Kennedy follows Goddard’s trajectory, which is a fascinating story in and of itself, but she goes beyond the inventor as well. She writes about just how broken the system for reporting sexual assault remains, and how victims were and still are often undermined, deemed untrustworthy or incapable of making sound judgments ... a relatively slender book, but it packs a punch. It’s an important investigation of a complex inventor, her flawed but revolutionary technology, and how it has never been allowed to live up to her hopes for it.
There is another equally urgent narrative here, and it’s Kennedy’s own ... The brutally economical descriptions of the violence she endured are the real 'true crime story' of the book, a tiny handful of passages that rise off the page, incandescent ... Marty Goddard provided a way to preserve that evidence, for generations of victims. No wonder Kennedy wanted to tell this forgotten story. And along the way, her own.
Kennedy’s hunt for Goddard becomes the biggest driver of tension in the first half of the book. The impulse to include this behind-the-scenes look at her reportorial process is understandable. It’s practically de rigueur in modern true crime writing. But in this story, it creates something of a narrative problem. The tension of Goddard’s quasi-disappearance (where is she?) is undercut by Goddard’s constantly being quoted ... Kennedy shines when she brings her deep knowledge of the history and potential of technological innovation to the page ... Perhaps the most important and heartening section of the book illustrates the progress that came as a direct result of Goddard’s invention — including insights into perpetrators of sexual violence and innovations in investigating sexual assault currently being made today, even still to come ... Kennedy might not have been able to find Goddard but avenge her she has. This book (and a quick internet search where the invention of the rape kit is now correctly attributed to her) is proof.
Through this book, Kennedy highlights the progress enabled by Goddard’s unsung efforts, namely the wholesale evolution of forensic science that can now link microscopic DNA evidence to a vast network of potential perpetrators. But her chronology can feel a bit manic, jumping from the 1800s to the 1900s to the 1600s in the span of a few pages. Further complicating the timeline, Kennedy weaves her own trauma experience into the narrative, an effort I assume is meant to underscore how little feminist activism has actually changed society.
Kennedy’s important reclaiming of the history of the medical forensic examination tool known as the rape kit is equal parts triumphant and devastating ... Significantly, Kennedy works to capture the compounded challenges Black women experience regarding rape culture. Readers will encounter multiple descriptions of sexual violence, including a section called 'ungaslighting' in which Kennedy re-examines her own past.
Kennedy’s efforts to find out what happened to Goddard after she faded from public life uncover not only personal details but also an in-depth history of the treatment of women survivors of sexual assault and other crimes. Readers with an interest in police procedure or true crime will find this book fascinating.
