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mollyjordan's review against another edition
4.0
I loved the style of this book. I felt like I really got to know the main character.
lostinagoodread's review against another edition
4.0
This review and others can be found on Cozy Up With A Good Read
Everyone has been talking about this book lately and I needed to know why. When a fellow blogger and great friend Michele wrote her review and mentioned that it reminded her a little of THE LOVELY BONES I knew this was one book I had to read and she graciously lent it to me.
The story begins with Shannon being left at the doors of the YMCA and from there readers follow her through her life in foster care. Celona writes in the voice of Shannon, but it is more of an all seeing voice, the chapters go back and forth from Shannon's life in the present to her mother's life right before giving birth to Shannon and leaving her at the YMCA. I can see how the book is reminiscent of THE LOVELY BONES with the idea of the narrator being the voice of a child and is seeing everything that is happening, I really enjoyed this kind of narration, it is an interesting way to tell a story.
This is one book that will be a tough story for people to read because of the issues that are dealt with. I found myself needing to put the book down at times to compose myself because everything was so emotional, and then at times I was just so shocked at what some of the characters were doing.
This story was about Shannon trying to find herself amongst everything that has happened, she visits her past to see how that has affected her future. This is a story that really teaches us about family and how it's not always the people that gave birth to you that are your family. I love the moment in the book when Shannon realizes who her family really is.
The characters were interesting, I enjoyed following Shannon's story and I understand why she goes through the motions of rebelling so much with her family. This is one book that I will suggest to all my friends to read because it is such a powerful book.
Everyone has been talking about this book lately and I needed to know why. When a fellow blogger and great friend Michele wrote her review and mentioned that it reminded her a little of THE LOVELY BONES I knew this was one book I had to read and she graciously lent it to me.
The story begins with Shannon being left at the doors of the YMCA and from there readers follow her through her life in foster care. Celona writes in the voice of Shannon, but it is more of an all seeing voice, the chapters go back and forth from Shannon's life in the present to her mother's life right before giving birth to Shannon and leaving her at the YMCA. I can see how the book is reminiscent of THE LOVELY BONES with the idea of the narrator being the voice of a child and is seeing everything that is happening, I really enjoyed this kind of narration, it is an interesting way to tell a story.
This is one book that will be a tough story for people to read because of the issues that are dealt with. I found myself needing to put the book down at times to compose myself because everything was so emotional, and then at times I was just so shocked at what some of the characters were doing.
This story was about Shannon trying to find herself amongst everything that has happened, she visits her past to see how that has affected her future. This is a story that really teaches us about family and how it's not always the people that gave birth to you that are your family. I love the moment in the book when Shannon realizes who her family really is.
The characters were interesting, I enjoyed following Shannon's story and I understand why she goes through the motions of rebelling so much with her family. This is one book that I will suggest to all my friends to read because it is such a powerful book.
breecreative's review against another edition
4.0
This story was incredibly sad. Not in a cry-your-eyes-out way, though. We meet Shannon as she's being dropped off on the front step of the YMCA in Victoria, BC. We follow her growing up, being transferred from home to home, until she is adopted by Miranda. But it's not all roses from there, she struggles to fit in with other kids and with her sister, Lydia-Rose (Miranda's natural daughter). She acts out and things start to fall apart for her when she's 16.
Interspersed in there is the story of her parents and her birth. It's told with Shannon's voice, but in an omniscient way, which is a little weird at first, but I got used to it. Her parents story was the saddest part of the book, I think.
It's definitely not a feel-good book, but not sad enough to make me grab the tissues, it's more sad in a "this poor little girl, look at how hard her life is" way. It was an interesting book, a good read, but not *quite* there for me. I found it a little hard to feel sorry for Shannon at times when trouble found her because she was acting like a brat...then I'd think, of course she's a brat, think of all she's been through. But I couldn't quite connect.
It's hard to place this book in the real world, even though I *know* that it's real. There's drugs, sex, booze, homelessness...but it's so far from what society likes to think about, likes to pretend life is like that it's hard to reconcile the two worlds (the pretend world we like to live in, and the real world we DO live in). As I was reading, I thought "that doesn't happen in Canada", but I know it does - I *knew* kids like this growing up, I was friends with them.
I think this book will be one that I need to let sink in for a little while. It's definitely worth the read for the story alone, just don't expect miracles...it's a harsh, realistic look at an underprivileged life.
Interspersed in there is the story of her parents and her birth. It's told with Shannon's voice, but in an omniscient way, which is a little weird at first, but I got used to it. Her parents story was the saddest part of the book, I think.
It's definitely not a feel-good book, but not sad enough to make me grab the tissues, it's more sad in a "this poor little girl, look at how hard her life is" way. It was an interesting book, a good read, but not *quite* there for me. I found it a little hard to feel sorry for Shannon at times when trouble found her because she was acting like a brat...then I'd think, of course she's a brat, think of all she's been through. But I couldn't quite connect.
