Book Review of What If It Wasn’t My Fault
The Children’s Book Review
What If It Wasn’t My Fault
Written by Katy Farber
Ages: 14+ | 223 Pages
Publisher: Rootstock Publishing (2026) | ISBN: 978-1-57869-218-7
What to Expect: Novels in verse, female solidarity, healing from trauma, reclaiming your voice, and family dynamics.
What If It Wasn’t My Fault by Katy Farber is a deeply moving and raw young adult novel in verse that explores the painful aftermath of a high school athlete’s sexual assault and her journey toward healing and reclaiming her voice.
Sensitivity Disclaimer: This book contains sensitive themes, including descriptions of sexual assault, trauma, underage drinking, self-blame, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Seventeen-year-old Indie has always been “the glue” holding her struggling family together. But after a hazy Saturday night party where a classmate takes advantage of her, Indie’s predictable, perfect world is blown to pieces. Paralyzed by intense shame and blaming herself for drinking too much, Indie skips school and runs away, embarking on a desperate physical and emotional escape through her small, sports-obsessed town. As panic and isolation threaten to drown her, Indie must decide whether to continue carrying a burden that was never meant for her or find the courage to share her story and step into her own power.
Farber’s writing is masterfully crafted, utilizing sparse but incredibly heavy verse to mirror the frantic, fragmented, and dissociated mental state of a traumatized teenager. The novel utilizes a great amount of “showing” over “telling,” allowing the reader to physically feel Indie’s anxiety through raw, sensory language—such as her picking her cuticles until they bleed or feeling the physical weight of her environment like bricks on her chest. The voice is remarkably authentic, tender, and fiercely embodied, capturing the complex nuances of trauma, youth culture, and the silent pressure girls face to “perform girlhood” and keep everyone else happy.
An essential, hopeful, and blazing act of courage that refuses shame and invisibility, What If It Wasn’t My Fault serves as both a solid, accessible primer on sexual assault and a powerful testament to the healing power of female solidarity and sharing your truth. This book will be most enjoyed by older teens, young adult readers of lyrical novels in verse, survivors, and anyone looking for a story about finding light in the aftermath of trauma.
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About the Author
Katy Farber is an assistant professor and writer from Vermont. She writes about education in addition to books for adults and young people.
Find her at katyfarber.com.
