Laura Harrington's Blog, page 3
December 28, 2011
Alice Bliss is so tender and such a raw story of growing up amidst war that I have a new appreciation for the loved ones left behind.
[ 9 ]August 8, 2011
Reviewed by Colleen Turner
Alice Bliss is in many ways a typical fifteen year old: she argues with her mother, tries hard to take care of her little, precocious sister and is a daddy's girl of the highest caliber. She has spent her life following her father around, learning how to garden, building things in his workshop and going with him on roofing jobs. He has also taught her to be meticulous, gracious and to never let her fears get the best of her. She loves her father beyond all others and has always tried hard to make him proud.
When Matt Bliss decides to enlist in the military, his family is devastated. Alice's mother tries to convince him that this was not part of the plan but has to relent when he makes up his mind that this is something he needs to do. Matt works hard to instill in Alice and her sister, Ellie, all the life lessons he can before shipping out to Iraq, just in case they are needed. He tries hard to convince everyone that he will be home before they know it but also needs to make sure that they will be okay no matter what.
When he leaves, a huge hole opens up in the Bliss family. The glue that so often bound them together and mediated when they began to unravel has been taken away and no one knows quite what to do. As Alice tries hard to pick up the slack of chores, cooking and keeping Ellie from falling apart, she isn't quite sure what to do with her feelings of loss, anger and emptiness. She begins to run track which seems, for a fraction of the time, to clear her mind and make her feel normal. When her feet stop running, though, the pain floods in.
While Matt is away Alice continues to bloom into her own, fighting it tooth and nail and waiting for her father to come home and stop missing out. She learns to drive and begins the tenuous steps of first love. She wants desperately to share all of this with her father but the letters and phone calls are becoming few and far between and she is left to navigate her newly developing world by the good sense her father gave her and his whispered voice in her head. She wants to be strong for Matt and help hold the family together so when he gets home everything – her mother and sister, his workshop, their garden – is as he left it. Can she hold her family, and herself, together until and if that happens?
Warning: do not read Alice Bliss without tissues! It has been awhile since a book moved me to tears, but here I am. Alice Bliss is so tender and such a raw story of growing up amidst war that I have a new appreciation for the loved ones left behind. With all the awkwardness that being a teenager entails, this heaped on top seems too much for anyone to bear. But strong, smart, brave Alice Bliss is a testament to how to move through the pain, the loss and the sadness when the one you love most isn't there.
Rating: 4.5/5
Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son and pet fish. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let's face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.
Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Pamela Dorman Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Read more @: http://luxuryreading.com/?s=alice+bliss&x=0&y=0
ChickLit Reviews and News Picks Alice Bliss for Top 15 Books of 2011″
Earlier this week Leah shared her Top 15 Books of 2011 and as the weekend began to sneak up on me I knew my time would be coming to share my list as well. It was definitely harder to narrow it down to just 15 than I thought it would be. 2011 was an amazing year filled with some of the most incredible books I've ever read. So, without further hesitation on my part, my 2011 Top 15…
Congratulations and thank you to each of these brilliant authors!
Remember, these are all based on US release dates though they may have been released earlier elsewhere in the world. I hope you've been able to read a few of my favorites, but if you haven't definitely be sure to check out my review by clicking on the cover! Then, rush out and buy the entire list! I'm sure you'll love each of these wonderful reads!
Read more @ : http://chicklitreviewsandnews.com/2011/12/danielles-top-15-books-of-2011/
ChickLit Reviews and News Picks Alice Bliss for "Top 15 Books of 2011″
Earlier this week Leah shared her Top 15 Books of 2011 and as the weekend began to sneak up on me I knew my time would be coming to share my list as well. It was definitely harder to narrow it down to just 15 than I thought it would be. 2011 was an amazing year filled with some of the most incredible books I've ever read. So, without further hesitation on my part, my 2011 Top 15…
Congratulations and thank you to each of these brilliant authors!
Remember, these are all based on US release dates though they may have been released earlier elsewhere in the world. I hope you've been able to read a few of my favorites, but if you haven't definitely be sure to check out my review by clicking on the cover! Then, rush out and buy the entire list! I'm sure you'll love each of these wonderful reads!
