Doubt

As I read through Mercy I found myself appalled at the amount of violence that one can encounter in their lifetime. Andrea has been raped numerous times before she has even turned 30 years old. I hear the same story over and over again about how she was victimized and left in pieces, abandoned. However, I just can't bring myself to entirely believe that this is true and accurate. Now I am the last one to doubt rape victims but this book has left me feeling uneasy. Is it possible that a young woman can be brutalized this often?

My mind evaluates this situation and tries to find the common factor and comes to the conclusion that it is Andrea. Perhaps Andrea just keeps placing herself in more dangerous situations. Obviously for most of the novel she had no permanent place of home. Her poor lifestyle obviously doesn't help her at all. Is it a woman's fault if she places herself in a dangerous situation though? Can both the man and the woman be blamed for what happens?

I feel like a lot of the writing in Mercy is sensationalized. All we hear about is how victimized Andrea is; by her family, by males, by society, by God. At what point should she stop pointing her finger at everyone else and blame herself for part of what happens. I'd venture to say that her sexual experiences are unlike the average woman's experiences. Does Andrea have just a horrible stroke of luck or can she be blamed?

This is a touchy subject because we all try hard not to blame the victim. I don't feel comfortable with having these thoughts but I felt like I had to share them. Are some of these acts consensual? Are some of these acts just sensationalized for the good of the story? Or are some of these acts not even the perpetrator's fault? These are questions that might never be answered.