It is a novel about the downward spiral into sickness and about pushing yourself too far physically in order to distract yourself from the mental pain. Because I think it takes her that long to truly come to accept what has happened to her, and to own it for herself. I was sure that she had never once thought that word before, and it was fitting that it was at the very end of the book that she finally thought it. Because when that word appeared on page 299, it jolted me. Not once in the first 298 pages of the novel – well at least I think she doesn’t.
For with the lack of memory came uncertainty: was she sure? Could she ever be 100% sure that things had really happened the way she thought? In some ways, I think that Sid’s lack of memory was the worst part of what happened to her. As Sid slowly came to realise what had happened to her, I literally had to take breaks from reading: tear myself away from the words on the page and take a deep breath. I found the first part of the book utterly harrowing. They made sense to her (most of the time), and so it was easy to see why she did(n’t) do what she did.
Sid felt so incredibly real – her reactions, her motivations, her skewed understandings all made sense the way that Sid thought and felt them. This book doesn’t have all the answers, but it sure does come close. What happens when someone takes everything from you? What happens when you think something terrible has occurred, but you can’t be sure? What happens when you can’t remember? What happens when you can’t forget?
Now, if she can just shake the nightmares and those few extra pounds, everything will be perfect… or so she thinks. But as she gets to know Corey (slacker, baker, total dreamboat), Sid finds someone who truly makes her happy. When she ends up on a ski lift next to handsome local college boy, Dax Windsor, she’s thrilled but Dax takes everything from Sid-including a lock of her perfect red curls-and she can’t remember any of it.īack home and unable to relate to her old friends, Sid drops her college prep classes and takes up residence in the A/V room with only Corey Livingston for company. Before the ski trip, sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy was a cheerleader (at the bottom of the pyramid, but still…), a straight-A student, and a member of a solid trio of best friends.
0 kommentar(er)
