Series ✦ Penny’s Take
The Banned Books Club
Brenda Novak · 2024
70/100
👍 Worth It
Novak handles genuinely hard material — a teacher's predatory misconduct, a community's refusal to believe, a sister trapped in an abusive marriage — with reported sensitivity and emotional authenticity. The vindication arc for Gia is the emotional engine of the book and it works. Sensitive readers should go in knowing what they're signing up for, and the title is a touch misleading about the banned-books angle, but this is solid, resonant women's fiction.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: mature content: sexual misconduct (teacher-student), emotional and physical domestic abuse; not suitable for sensitive readers or children. We still scored it 70; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety60
substance75
craft72
originality65
accuracy72
hype68
age-fit72
human-eye72
Penny’s verdict70
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