Read more @ : http://chicklitreviewsandnews.com/2011/12/danielles-top-15-books-of-2011/
December 27, 2011
"Characters so real I wanted to smack them."
Dec 23, 2011 by Dee DeTarsio
[image error]
Dang you, Laura Harrington, you owe me a hankie.
When Alice Bliss learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind.
Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full- blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie. But the smell of Matt is starting to fade from his blue shirt that Alice wears everyday, and the phone calls are never long enough.
Because I am the world's ugliest, sloshiest, serious sinus irrigator of a weeper, I avoid things that make me cry.[image error]
For a split second, I kind of hoped Alice Bliss was a chick-lit, cheeky girl in pointy red shoes. No such luck. Instead, she is an all-encompassing oh-please-don't-make-me-go-there dang it, you did, brave confrontation of families and love…and loss and growing up when you really don't want to (and that goes for moms, too, who should have grown up a long time ago).
I barricaded my emotions and hardened my heart…but halfway through I knew I was doomed. Laura Harrington knew what she was doing and tricked me, tricked me! into falling prey to her beautiful words by injecting her story under my skin with characters so real I wanted to smack them.
Alice's dad, who leaves behind bittersweet letters entitled "The little moments that make up the big moments that might get forgotten," and "The moment you realize you want this boy to kiss you..." all the way up through "The moment you realize you're more like your mother than you want to be…" is the patient, understanding parent we all wish we could be.
Alice's mom, Angie, has more issues than her daughters, and is so unlikeable–until you reluctantly have to give her props just for trying. Ellie, the little sister, is a funny (but annoyingly precocious) 8-year-old. Alice is simply a little bit of all of us–a smart teen, with raging hormones, on the precipice of life's unknown, wanting nothing to change and everything to change.
When Matt makes the ultimate sacrifice for his country, family, friends, and neighbors rally around the Bliss household; "All of these people, these caring, lovely people, each one like a hammer blow, each one striking a gong, ringing a bell: he's gone, he's gone, he's gone."
Laura shares an intimate story about the struggles of life, dotted with finding comfort in a favorite routine as the girls fend for themselves with a backwards dinner (ice cream first followed by popcorn with a promise of mac and cheese, if needed).
Even if you don't cry, the emotions from facing fears of loneliness and loss are easily recognizable, and made me better for reading Alice Bliss–a throat squinching acknowledgement of the messy feelings that go along with love and hope.
Overall rating: ★★★★★★
Unboxed rating: ★★★★★★
Kleenex courtesy of Tessa the Dudeler
Read more at: http://www.readerunboxed.com/2011/12/...
“Characters so real I wanted to smack them.”
Dec 23, 2011 by Dee DeTarsio
[image error]
Dang you, Laura Harrington, you owe me a hankie.
When Alice Bliss learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq, she’s heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind.
Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full- blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie. But the smell of Matt is starting to fade from his blue shirt that Alice wears everyday, and the phone calls are never long enough.
Because I am the world’s ugliest, sloshiest, serious sinus irrigator of a weeper, I avoid things that make me cry.[image error]
For a split second, I kind of hoped Alice Bliss was a chick-lit, cheeky girl in pointy red shoes. No such luck. Instead, she is an all-encompassing oh-please-don’t-make-me-go-there dang it, you did, brave confrontation of families and love…and loss and growing up when you really don’t want to (and that goes for moms, too, who should have grown up a long time ago).
I barricaded my emotions and hardened my heart…but halfway through I knew I was doomed. Laura Harrington knew what she was doing and tricked me, tricked me! into falling prey to her beautiful words by injecting her story under my skin with characters so real I wanted to smack them.
Alice’s dad, who leaves behind bittersweet letters entitled “The little moments that make up the big moments that might get forgotten,” and “The moment you realize you want this boy to kiss you...” all the way up through “The moment you realize you’re more like your mother than you want to be…” is the patient, understanding parent we all wish we could be.
