Book Club: Week Four

     "Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life."

Introduction

     This book is so sad. I never cry when reading books or watching movies, but this book had me near tears for at least 78% of the book. It's so intense and well written; you feel like you are walking in Valerie's shoes. Fun fact, I didn't get my copy of this book until Wednesday. I had reserved it at my library about two weeks ago, but for one reason or another, it took forever to come in. I had about 6 or 7 books on reserve, so I just had to pick one out for this week so that everyone would be on the same page. After realizing that this book was going to take it's sweet, precious time to get to me, I had high hopes that it would be one of the shorter novels out of the group being as I was losing valuable reading time. However, this book was the thickest. Life just works that way it seems. Anyways, the reason that I am telling you this story is that despite this book being a nice 400+ pages long, I had no problem plowing through it in the few days I had to get it read. It's one of those books that you won't put down. It draws you in, and you can't just stop when a chapter finishes. 

***SPOILER ALERT***

     Now to those of you that have read this book, did you enjoy the story? Were you as emotionally stunned as I was? The part that really got me was when the dude (...Tucker? For the life of me, I cannot recall his name.) threatened Valerie with the gun. I felt like I was in her position, like I was sitting against the barn in her situation, and I felt sad, and angry, and crazily in tune with that moment. I think the story is written so that you sympathize with Valerie, but I really truly felt like she wasn't in the wrong. I felt outraged with her parents and the kids that were so rude to her. BUT REALLY, let's talk about how her parents reacted. Her dad made me so angry. Not for the Briley thing at all, just for the deep resentment he held towards his daughter. I felt like they should have been more on her side, yet they were afraid of her, and never really gave her a chance to explain her story. Obviously, she was a part of the list, and this should deserve some resentment, but I felt like her parents just should have reacted differently. And those few chapters where it strung from the threat, to her dad yelling at her on the side of the road, and to the stay at her dad's apartment were just so intense. That's a good notion to describe the book with, intense. How did you react to these scenes? Did you find it hard to sympathize with Valerie? 

Summary

     Overall, I rate this book a 5.5 cups of tea out of 6 cups of tea. It was a really nice read, and I felt like the ending resolved the story quite nicely. The only reason I am taking away points is because I don't think it's a book that will stick with me. It sure was an emotional read, but it didn't impact me. I'm not going to be thinking about it all week, and I don't feel this deep emotional attachment to the story. Maybe this is due to the so excellently completed resolution to the story. I'm not sure. It just really felt like it was a nice ending though. All in all, this is a great book. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a good next read. It kept me interested, and was fairly easy to get through. 

What did you think of this week's book?

Week Five: How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford