Young AdultPages: 224
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: December 21, 2010
When Eddie Reeves’s father commits suicide her life is consumed by the nagging question of why? Why when he was a legendary photographer and a brilliant teacher? Why when he seemed to find inspiration in everything he saw? And, most important, why when he had a daughter who loved him more than anyone else in the world? When she meets Culler Evans, a former student of her father’s and a photographer himself, an instant and dangerous attraction begins. Culler seems to know more about her father than she does and could possibly hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death. But Eddie’s vulnerability has weakened her and Culler Evans is getting too close. Her need for the truth keeps her hanging on...but are some questions better left unanswered?
Really, Courtney Summers can do no wrong. She has this unique writing style that's so powerful and tense at the same time. She always deals with true issues that are so hard that there's just no way around it. This time, it was a suicide without explanation. No apparent reason, but Eddie's father is gone. And she needs to know why! The story was so stressful and the tension was so palpable that it was literally hard to tear my eyes away from it. My gaze was glued to the pages even when I felt so messed up I needed I break, still I needed to finish it first. I think I barely breathed while reading. And OMG! That twist! SHOKING! I was so mad and outraged and insulted. I did NOT see that coming!
This piercing portrayal of grief is as raw as it is real. To explore, not only a grieving process but a trauma too, the author needs to be as talented as Courtney Summers. As always, Summers teases the reader with bits of truth to add up and put together. And I felt as if there were two parallel plots unraveling next to each other to seamlessly come together at the end. There was the healing process with her mother and Milo, and then there was the mystery that needs to be figured out.
In the end I felt as torn apart as I felt satisfied. That is a feeling very few books provoke and almost every case its dark contemporary reads. Because they are the ones that truly expose with no sugar-coating the realities of our messed up world. That's why I love so much Courtney Summers: she's never afraid to show exactly how fucked-up people can be. And she never needs to say it, it's just there, plain on the pages.
If you want an awesome thought-provoking piece of literature that will leave you utterly shaken, then grab any of Courtney's books.