Alice’s mom, Angie, has more issues than her daughters, and is so unlikeable–until you reluctantly have to give her props just for trying. Ellie, the little sister, is a funny (but annoyingly precocious) 8-year-old. Alice is simply a little bit of all of us–a smart teen, with raging hormones, on the precipice of life’s unknown, wanting nothing to change and everything to change.
When Matt makes the ultimate sacrifice for his country, family, friends, and neighbors rally around the Bliss household; “All of these people, these caring, lovely people, each one like a hammer blow, each one striking a gong, ringing a bell: he’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone.”
Laura shares an intimate story about the struggles of life, dotted with finding comfort in a favorite routine as the girls fend for themselves with a backwards dinner (ice cream first followed by popcorn with a promise of mac and cheese, if needed).
Even if you don’t cry, the emotions from facing fears of loneliness and loss are easily recognizable, and made me better for reading Alice Bliss–a throat squinching acknowledgement of the messy feelings that go along with love and hope.
Overall rating: ★★★★★★
Unboxed rating: ★★★★★★
Kleenex courtesy of Tessa the Dudeler
Read more at: http://www.readerunboxed.com/2011/12/...
October 12, 2011
Harrington creates an incredibly poignant story; grief and loss are palpable.
ALAN's Picks is a monthly book review column that is compiled and edited by Dr. Pam B. Cole of Kennesaw State University.
Alice Bliss
by Laura Harrington
Viking/Penguin, 2011, 306 pp., $25.95
Family/Death/War
ISBN: 987-0-670-02278-6
Fifteen-year-old Alice Bliss has a treasure many teens desire but don't often experience: a close, supportive relationship with her dad. Matt Bliss, formerly an engineer, but now carpenter/craftsman, coaches little league baseball and utilizes his skills as a farm team pitcher. Alice and Matt share gardening, his workshop, and life lessons. This special bond causes Alice incredible pain, though, when her father's Army Reserve unit is called up. After only six weeks, rather than the usual six-month training period, Matt is deployed to Iraq. From the day Alice, her eight-year-old sister, and their mom drive Matt to Fort Dix, Alice's life becomes a blur. She wears her dad's shirt for weeks until her mother sneaks it into the trash; she lives on memories and often hears her dad's words of encouragement. Alice and her mother struggle to connect, but they frequently end up fighting; both hold the pain of Matt's absence welled inside. Younger sister, Ellie; Uncle Eddie, and Gram provide what support they can, but ultimately the family faces a stark reality: Matt will not be coming home alive.
Harrington creates an incredibly poignant story; grief and loss are palpable. Harrington's use of present tense brings the characters alive. Additionally, her portrayal of what families face when a loved one is deployed makes the novel appealing for males and females, adults and teens, alike. Alice is a particularly believable teen, who falls in love, struggles to fit in, wants to be cared for, but rejects false affection. She also lives in a universe of constant anxiety: teachers cannot understand her sudden inability to concentrate, and sometimes she has to "mother" her mother.
Reviewed by Mary Warner, San Jose, CA
Read more @:
http://www.alan-ya.org/2011/10/alans-picks-september-2011/
Harrington creates a world and cast of characters that grab your heart and don't let go
by SERENA on OCTOBER 12, 2011
Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington is a coming of age story about a teen girl growing into adulthood at a time when her father, Matt, is sent to Iraq and her mother, Angie, is not dealing with his absence as well as Alice thinks she should. The blissful life her family has had up until this point is turned around and twisted as Alice takes on more of her mother's duties — making dinner, washing clothes, getting her sister's (Ellie) lunch ready, and getting her sister to school. She's constantly worried about her father not returning home, about how she seems not to be anyone's favorite, and the changes she sees in her friends, family, and Henry (her neighbor and friend).
Harrington creates a world and cast of characters that grab your heart and don't let go. The Bliss family story will have your tearing up right from the beginning when the father is first setting his affairs in order and explaining to Alice what she's to do while he is at war. Yes, he says, he is coming back, but readers know about the uncertainties of war and so does Alice, which makes his parting all the more heart-wrenching. Alice only finds solace when running, like her mother finds solace when swimming, but they are too alike to find comfort in one another and often find themselves at odds. Dynamic characters young and old tackle difficult questions of how to go on without a loved one, who often calmed the waters and even when that situation is expected to be temporary.