It's hard to place this book in the real world, even though I *know* that it's real. There's drugs, sex, booze, homelessness...but it's so far from what society likes to think about, likes to pretend life is like that it's hard to reconcile the two worlds (the pretend world we like to live in, and the real world we DO live in). As I was reading, I thought "that doesn't happen in Canada", but I know it does - I *knew* kids like this growing up, I was friends with them.
I think this book will be one that I need to let sink in for a little while. It's definitely worth the read for the story alone, just don't expect miracles...it's a harsh, realistic look at an underprivileged life.
hollyberry_1980's review against another edition
3.0
I received this book as part of the goodreads first reads program.
This is going to be a hard review for me, I was really excited to win this book, and I had high expectations for it, but for some reason, I could not connect with any of the characters, and I did not enjoy it. It was not the writing by any means, it was beautiful, I think it was mostly the main character, maybe because I have not been through the same things that she had, and I could not understand where she was coming from.
The story starts off with Shannon being left abandoned at the YMCA doors by her mother Yula. Throughout the book we see her journey through childhood and then in to her teenage years, and how she is bounced around from house to home until she lands at one that finally becomes her home.
In between some of Shannon's chapters we also get to see some of the events leading up to Yula's decision to leave Shannon at the YMCA, I did enjoy that part of the story more than Shannon's story for some reason. Yula definately did not have it easy, and was without a mother figure in her life at that point herself to help her through the tough decisions.
Shannon does eventually go in search of her biological parents, and it does take her on quite a journey with some new characters. The part of this book that made it a 3 star instead of 2 is the ending, I am so use to authors making it that "happily ever after" endings in fictional novels, that I was very happy to see the "realistic" ending, not a good or bad, just something that you can see happening in real life, it is just the way some things work out sometimes.
I know that I am one of the few that did not give this book a 4 or 5 star rating, but it just was not worth that to me, I did finish it, but I have taken a few days to think about it, and it is just not one of those books that I fell in love with, or could not put down.
This is going to be a hard review for me, I was really excited to win this book, and I had high expectations for it, but for some reason, I could not connect with any of the characters, and I did not enjoy it. It was not the writing by any means, it was beautiful, I think it was mostly the main character, maybe because I have not been through the same things that she had, and I could not understand where she was coming from.
The story starts off with Shannon being left abandoned at the YMCA doors by her mother Yula. Throughout the book we see her journey through childhood and then in to her teenage years, and how she is bounced around from house to home until she lands at one that finally becomes her home.
In between some of Shannon's chapters we also get to see some of the events leading up to Yula's decision to leave Shannon at the YMCA, I did enjoy that part of the story more than Shannon's story for some reason. Yula definately did not have it easy, and was without a mother figure in her life at that point herself to help her through the tough decisions.
Shannon does eventually go in search of her biological parents, and it does take her on quite a journey with some new characters. The part of this book that made it a 3 star instead of 2 is the ending, I am so use to authors making it that "happily ever after" endings in fictional novels, that I was very happy to see the "realistic" ending, not a good or bad, just something that you can see happening in real life, it is just the way some things work out sometimes.
I know that I am one of the few that did not give this book a 4 or 5 star rating, but it just was not worth that to me, I did finish it, but I have taken a few days to think about it, and it is just not one of those books that I fell in love with, or could not put down.
yangyvonne's review against another edition
3.0
While the premise of the story has pro use, I just never got to like Shannon enough to care about what happened to her. And, Quinn was the oddest of all.
buddingflowers's review against another edition
3.0
I won this book in a Goodreads' First Reads giveaway, and overall I was very pleased with this coming-of-age story. It was written with no grammatical errors and an interesting plot. However, the fluency with which the timeline switches between past and present could have been explained a bit better, it still was a generally easy book to follow. Good for 8th grade to 12th grade.
eshults11's review against another edition
2.0
While it took me a few chapters to get used to the omniscient narrator that Shannon is, the swapping scenes eventually grew on me and I really enjoyed getting to know the characters from this unique perspective.
While it was a decent read overall, the end felt quite rushed. I appreciated Shannon as a character until the end when she just seemed to wrap everything up brusquely.
While it was a decent read overall, the end felt quite rushed. I appreciated Shannon as a character until the end when she just seemed to wrap everything up brusquely.
chantale's review against another edition
5.0
A baby abandoned at the YMCA by her mother, who is she? Shannon is fostered and renamed by a few families before at the age of five Miranda and Lydia-Rose become her family. Both mother and daughter's stories are revealed through their narratives in various chapters. Shannon secretly seeks out her parents and acts out as a troubled teenager. This book is about the importance of trust and learning what makes a family.