Romy has been raped by the town's "golden boy," the sheriff's son, but no one believes her. As a result she loses her friends and sense of security. Come a few months later at a senior party, the town's Nice Girl Penny disappears the night Romy is found on the road with the words "Rape Me" written on her chest. As Romy struggles with multiple people saying You Should Have Died Instead and calling her an Attention Whore, she tries to make sense of having survived.
Tropes in this work include:
- Accidental Murder: Brock per his legal defense claims that this happened with Penny. Romy doesn't believe it given that "Rape Me" was written on her chest.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Romy starts believing this of everyone who used to be her former friend, including Penny.
- Cassandra Truth: No one except her family believed Romy when she said the sheriff's son raped her. She finally calls out Tina for this when Tina comes to apologize at the end of the book.
- Cat Fight: Romy attacks Tina in school when she learns from the police that Tina left her alone on the road with the words "Rape Me" written on her chest and nearly scratches the words "Rape Me" into Tina's chest as payback for it being written on hers. Even though Tina under questioning admits that she lied about doing the deed to cover up for Brock, not knowing that he had murdered Penny it still counts given Tina had to tell her family what she did and she's under orders not to speak of it.
- Downer Beginning: Starts with a rape scene, and it gets From Bad to Worse from there.
- The Ghost: Kellan, the sheriff's son who raped Romy.
- Hand Gagging: Kellan stopped Romy from crying while raping her by clasping his hand over her mouth.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam:
- Penny stood by and said nothing while Romy was being bullied. Then she comes to the diner where Romy works to encourage her to press charges against Kellan. Her actions lead to her getting killed, and Romy being blamed for surviving that night.
- Acknowledged as much by Tina. After being The Bully to Romy, and inadvertently covering up Brock's murder of Penny by lying to the police about driving Romy out into the road and Victim-Blaming Romy for surviving, she knows that she can't make up for her cruel words, inaction or deeds. After learning what Brock had done, she comes to apologize to Romy, tell her that she's not better off dead, and admit she was a bystander. Romy takes a while to process this, before recruiting Tina to find another of Kellan's victims in the hopes of pressing charges.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Tina and her family are under the sheriff's orders not to speak about the party, or of Tina lying about leaving Romy by the side of the road.
- Papa Wolf:
- Sheriff Turner is a dark one about his son Kellan, whom he refuses to believe has raped a girl.
- Tod is Romy's mother's boyfriend, but he is just as protective of Romy.
- Police Are Useless: And they are doubly useless when the sheriff's son has committed a crime and his father refuses to believe it. Sheriff Turner in turn harasses his son's victim, Romy, for every possible misdemeanor.
- Too Dumb to Live: Romy's PTSD compels to make multiple destructive decisions, among them going to the lake party where she gets drugged and nearly raped again.
- You Should Have Died Instead: Penny and Romy went missing on the same night, and Romy survived, so the gossip goes around this. It gets to the point where Romy says that it's better to be dead after you're raped, after the police finds Penny's body and that Penny died protecting an unconscious Romy from Brock.
