The synopsis: Sarah Laden, a young widow and mother of two, struggles to keep her own family together. After the death of her husband, her high school aged son Nate has developed a rebellious streak, constantly falling in and out of trouble. Her kindhearted younger son Danny, though well-behaved, struggles to pass his remedial classes. All the while, Sarah must make ends meet by running a catering business out of her home.
When a shocking and unbelievable revelation rips apart the family of her closest friend, Sarah finds herself welcoming yet another young boy into her already tumultuous life.
Jordan, a quiet and reclusive elementary school classmate of Danny's, has survived a terrible tragedy, leaving him without a family. When Sarah becomes a foster mother to Jordan, a relationship develops that will force her to question the things of which she thought she was so sure. Yet Sarah is not the only changed by this young boy. The Ladens will all face truths about themselves and each other - and discover the power to forgive and to heal.
My thoughts:
Talk about being blown away. I'm into suspense and the element of surprise, but I find that lately, it's easy to guess the twist before it happens. Not so with this novel. Not only does the undercurrent grab hold and pull you under, but it stays with you for the duration. The story that brought this family back together is not for the faint of heart. There was sadness and a sick feeling in my stomach for the entirety of the novel knowing what took this boy from his family, but his resilience and resonant theme of the story made this impossible to put down. Be warned though, keep the tissues at the ready. They'll be needed on more than once occasion for sure
Man, does that old adage "When it rains, it pours" prove itself true every so often! While Holly's on a Beckham-induced book break, I have been reading like crazy, but work's been a madhouse, and my apartment complex has gone to hell in a handbasket, so fighting with them has taken the majority of my time and keyboard strokes.
The synopsis: IN THE END WE ALL FADE TO BLACK.
Pink-haired Hilda and oddball loner Benji are not your typical teenagers. Instead of going to parties or hanging out at the mall, they comb the city streets and suburban culs-de-sac of Los Angeles for sites of celebrity murder and suicide. Bound by their interest in the macabre, Hilda and Benji neglect their schoolwork and their social lives in favor of prowling the most notorious crime scenes in Hollywood history and collecting odd mementos of celebrity death.
Hilda and Benji’s morbid pastime takes an unexpected turn when they meet Hank, the elderly, reclusive tenant of a dilapidated Echo Park apartment where a silent movie star once stabbed himself to death with a pair of scissors. Hilda feels a strange connection with Hank and comes to care deeply for her paranoid new friend as they watch old movies together and chat the sweltering afternoons away. But when Hank’s downstairs neighbor Jake, a handsome screenwriter, inserts himself into the equation and begins to hint at Hank’s terrible secrets, Hilda must decide what it is she’s come to Echo Park searching for . . . and whether her fascination with death is worth missing out on life.
My thoughts: I read this book quite some time ago, and initially wanted to time to process because it was that interesting, and complex. Then I just got waylaid by work. Still, the story has sat with me for awhile because there are so many layers and intricacies to Hilda, and it makes it that much more unnerving that Benji is so one dimensional and scary. Hilda unfolds bit by bit when she meets Hank. In a way, he brings her back to life, which she has refused to acknowledge since she lost her parents in an accident. Since then, she's chased death. Celebrity deaths, the more macabre the better. That's how she and Benji bonded. The story was interesting on a base level, and I didn't realize how touching it was also, until I closed the book.
Posts
