My very first exposure in reading YA fiction in a poetry format. Indentations of each verse makes this reading experience a whole lot different and interesting. As I was giving it a try, I thought the beginning was a little slow to digest but as the story goes, there is this vault that just suck you right into their lives.
"Dude, I have f***ing moved on. I don't call him to dinner anymore. I don't think I hear him coming in the back door. I hardly ever dream about how he looked when... when I found him. But if you mean I should accept what happened, you're out of your mind! -- I never will."
Tragic has both it's good and bad side. It all drills down how a person respond to it. Here, we are reading in Matthew Turner's POV through out the book and we are able to observe how he and his family struggled through a lost of a family member due to an accidental outing of homosexuality cum aggressive bullying and discrimination in a school premise. It is never pretty; it is even uglier when it comes down to an emotional stretch when one doesn't know how to deal with grieve.
"That's the worst thing about you, and the rest doesn't matter. You're not perfect, that's a fact. But your imperfections are part of what makes you, YOU. And that's who I fell in love with."
In reality, love still plays a major part of human existence. No matter how stereo typical Hollywood has infiltrate our mind on how they portray their love scenes. It is never like what has been quoted above. This is the single most used quote about a person when it boils down to puppy/teenage/desperate love, although overly used but it is NEVER practiced in today's context.
"You know how they say revenge is best served up cold? I'd say it's best not served up at all. Revenge is a great motivator, but it doesn't help achieve the desired results. I've seen guys lose buddies, then go off half-cocked, piss fuel running through their veins. Things never turned out well."
I've known of many that always think that revenge is the ultimate solution because they thought they are the ONLY one that has to live through that pain/struggle WHOM they think someone has done to them but what they didn't know is that, would they feel happier now when they know that they have made someones life a living hell?
My question to them: How can you even sleep when you know what you have already acted upon out of just a mere revenge? And in what position are you to make that sort of judgement towards a person in measurement of your own revenge?
"You just asked Vince for forgiveness. Maybe the price is giving it."
After all that has happened, reconciling is always a major human pride issue. Are we able to lay ourselves down to take that first step so that we all can live a harmonious life? This question is thrown back to us many times when angers take over our life.
Awareness of homosexuality and school bullies are pronounced with great debates and arguments during the course of reading this book. However, it ended with a little bit of a rush when I expected it more when Ms Hopkins has already brought us into such a traumatic state.
Overall, it is a great read and a rough emotional ride. I like it!
Ratings: 4.2 out of 5 stars
Goodreads Review Link
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