"This is the first time Alice has been allowed to walk back to their campsite from the Kelp Shed alone. She is fourteen, barefoot, her sneakers tied together by the laces and slung across her shoulder so she can feel the soft, sandy dust of the single-track road between her toes. Her sister fell asleep halfway through the square dance, dropping from hyperexcited to unconscious in a flash. Her father carries Ellie draped over his shoulder, and casually, or so it seems, her mother says, 'Come home when the dance is done.'" (page 1)
While Alice is a strong, young woman, she is also timid when it comes to her changing relationship with Henry and volatile when it comes to her relationship with her mother and sister and her schoolmates. Alice's life spirals out of control while she's daydreaming and running away, but there are moments of hope when letters arrive and broken up phone calls pepper their days. Alice is growing up before readers' eyes. She's learning that her friendship with Henry is more complicated than she expects and at a time when she wants it to stay the same. She's flattered when a popular senior asks her to a baseball game, and she's disenchanted with high school society when her childhood friend Steph remains distant even when it is obvious she needs someone to lean on. Her sister Ellie tries to act more mature than her sister, and does on some occasions, but she's still just eight and what's important to her — a new haircut, new clothes, a nice lunch — skirts the realities of their lives without Matt.
Uncle Eddie and Gram are the rocks of the family that help hold up Angie, Alice, and Ellie — keeping them from imploding. Harrington has created a wide cast of characters who evolve steadily throughout the novel. Despite the third person omniscient point of view, Harrington's narrative evokes an emotional connection between the characters and the reader. The distance often felt with this point of view is not present here in the least. Readers will feel the loss, the waiting, the anger, the sadness, and the confusion all at once — just as the characters do — while cheering them on to remain positive that Matt will return home. This is a young adult novel adults will praise for its realistic portrayal of adult themes, while young adults will praise the relate-ability of its teen characters and their situations.
"Even though Mrs. Grover wears those awful sensible shoes and has gray hair that she wears in a bun, Alice thinks that maybe Mrs. Grover is still young in the ways that are important. Like she's not so serious all the time, and she sings and right now she's teasing a cardinal. Whistling in response to its call and damn if that cardinal doesn't whistle right back. Alice's mother doesn't even have a clothesline, let alone stand outside and lift her face to the sun and sing and whistle to the birds." (page 101)
Harrington is talented at creating a world that is real — a small town where everyone knows one another and feels as though they are under a microscope at home and school — and generates an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty — in the silence of waiting. What are those keepsakes that we hold dearest? What are those memories that we hold onto tightest? Alice and her family find these answers and more, making the novel even more suspenseful. Alice Bliss not only tracks the evolution of Alice from child to adolescence and the bumps along the way, the novel teaches readers about heartache, compassion, and strength.
Read more at:
www.savvyverseandwit.com
Harrington creates a world and cast of characters that grab your heart and don’t let go
by SERENA on OCTOBER 12, 2011
Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington is a coming of age story about a teen girl growing into adulthood at a time when her father, Matt, is sent to Iraq and her mother, Angie, is not dealing with his absence as well as Alice thinks she should. The blissful life her family has had up until this point is turned around and twisted as Alice takes on more of her mother’s duties — making dinner, washing clothes, getting her sister’s (Ellie) lunch ready, and getting her sister to school. She’s constantly worried about her father not returning home, about how she seems not to be anyone’s favorite, and the changes she sees in her friends, family, and Henry (her neighbor and friend).
Harrington creates a world and cast of characters that grab your heart and don’t let go. The Bliss family story will have your tearing up right from the beginning when the father is first setting his affairs in order and explaining to Alice what she’s to do while he is at war. Yes, he says, he is coming back, but readers know about the uncertainties of war and so does Alice, which makes his parting all the more heart-wrenching. Alice only finds solace when running, like her mother finds solace when swimming, but they are too alike to find comfort in one another and often find themselves at odds. Dynamic characters young and old tackle difficult questions of how to go on without a loved one, who often calmed the waters and even when that situation is expected to be temporary.
