The Testimony is an interesting story and very topical. It covers the taping of a 14 year old girl having a drunken sex orgy with three older teen boys on a school campus, the video’s posting on the internet, and the resulting media frenzy once the male teen participants in the orgy are charged with a crime.  The young men were all part of the school's basketball team

The message essentially is that one's negative actions can trigger far reaching catastrophic consequences for so many others even those who did not participate directly in the action itself.

This book was unusual and sometimes confusing in that it was written from the first, second, and third person perspective plus an epistolary narrative voice in the very last chapter. We heard the "voices" of several characters; even the minor ones.  Silas was a main character that was speaking to "you" and the “you” was his girlfriend. Sometimes the “you” referred to Jacqueline Barnard, a researcher is contacting the main characters two years after the scandal.  She is mentioned often but we never “hear” the voice of the researcher or see her in the story. Sienna, the teen-aged girl at the center of the teen sex orgy, and some of the other minor characters seem to be addressing this unseen researcher. I wondered  why only Ellen, mother of one of the male teens, was addressed in the second person.
 
The time period was varied. We see the action that takes place days after the scandal, we look back to the days that led up to the scandal and the day of the scandal, and then forward to two years after the scandal.

Silas is the character that I thought was a little unrealistic. His fury was realistic but I also think that a teenager in his situation would have confided in his girlfriend. I noticed the writer wanted us to see Silas as the victim and not Sienna. She was just presented as a spoilt, out of control, lying brat.

Throughout the story you wondered who was  the person who did the videotaping and the posting of it on the internet and I thought the “who” was cleverly done but not the why. 

The underlying question was, Why do good boys go bad?   The answer was not resolved fully for me.

Overall this was a good story.

Recommended: Yes