Belinda, a 21-year-old high school student with a developmental disability, is raped at a football game. This event occurs at the start of A Step Towards Falling, and it will affect the lives of Belinda and Emily and Lucas, two students who witness the attack but do nothing.

Emily is on the track to success:  she is a straight-A student and she co-founded the Student Initiative Club. Lucas is a football player on a team that is renowned in their town. He is similar to a god in Emily’s high school. For atonement, the two volunteer for a group called “Boundaries and Relationships” for people with disabilities. Although Emily originally thought that she and Lucas lived totally different lives, they both share their horrible mistake and want to help Belinda. Emily and Lucas soon form a friendship.

I liked this book because it showed the complexity of an important issue and the huge amount of stigmatization faced by people with disabilities. Belinda and her family dynamic are quite complex and nicely crafted. Belinda has her own perspective and is definitely not portrayed as just a victim in this novel. Emily’s own relationships are imbalanced, although the full extent of the problems McGovern alludes to during the book are not discussed. I liked how Emily's character is imperfect and has problems related to how she views other people.

Although this book is an enjoyable read and raises important arguments, there are many elements to this story that are very cliché and played out, such as Emily and Lucas’s relationship. This is a quality teen read and I recommend it.