Skid Dogs

In this raw debut memoir, Canadian radio producer and essayist Symington-Fedy recounts how she returned to her hometown of Armstrong, British Columbia, to produce a documentary on the beating death of an 18-year-old girl by her attempted rapist, only to delve into her own early years as a sexually insecure teen growing up amid the rape culture of the 1990s. In 1991, Symington-Fedy’s family moved to Armstrong, and the author met the first real friends she’d ever known, a gang of girls who regularly convened at the same railroad tracks where the murder victim’s body was found decades later. She affectionately writes of the adolescent landmarks she and her friends shared, from their first time getting drunk together to their first fumbling sexual experiences. But as she digs deeper into the murder, and takes notice of how the media narrative coalesces around questions about the victim’s decision to walk alone at night, Symington-Fedy starts to grapple with the sexual mistreatment she faced at the same age and the forces that pulled her friend group apart. With plenty of Juicy Fruit, padded bras, and pot smoke, the narrative begins as a nostalgia-tinted reverie before evolving into a devastating portrait of the pre-#MeToo era from someone on the other side of it. The author’s candor and courage will move readers regardless of when or where they came of age. (Apr.)