Jade is a successful lawyer in a relationship with a man who loves her. In all respects her life is going well. One night, at a work function, her boss tries to hit on her and she has too much to drink. Luckily, a colleague lives in her direction and ensures she gets home safely. Except the following morning, Jade wakes naked and notices bruises on her body. She has no memory of what happened but later learns from her colleague that he had sex with her. Obviously, without her consent.

This story excels in highlighting the way the body stores and reacts to trauma, even when the mind isn't consciously aware of the trauma. Lee's writing of those scenes - the panic attacks, the partial flashbacks - was visceral and brilliant. I've never been seriously sexually assaulted, but Lee made sure I felt exactly what Jade felt. This book also excels at skewering the toxic workplace culture in big law firms, a culture which New Zealand news headlines over the past few years show isn't confined to the UK. And I don't just mean the punishing work hours, although they certainly featured. Scenes featuring the firm's diversity committe were toe-curlingly cringey for the way the committee was tokenistic and widely missed the mark, both in terms of composition and "achievements". And when Jade reported her rape to the firm's HR department, the response was as bad as this cynical reader expected, totally disproving their claim to take such matters seriously. Another aspect of this story which stood out for me was Jade's ethnic background. Her mother was Korean and her father Turkish. Although it wasn't the main focus, this book explored being a biracial member of two different minority cultures. It's the first book I can recall reading that has explored the issue. Another thing I liked was that this book explored the aftermath of rape for a woman who chose not to make a formal complaint to the police and not to proceed down the legal route. Clearly, there is no right or wrong approach; both need to be represented in fiction. This book would pair well with Prima Facie, which I read earlier this year. Both feature UK female lawyers raped by male colleagues, but Tessa pressed for her case to go to trial.
Jaded is an excellently written, powerful book exploring the clash between gender, race and power in the legal world. Highly recommended for those who won't find the subject matter triggering.
And Kit - the boyfriend who loved Jade? Total waste of space. Was so relieved when she finally left him.

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bettinab's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What an astonishing novel. This is a heartbreaking, multi-layered, complex and at times hard to read book that covers a lot of major issues. The author wastes no time throwing us into it all and writes with incredible maturity, finesse and sensitivity. This is a story about questions of identity and how we can suddenly lose everything we thought we were, without knowing who we want or actually can be. It deals with the traumatic, far-reaching aftermath of assault. It deals with power, privilege, subtle and not so subtle racism and widespread institutionalized misogyny. That may seem like a lot and in a way is - but Lee is exceptional at weaving all of it together. The characters are well developed and beautifully complicated yet relatable.

Throughout the book, I was horrified, sad, not the least bit surprised with most of what Jade experienced, a little shook and above all, it all made me think and reflect. There's also a little humor in it, most notably the DEI initiative that - as someone too familiar with that kind of corporate nonsense - made me laugh out loud.

Ela Lee is superbly talented, has written a fantastic debut and one can only hope to read more from her.

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marissanbullis's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

first half was decent (4 stars) the second half makes it all worth it (would rate this half 5 stars) crying, screaming, throwing up. recommending this to everyone i know

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