“This is the first time Alice has been allowed to walk back to their campsite from the Kelp Shed alone. She is fourteen, barefoot, her sneakers tied together by the laces and slung across her shoulder so she can feel the soft, sandy dust of the single-track road between her toes. Her sister fell asleep halfway through the square dance, dropping from hyperexcited to unconscious in a flash. Her father carries Ellie draped over his shoulder, and casually, or so it seems, her mother says, ‘Come home when the dance is done.’” (page 1)
While Alice is a strong, young woman, she is also timid when it comes to her changing relationship with Henry and volatile when it comes to her relationship with her mother and sister and her schoolmates. Alice’s life spirals out of control while she’s daydreaming and running away, but there are moments of hope when letters arrive and broken up phone calls pepper their days. Alice is growing up before readers’ eyes. She’s learning that her friendship with Henry is more complicated than she expects and at a time when she wants it to stay the same. She’s flattered when a popular senior asks her to a baseball game, and she’s disenchanted with high school society when her childhood friend Steph remains distant even when it is obvious she needs someone to lean on. Her sister Ellie tries to act more mature than her sister, and does on some occasions, but she’s still just eight and what’s important to her — a new haircut, new clothes, a nice lunch — skirts the realities of their lives without Matt.
Uncle Eddie and Gram are the rocks of the family that help hold up Angie, Alice, and Ellie — keeping them from imploding. Harrington has created a wide cast of characters who evolve steadily throughout the novel. Despite the third person omniscient point of view, Harrington’s narrative evokes an emotional connection between the characters and the reader. The distance often felt with this point of view is not present here in the least. Readers will feel the loss, the waiting, the anger, the sadness, and the confusion all at once — just as the characters do — while cheering them on to remain positive that Matt will return home. This is a young adult novel adults will praise for its realistic portrayal of adult themes, while young adults will praise the relate-ability of its teen characters and their situations.
“Even though Mrs. Grover wears those awful sensible shoes and has gray hair that she wears in a bun, Alice thinks that maybe Mrs. Grover is still young in the ways that are important. Like she’s not so serious all the time, and she sings and right now she’s teasing a cardinal. Whistling in response to its call and damn if that cardinal doesn’t whistle right back. Alice’s mother doesn’t even have a clothesline, let alone stand outside and lift her face to the sun and sing and whistle to the birds.” (page 101)
Harrington is talented at creating a world that is real — a small town where everyone knows one another and feels as though they are under a microscope at home and school — and generates an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty — in the silence of waiting. What are those keepsakes that we hold dearest? What are those memories that we hold onto tightest? Alice and her family find these answers and more, making the novel even more suspenseful. Alice Bliss not only tracks the evolution of Alice from child to adolescence and the bumps along the way, the novel teaches readers about heartache, compassion, and strength.
Read more at:
www.savvyverseandwit.com
September 27, 2011
"…a beautifully wrought tale of a young girl growing up in small-town America during our most recent years of craziness and warfare — and all that this does to one family."
Alice Bliss is a typical teenager. She is 13, lives with her parents and sometimes annoying younger sister, has a best friend with whom she shares everything, and is noticing boys for the first time. However, there is little in her life that seems normal these days. When her dad gets called up to active duty in the armed forces, Alice takes to wearing his shirt every day and trying to be strong for her devastated mom.
"…a beautifully wrought tale of a young girl growing up in small-town America during our most recent years of craziness and warfare — and all that this does to one family."
Laura Harrington's first novel is a beautifully wrought tale of a young girl growing up in small-town America during our most recent years of craziness and warfare — and all that this does to one family. Alice grows up throughout the book, learning to drive, falling in love for the first time, and finding success on the track team. But the one constant amidst her adventures is the need to take care of her mom while her dad is away, a seminal relationship that buoys her.
It is rare for a novel to focus so fully on the relationship between a father and a daughter. In most contemporary books with girl protagonists, it would seem that the rapport they have with each other is not always a positive one. However, Alice's story is built around the way she is affected by both of her parents, and the difference between those two relationships helps to explain the remarkable strengths and age-appropriate weaknesses of this multi-dimensional young woman.
