So real.
So hopeful.
So....

Just go read it, okay? It won't kill you to cut out 5 hours for a book.

GO READ IT. NOW.

Random:
The whole 'summer in January' thing threw me for a loop for a bit. I sat blinking and racking my mind all about the southern hemisphere, trying to make sense of the written words.
I love when books do that.

And I might just go search for the music. ( )

Charlie is the quiet type of girl who is awesome at singing the blues but can never get up on stage to show it. She was nine when her mom died. Her father has never gotten over it. He went from cool quiet everything under control to just quiet and never around. Whenever she tries to talk to him about something important he looks at his hands and gives her money so she'll go away. She used this so she can get some recording equipment. She works at a music store and sometimes gets singing lessons from one off the owners as well as guitar lessons from the other. The book has songs in the pages so you get sort of the feel of what she is like and what she sounds like even if it's only in your head. She has all this recording equipment but she never sings in front of people. Not even her dad.

Rose is always with her boyfriend Luke and friend Dave. Luke is always getting in trouble and Dave and her always get dragged down with him. Dave more than anyone because his dad has always given him a hard time... Well Rose wants more than anything to get away to the city. She got this scholarship to go to this science school but she never can tell her parents. Her parents who are going nowhere fast. Who gave up in life. She wants so bad to leave even if it means leaving Luke and Dave. She gives Charlie a hard time because all she does is stare at the group. But this "summer" which is during Christmas time??? It's Australia but I still don't understand. Well this summer she's figured out a way to get out of this miserable old town. She's going to make friends with Charlie. She'll be doing her a favor. She's going with her when she leaves.

Charlie is beyond likable. I was always angry at Rose because IF SHE DARED HURT HER! She would be in some real trouble with me. I mean she has like no friends and is just dangerously shy. Her two "ghosts" that follow her are her Grandma and Mom. She talks to them and it's so sad because those are the only two she could ever really talk to and now they're gone. Her father was killing me. NOTICE YOUR CHILD. I would be suffering too though. Seven years and I know I would be like him but seriously if I had a kid I hope I wouldn't act so stupid all the time.

God Rose. Finally I started liking you because you actually saw her. You were very irritating you know. Dave was cool. He was so sweet. I LOVE him. And then he's hurting too and you want to give him and Charlie a big old hug. I absolutely loved this book. It was beautiful. I think it's going to be in my favorites pile. It's that good. Read this book. You will fall in love too.

http://shesgotbooksonhermind.blogspot.com/ ( )

Poetry, metaphor, honesty - amazing. Recommended for people who hear a soundtrack to their lives.

I could say I didn't like the whiney teenagers, but that was the point: at first they weren't very likable, after all they are teens. But they learn and grow like real teens do. I do wish it came with a CD so we could hear all the artists and songs being talked about. I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone, despite that it's so well-written, because a reader would have to want to read it. In other words, it *doesn't* transcend its genre or demographic. But it's still amazing. ( )

Charlie (Charlotte) Duskin, 16, has been going with her father every vacation to stay in the country outside Melbourne, Australia with her grandparents, but this will be their first Christmas there since Charlie’s grandmother died seven months earlier.

Charlie doesn’t have any friends there; although the kids who live near her grandparents’ are around her age - Rose Butler and her two close buddies, Dave and Luke - they have never wanted anything to do with Charlie. Suddenly this year, Rose, clearly the leader of the three, seems almost to be courting Charlie as a friend. Since Rose and Luke are together, Charlie is thrown in with Dave, and she likes him a lot. But she discovers that Rose’s motivations for friendship with her are not without guile. Rose is full of anger and ambition and wanting, and maybe Charlie could be her ticket out of the countryside. Rose hasn’t told Luke and Dave why now she always wants to include Charlie, but the truth is bound to come out. And when it does, Charlie thinks Luke and Dave are in on it as well.

This isn’t the only big problem Charlie faces. Her grandpa and father are both suffering emotionally, and can’t seem to find a way out of the darkness. Charlie feels like she is alone, even though she is hurting too, and could use some love and attention in her life.

Charlie plays guitar and composes songs, mostly just for herself. This is the means by which she vents her emotions, especially her anger, hurts, and fears. She sings to the ghosts of loved ones who died:

"She’s lost in catacomb days.

She wonders if she’ll come back
If no one shows her how
And the ghost looks out the window
Says wow
I’d die for
One more
Taste of cake and bread and wine
Those little sugar biscuits
With real chunks of lemon rind
I’m aching for the day when I was blood
Aching for some hands to rain some skin
across my skin
Aching for that moment when I let a
person in
Aching just to want again.

… Maybe one day

For now she’s lost in catacomb days.”

Maybe her music is the way to break through to everyone. Maybe the beauty and truth and love that come out in her songs will bring everyone out of their own private catacombs and back into the light.

Evaluation: Cath Crowley is an exceptional writer. She excels at mapping the emotional landscape of teens, and telling their stories with sensitivity and humor. This is a story that would be bleak in the hands of another author, but with Crowley it is touching, hopeful, and an absorbing exploration of the different love that characterizes families, friends, and romances. ( )

Ok. That's that. Too purple for my tastes. I read 25% and I just don't give a shit about the story or characters. The purple is too distracting. I see how this would appeal to many, but it's just not my kind of book.

Sowwy, Dee! I gave it my best shot.


As I'm super lazy ready to move on ASAP, I'm just going to copy & paste all my status updates here. They're pretty self-explanatory. -_-

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It’s so early he’s wiping hills of sand piled in the corners of his eyes.

Seriously? This is in the first paragraph. -_-

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Everything in the world’s got a voice; most people don’t hear hard enough is all. Sunrise sounds like slow chords dripping from my guitar this morning. Sad chords, in B-flat.

I'm still on the first paragraph. Shoot me now.

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I stared in the mirror for a while. I did that thing where you turn and spin back and try to catch yourself by surprise.

Oh, yeah! I do that all the time - said no one ever.

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I guess things change, though, so slowly you don’t notice the chord’s different. You’re playing B7 with added D and then D drifts away and all you’re left with is B minor. That’s a pretty sad key.



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She laid her head on the pillow beside me and her breath stole the cool of the night.

So, she had hot breath? That's what I take away from this sentence.

Am I just stupid or is this sentence ridiculously stupid?

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You get the picture. -_-

( )