When Tess falls into a coma, Abby finds her life put on hold in her sister's absence. Living in Tess's shadow is one thing...but it's unbearable now that she's in a coma. As Abby works through a plan to bring her sister back (involving the handsome love interest, Eli), she has to learn a lot of hard truths about who here sister really is.
Abby is a fairly typical self-deprecating younger sister living in the shadow of her "amazing" older sister. Throughout the story, I honestly wanted to slap her more times than I can count and tell her to open her eyes. Her insecurity is pounded into your head throughout the entire book, and honestly, it made me almost completely unable to get behind her as an main character.
Tess is, in Abby's mind, the girl who everyone likes and I have to admit that I felt like I got to know her more through the story that I did Abby. As Abby learned about the Tess she didn't know, I did too and I really liked her. She was a teenager dealing with a lot of emotional difficulties and tough choices. I loved how Tess was unveiled slowly throughout the story.
Eli....oh Eli. Eli was such a real, fabulous love interest and friend. His character was beyond well-developed and I loved the dynamic that he brought to the story. Again, I don't want to give too much away, but suffice it to say that Eli is awesome. You will fall in love with him.
What this book does fantastically is bring in diversity and sexuality in such a seamless way that it doesn't come across as preachy or forced or any of the things that often happen when an author tries too hard to do those things. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it at that but be prepared for a well-rounded cast of characters.
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendship. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Shine / Lauren Myracle / 376 p.
Shine is the story of a small-town with backwards thinking. When a young boy is the victim of a hate-crime, his former best friend will stop at nothing to get to the truth and find out who hurt him. From the moment I read the opening newspaper article to when I read the final page, Lauren Myracle's Shine pulled me in. It was a truly spell-binding read--one that I put off for far to long. I know I won't be the first to say that some of Myracle's other popular novels don't hold a lot of appeal to me--not that they're not probably fantastic reads, just not my type. I guess it just goes to show Myracle's diversity as a writer because Shine was my "type" of book.
From the start, I felt completely sucked into the atmosphere the author creates. The bigotry was so indicative of the small-mindedness that is often engendered in that setting. I could connect so well to the characters that I felt stifled right along with them - stuck in a world where my ideas didn't fit in.
The main character, Cat, was incredibly relatedable in all her flaws. She's far from a perfect character, but I fell in love with her more and more every page. She became my best friend. I wanted to know on a personal level why she had separated herself from all her friends. I wanted to understand and I wanted to be there for her as she worked through years of pain and separation. When the description calls this a coming-of-age story, it's spot on. Watching Cat essentially grow up in the span of just over a week is harrowing and beautiful all at the same time--watching her open back up to people in her life and even the possibility of a new friend/love.
All the characters in this novel were really well-done. They were so dynamic and did things that you didn't expect. It was truly refreshing. It made every turn of the page a new adventure because the characters could turn out to be or do something different than you expected at every turn.
The mystery is, of course, the plot focus, but I really felt that the atmosphere and character were the driving force. They created the mystery and moved it along and created the twists that made the story unpredictable and kept me turning page after page.
From the start, I felt completely sucked into the atmosphere the author creates. The bigotry was so indicative of the small-mindedness that is often engendered in that setting. I could connect so well to the characters that I felt stifled right along with them - stuck in a world where my ideas didn't fit in.
The main character, Cat, was incredibly relatedable in all her flaws. She's far from a perfect character, but I fell in love with her more and more every page. She became my best friend. I wanted to know on a personal level why she had separated herself from all her friends. I wanted to understand and I wanted to be there for her as she worked through years of pain and separation. When the description calls this a coming-of-age story, it's spot on. Watching Cat essentially grow up in the span of just over a week is harrowing and beautiful all at the same time--watching her open back up to people in her life and even the possibility of a new friend/love.
All the characters in this novel were really well-done. They were so dynamic and did things that you didn't expect. It was truly refreshing. It made every turn of the page a new adventure because the characters could turn out to be or do something different than you expected at every turn.
The mystery is, of course, the plot focus, but I really felt that the atmosphere and character were the driving force. They created the mystery and moved it along and created the twists that made the story unpredictable and kept me turning page after page.
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