When Melinda Sordino's friends discover she called the police to quiet a party, they ostracize her, turning her into an outcast -- even among kids she barely knows. But even worse than the harsh conformity of high-school cliques is a secret that you have to hide.
(Note: May Contain spoilers)
This book cannot be explained in plain simple English. There are no words to really describe how profound, amazing, darkly humorous and terrifying this book was. I finished this book in one reading and it so deserves (and I know on all my reviews I don't rate books, but...) 5/5.
AH.
MA.
ZING.
Loved the solidarity of Melinda's character, of how emotions just played through over and over again, portraying her loneliness and her longing to be accepted by her old friends. Her relationship with her parents. The night of the party, and how she reacts to everyone around her who blamed her and her only for everything. It's all well-written and details are perfect. Every thought of Melinda's can be relayed over and over again, to be fixed together in one terrifying jigsaw puzzle of what keeps her silent.
It was really sad though, because I knew what was going happen. I didn't intentionally find out of course, but me searching up the movie on Wikipedia (yes, okay. I use it.) only to find out what's her secret in the intro paragraph of the page? Not. Cool. So yes, maybe it was a bit spoiled for me and I think it would have hit me much harder than it did if I didn't know what her secret was. But I loved how when they do get to that part, they don't put it into much detail. It's around a chapter I think, and not graphic as I thought it would be.
Melinda is a character I cannot find one other fictional person I could relate her to. She's original and so real. I love Laurie Halse Anderson's books because she makes her character's personalities real and not very stereo-typical. I also love how through all the sadness that Melinda feels, she also portrays her with humor, with her new friend, her relationship with her parents (love it when she compares her Mom to Cruella de Vil and her Dad to Alfred Hitchcock...I think). It isn't necessarily very funny humor. Just dark and pretty sad, but humor otherwise.
*SPOILER ALERT: This one is MAJOR so DO NOT READ unless a) You don't mind the story being spoilt for you, or b) You've already read it.*
The ending I loved. Everything builds up and it's the point where you are screaming your heart out for Melinda, cheering her on against Andy when he corners her in that room and starts to attack. I was like nearly jumping out of my chair and thinking "Ohmygod, ohmygod, Scream for HELP Melinda, SCREAMM!!!" and then of course, I'm not going to tell you what happens, because I'm evil like that.
*SPOILER OVER!*
Overall, Laurie Halse Anderson has written a deep, tragical piece of writing which is pretty terrifying. As Melinda faces her schoolmates, teachers, parents, and herself, she teaches a lesson that everyone wants be heard and we just need to hear them out. A very thoughtfully written out book, I would really recommend those who loved Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (Amazon
❘Goodreads) and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Review❘Amazon
❘Goodreads) because this book is so heavily based on problems teens face today. Loved it!
Recommended to: 14+
Source: Borrowed from Library
Amazon
❘Goodreads
(Note: May Contain spoilers)
This book cannot be explained in plain simple English. There are no words to really describe how profound, amazing, darkly humorous and terrifying this book was. I finished this book in one reading and it so deserves (and I know on all my reviews I don't rate books, but...) 5/5.
AH.
MA.
ZING.
Loved the solidarity of Melinda's character, of how emotions just played through over and over again, portraying her loneliness and her longing to be accepted by her old friends. Her relationship with her parents. The night of the party, and how she reacts to everyone around her who blamed her and her only for everything. It's all well-written and details are perfect. Every thought of Melinda's can be relayed over and over again, to be fixed together in one terrifying jigsaw puzzle of what keeps her silent.
It was really sad though, because I knew what was going happen. I didn't intentionally find out of course, but me searching up the movie on Wikipedia (yes, okay. I use it.) only to find out what's her secret in the intro paragraph of the page? Not. Cool. So yes, maybe it was a bit spoiled for me and I think it would have hit me much harder than it did if I didn't know what her secret was. But I loved how when they do get to that part, they don't put it into much detail. It's around a chapter I think, and not graphic as I thought it would be.
Melinda is a character I cannot find one other fictional person I could relate her to. She's original and so real. I love Laurie Halse Anderson's books because she makes her character's personalities real and not very stereo-typical. I also love how through all the sadness that Melinda feels, she also portrays her with humor, with her new friend, her relationship with her parents (love it when she compares her Mom to Cruella de Vil and her Dad to Alfred Hitchcock...I think). It isn't necessarily very funny humor. Just dark and pretty sad, but humor otherwise.
*SPOILER ALERT: This one is MAJOR so DO NOT READ unless a) You don't mind the story being spoilt for you, or b) You've already read it.*
The ending I loved. Everything builds up and it's the point where you are screaming your heart out for Melinda, cheering her on against Andy when he corners her in that room and starts to attack. I was like nearly jumping out of my chair and thinking "Ohmygod, ohmygod, Scream for HELP Melinda, SCREAMM!!!" and then of course, I'm not going to tell you what happens, because I'm evil like that.
*SPOILER OVER!*
Overall, Laurie Halse Anderson has written a deep, tragical piece of writing which is pretty terrifying. As Melinda faces her schoolmates, teachers, parents, and herself, she teaches a lesson that everyone wants be heard and we just need to hear them out. A very thoughtfully written out book, I would really recommend those who loved Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones (Amazon
❘Goodreads) and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Review❘Amazon❘Goodreads) because this book is so heavily based on problems teens face today. Loved it!
Recommended to: 14+
Source: Borrowed from Library
Amazon
❘Goodreads
I love this book so much - great to see a review of it. Very happy to see that you also love it. It is a really special book, should be on the curriculum in school.
ReplyDeleteps. I am your newest follower :-)