War stories are widespread these days; after all, the U.S. has been at war for the last decade. With the upcoming 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, there are sure to be many more. ALICE BLISS is a very affecting one, an OUR TOWN-like examination, through the life of one typical girl, of the effects that wartime has on everyone.
Although not necessarily a young adult novel, it would be a great, compelling read for teenagers. A story this interesting and yet this sweet is hard to come by, so I think it would be a wonderful conversation starter for kids all over the country who are going through what Alice is dealing with. Engaging and sweet, ALICE BLISS is a great book.
Reviewed by Jana Siciliano on August 4, 2011
Read more @: http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/alice-bliss
A highly accomplished debut novel about family, love, loss, grief and growing up
From Carola Huttman @ Bookmunch.wordpress.com August 28, 2011
I can't remember the last time a novel made me cry. Indeed, I'm not sure any book ever moved me to tears until now. From the very first sentence I was drawn into the complicated world of fifteen-year old Alice Bliss. Beneath her slightly gruff tomboyish adolescent exterior hides a great deal of warmth, compassion and sensitivity. Through her well-developed sense of observation and natural curiosity she breathes real humanity into the multitude of colourful characters who people her life. The uneasy relationship with her mother, Angie, stands in stark contrast to that with her father, whom she idolises. The love she feels towards her eight-year-old sister Ellie, mature beyond her years in many ways, is mixed with a sense of her own inadequacy.
When her father, Matt, announces he is about to leave the family to begin a six week training period prior to being deployed to Iraq Alice is devastated. Why can't they send someone else, she asks. The family's attempts to cope with the gap Matt's absence leaves in their midst is palpably painful. Angie spends much of her time in bed, leaving Alice to look after Ellie and deal with the laundry and food preparation. Most of their meals are cheese on toast or variations thereof. In an attempt to feel closer to him Alice wears one of her father's shirts, going for three weeks without washing it, because she fears she'll lose touch with him if she does. Ellie tells her she is starting to smell, but Alice doesn't care. The pain of missing her husband is made more acute for Angie by seeing her daughter wear his clothes and eventually she throws the shirt out with the garbage. Alice moves into her father's workshop and when winter turns into spring begins planting the garden with tomatoes, beans and corn as she and Matt did every year.
Four days into Matt's posting to Iraq two soldiers from his unit turn upon the Bliss' doorstep. They explain that he has been reported missing. What little emotional glue held them together before now dissolves completely as Alice, Angie and Ellie each fall apart in their own way. Matt's mother and Angie's brother rally round, but even their strong support isn't enough to relieve the misery of pain and uncertainty. Alice and Henry grew up together. They are best friends They live in the same street. Their mothers knew each other before they were born. They walk to school together, they do their homework together, Alice listens to him play the piano in the assembly hall before lessons. It's what they always did without questioning it. Now Alice seeks refuge from her worries in Henry's company, but one afternoon when she kisses him without thinking everything changes. They both realise they have feelings they didn't know they had and their confusion and embarrassment pushes them apart. Yet there is still the annual spring school dance to plan for. They take the bus Downtown together to find outfits at a vintage clothes shop. When Henry sees Alice in a figure-hugging black dress he is forced to acknowledge those feeling to himself.
Eventually confirmation arrives that Matt has been found murdered and another phase begins in all their lives. They each find a new strength inherent within themselves, giving rise to some astonishingly lovely moments in the book. Amongst the sorrow of their loss, the distress of meeting the coffin off the plane when Matt's body is brought home, the funeral and the wake (Harrington skilfully mirrors the seasons) there is a surprising sense of hopefulness and promise as the family comes to terms with what has happened and Alice stands at the cusp of blossoming into a beautiful, smart and gracious young woman. Initially the first person point of view didn't quite work for me; it seemed somehow to hold up the flow of the narrative a little. I guess I got used to it after a while, but there were still places where I thought it would have read better in the third person.
A highly accomplished debut novel about family, love, loss, grief and growing up. With often sparse, yet very direct, language Laura Harrington digs down deep into the reader's emotions making the story of Alice and her family feel incredibly real, three-dimensional and touching.
Carola Huttmann
Read more @: http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2011/0...
