Amy Reed’s latest novel battles rape culture with self-discovery
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The Nowhere Girls, which she will launch with an event at Malaprop’s on Tuesday, Oct. 10. Set in rural Oregon, the novel begins months after high school sophomore Lucy Moynihan has come forward about being raped, only to find her community refuses to believe her.
In the novel, three girls — Grace, Erin and Rosina (dubbed “the Nowhere Girls” to preserve their anonymity) — lead the charge to get justice for Lucy. Each of them has to grow, however, to create real, lasting change.
And as much as Reed’s depiction of Grace exemplifies this approach, her rendering of Erin goes further.
“The more I wrote her,” Reed says, “she started shifting and changing.” Eventually, Reed realized that Erin had Asperger’s and wanted to be sure that her depiction didn’t reinforce stereotypes. “I worked with three sensitivity readers who had Asperger’s,” Reed says. “I sent them the first draft. It was not good.”
The author discovered that she had drawn too heavily on research that approached Asperger’s from the point of view of parents and clinicians. With the help of her sensitivity readers, she strove to create a compassionate portrayal of a young woman with the disorder leaning into a fuller experience while remaining true to her nature.
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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman