Teen/YA Nonfiction:

• For Now: Words of the Girl Who Fought Back — Anna Nettie Hanson
• UnSlut: A Diary and a Memoir — Emily Lindin
• The Me Nobody Knows: A Guide for Teen Survivors — Barbara Bean & Shari Bennett