Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg

"I hate Blake much more than I loved Sara. I have no actual memories of Sara because she died when I was two years old. I know her only as a bottomless hole of sadness she left in my father's life. My third-grade circle of friends included a girl who had been adopted from Estonia. Once, at a sleepover, someone asked her how she found out she was adopted, probably expecting some kind of dramatic scene. But the girl just shrugged and said "I didn't find out. I never didn't know." It was like that with Sara. I just knew that I had a half-sister and that she was killed by her boyfriend, the same way I knew my own name,"

Nothing Can Hurt you is a fictionalized story based on an actual true crime case. Sara was murdered at the hands of her boyfriend Blake who gets off by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. This story is kind of about that, but it is more about the ripple effect the murder created by people that were connected to Sara and some who were just fascinated by her story.

Nothing Can Hurt You is told from a new perspective every chapter and you do not hear from one character more than once which I found to be so frustrating. There is such a dissatisfaction when you have followed a character's story build only to have no resolution, or to think the resolution will come in a later chapter but it never does. Structuring Nothing Can Hurt You in such a disjointed way made me confused about what specifically I was supposed to connect with. Was it the victim? Was it some girl her boyfriend interacted with in drug rehab that had never met the victim only the murderer? Was it her step sister? And if connecting to a character wasn't the point, then was I supposed to connect to a plot that had already run its course after the first chapter? The point of this book is completely lost on me. I don't get it and honestly there isn't enough of anything compelling here that makes me want to try and piece it together.

Nothing Can Hurt You spends a lot of time talking mental illness -which is fine, I wish more books would cover this topic accurately- however, I found Goldberg's perspective on mental illness to be very problematic. Yes, some people with mental illnesses have committed reprehensible crimes, but all people with mental illnesses are not reprehensible people. Every person that seemed to be mentally ill or in deep grief/depression were represented in a very negative light. This problematic pattern starts with the very first character we are introduced to and it holds fast through most of the chapters. This aspect did not enrich the book in anyway and did not paint a clearer picture of what this story was trying to convey so in my mind, it was completely unnecessary.

I am not much of a true crime buff. I used get sucked into the occasional Dateline episode but since having children I have lost the ability to be engrossed or entertained by a story that involves something awful happening to anyone's baby. Maybe motherhood is not allowing me to understand what this book is trying to say... or maybe this book really is confusing and that is the only point? Murder is confusing? Sure, we'll go with that! The theme of this book is "murder is confusing". I think I might be on to something here! All jokes aside, I do think part of what the author was trying to convey is the actions of one person -whether conscious or not- effect everyone in some way. The actions of one person have more power than we can ever fully glimpse. In this case, we found that the murder of one girl can launch a passion for justice, create a drug problem, break a family a part, or they can cause a lifetime of pain and sorrow by those that witnessed raw, senseless violence so up close they cannot help but see only shadows everywhere they look. There are a lot of books I would recommend if you enjoy true crime or even suspenseful reads before I would ever think of recommending Nothing Can Hurt You.

⭐️⭐️/5 stars

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Reviewer's note: Bloomsbury Publishing provided a copy of Nothing Can Hurt You in exchange for an honest review.