![]() Well, it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths.The first kind, they show you life like you want it to be. ![]() My favorite part of the novel is a scene where Mattie sees her teacher's library for the first time-more books then she has ever seen or heard of that inspires her into a passionate speech about writing. Mattie's love for books and writing is one of the best parts of the story. Just a community of people surviving as best as they can. Childbirth is described with horrifying detail, sickness and starving children are common threads to the story, and marriage isn't viewed as the grand ideal. Jennifer Donnelly doesn't sacrifice real life to make the story more pleasant. It is a story of racism, hatred, marital infedelity and a family left imbittered by the death of their mother from breast cancer. This is not an idyllic coming of age story full of flowers and happy, skipping children. Weaved throughout Maggie's fictional struggles is the real life story of the death of Grace Brown, as seen through Mattie's brief (and fictional, of course) interaction with her, and letters that she left behind (the letters are real, by the way). ![]() From the very first page, Mattie Gokey's zeal for words makes the pages of the book turn themselves. ![]() All the different facets of this novel add up to make one of the best stories I have ever read. ![]()
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