Book Notes

This book came highly recommended and I just finished it. Not bad. Not bad at all. I loved the beginning. When I started it, it was so captivating that little else got done. Dinners were burned, beds went unmade.

Charley, 16, has been in a coma for a year since her brother, Hal, found her lying on the rocks in the ocean. Her family is going back to their vacation house in Cornwall (lovely setting!) and that’s when the story begins. Hal can suddenly hear Charley’s voice inside his head. At first he thinks it’s only his imagination, but it isn’t. Charley can see what he sees and can talk just to him. The novel is made up of small chapters. Some from Hal Now, Hal Then, Charley Now, Charley Then. This is a brilliant set-up. The Charley now keeps saying things like, “Help me, I’m all alone, It’s dark in here and I can’t find the door.” This also allows the reader to get a glimpse into Charley’s last summer.

As things progress, and Charley becomes more insistent that Hal “remember”, Hal begins to suspect that Charley’s being in a coma is no accident.

With the setting, and pace, this is a perfect summer book. Think hot surfers and gorgeous coastline.

I finished this quick read almost a week ago and still haven’t found a moment to write about it.

I picked it up because I liked the cover, and it was recommended in the same clump of books as one of my favorites, The Whistling Season. The setting appealed to me as well: Nebraska farmland.

Sixteen year old Lila finds herself pregnant and comes to stay with her grandmother, Toby, on her farm for the summer. There are a lot of unspoken family secrets that come to the surface over the course of the summer. Some that heal, some that harm, all of them needing to be said.

It’s an easy read, and was an Alex award winner so it is appropriate for and appeals to teens. Perfect for summer time reading.