What We Saw

What We Saw (2015), a young adult contemporary novel by Aaron Hartzler, is a fictionalized account of the notorious Steubenville rape case. When a girl’s best friend is raped, she navigates complex small-town politics to find answers. Hartzler is an award-winning author and actor who once starred in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He is best known for his debut book, a memoir called Rapture Practice, which describes how he felt when his Christian high school kicked him out two weeks before graduation. He still performs in plays and musicals across the U.S.

Kate Weston, a high school student in Iowa, is a typical teenage girl trying to figure out where she fits into the world. At school, she and her best friend, Stacey Stallard, spend much of their time talking about their latest crushes. Though Stacey is popular and never short of boys to date, Kate is not jealous of her best friend.

As the book opens, Kate is hungover after a typical weekend of partying and drinking. The night before, she partied at John “Dooney” Doone’s house. He is a popular basketball player and Kate loves that she is invited to cool parties like this one—even if she hardly remembers anything that happened. The only thing she does remember is getting home safely thanks to Ben, another basketball player.



Kate has fancied Ben for as long as she can remember. They have been close friends since elementary school. However, Kate is scared to tell Ben how she feels because she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship if he doesn’t fancy her back. Kate spends much of the day after the party mulling over her feelings and wondering what she should do about them.

At school on Monday, Kate notices something strange. Stacey doesn’t show up for class and she doesn’t tell Kate what’s wrong with her. Things only get worse when Kate realizes that her classmates are whispering about Stacey. She discovers a picture of Stacey passed out at the party with hardly any clothes on, and the basketball players laughing around her.

Kate tries to control the photo’s circulation around the school, but it is too late. Soon, everyone believes that Stacey had sex with half the basketball team. Some people even whisper that there is a video going online, but no one is sure when it is going to be uploaded. Kate is horrified because, although Stacey is popular with guys, she doesn’t sleep around. She is worried something awful happened to Stacey at the party.



Before Kate can text Stacey, the police show up and arrest Ben, Dooney, and two other basketball players. They are charged with distributing child pornography, because Stacey is under eighteen, and sexual assault. These charges shock the whole town, but not in the way Kate expects. Instead, everyone is angry with Stacey for accusing the boys of crimes so heinous.

Kate doesn’t know what to believe. She can’t remember anything from the party, and so she can’t be sure when she last saw Stacey. She wants to believe that Stacey is telling the truth about the rape, but she has so many unanswered questions in her mind. Besides, Kate doesn’t want to believe that Ben is capable of raping someone—she’s crushing on him, after all.

Soon, the whole town vilifies Stacey. They send her horrible messages and she’s not safe at school. The townsfolk are more interested in winning the state championships than protecting a vulnerable girl. Even the police officers fret over the fate of these boys, because they’re destined for greatness and these allegations will ruin them. Kate tries to stand by Stacey, but their relationship deteriorates when Stacey realizes that Kate doubts her story.



Girls at school distance themselves from Stacey, too. They blame Stacey for getting drunk and losing her inhibitions. They say that she dresses like a slut and it is her own fault if boys think they can take advantage of her. These girls are victims of rape culture in a different way—they don’t realize how dangerous their comments are, and how they’re normalizing sexual assault.

Meanwhile, Stacey knows she is fighting a losing battle against the town. She can barely leave the house without someone harassing her, and there’s even a Twitter hashtag dedicated to the party and her antics. As the town comes down on Stacey, Kate gets angry. She is frustrated that everyone has sided with the basketball players simply because they idolize these boys. She realizes that this could happen to any girl—even her.

The evidence finally reveals that, although Ben didn’t rape Stacey, he didn’t do anything to stop the assault from happening. Kate is very disappointed in him; she doesn’t know what to think. She doesn’t think they can be friends anymore. Although the town is horrified to think that their star basketball players abused a drunk and vulnerable girl, this is a truth they must face.



Hartzler exposes the complexity of rape culture and the problems with consent. He exposes how fault commonly falls on the victim instead of the perpetrator. Most worryingly, What We Saw shows how young people feel about rape, sexual assault, and victim shaming, and that we must act now to end rape culture before it’s too late.