“Usually what people ask when they come to sit next to me on the bench is if I am sad about Father. Sometimes I nod and say yes and let them give me sympathy and share their sweets if they have any, even though all there is left of Father now in my head is a dark shape with a blur where the face should be and the stack of Pointless Creations in the little box room.”
“But after a while, I get bored of taking sympathy because of Father, so instead, when someone comes to ask me what’s wrong, I do another story. Like, sometimes I’m sad because my uncle lost his job or another day it’s because my baby brother had to go into hospital. Telling these stories makes me feel better, but it also makes me sad in another way because I get jealous of the me inside the new problem and I want it to be my problem too.”
Kindle Edition 23%
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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by … Jenn at ‘Books And A Beat’
Anyone can take part, by just doing the following:
Grab your current read.
Open to a random page.
- Share a couple of “teaser” sentences, from somewhere on that page.
- Be careful not to share “spoiler” sentences.
- Remember to share the title and author too.
- Head on over to ‘A Daily Rhythm’ and leave a link to your post, so that others can share it and you can share other people’s.
It would be great if you then decided to leave a comment for Jenn, as we all like to receive them and are interested in sharing your thoughts.
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I did find this a very sad book to read – it makes you really think about identity too!
Hi Cleo,
I am not too far into this book yet, however I too am finding this quite a sad story to read.
What may have sounded like a quite unusual, yet rather mundane premise, has turned into a very complicated and emotional study of the human psyche and sense of identity.
I was veering towards a sad outcome for this one, however I see that you found the ending to be happier than you had expected, so I am looking forward to the resolution!
Thanks for stopping by, I appreciate your comments 🙂
Sounds very intriguing.
Hi Mary Ann,
What starts off as a game and yes, perhaps an intriguing and interesting experiment, soon turns into something much more sinister and potentially dangerous.
I can’t wait for this story to reach its conclusion, as right now, I have no idea what the projected outcome might be.
Thanks for stopping by, I always appreciate your comments 🙂
Interesting. I’m wondering if this scene is in a child’s point of view. Sounds like it could be.
My Tuesday post features THE ALL-GIRL FILLING STATION’S LAST REUNION by Fannie Flagg.
Hi Sandra,
This scene and several others, are indeed written form a child’s point of view, although as yet (I am only 25% of the way through the book), we have only heard from one of the children in question, so I don’t know if the other child ever gets a voice, or not.
The rest of the narrative so far, has written by that same child, only as the troubled adult she has now become!
An intriguing and almost worrying storyline so far.
Thanks for stopping by, I always enjoy reading your comments 🙂
Loving the cover and your teaser has me intrigued as like Sandra above I found myself wondering it this was written from a child’s point of view – the cover reinforcing this this thought.
Hi Tracy,
The teaser lines I chose, were indeed written from a child’s point of view, however the narrative switches back and forth, between the child Holly and the woman called ‘Smudge’, she has become.
When a childish prank backfires on Holly big-time, her life and mental well-being, are changed forever … well, that is unless the final conclusion has some surprises in store and there is a happy ending!
There are a couple of different cover options for this book, however the one I chose to feature is definitely the more eerie and spooky of them and by far and away captures this troubling storyline most appropriately.
Thanks for visiting today and for taking the time to comment. It is always appreciated 🙂
This sounds like a sad one and from those snippets you shared, it looks like the author is doing a good job at giving us the child’s point of view.
Happy reading 🙂
Hi Naida,
I definitely like Ann Morgan’s style of writing and her characterisations are so far, very realistic and troubling!
The storyline focuses on twin sisters and so far I have only heard the voice of one of them. It makes the story a little one-sided, unless of course the balance is going to be redressed further on into the book.
I am worried that as a parent, this mother of twins is unable to tell her children apart, despite the best efforts of one of them, not to be recognised.
I am going to see how the rest of the story shapes up, before putting this argument forward, as perhaps my only criticism of Ann’s work.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and I hope that you have had a good week 🙂
I’m not sure if I like the sound of this or not. I’ve read a lot of troubling or dysfunctional stories of late and I need a break from that. In fact, I’m still plowing through Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson. The following excerpt is from 77% in:
Out the screen door and across the road, the forest was alive with wind, pine limbs waving in all directions like a distressed band of tree people.
“A lot of folks come up here to get away,” Pete said. “I know I did. But most of us just wind up bringing our particular trouble with us.”
I have book club tomorrow evening and hope to get back to blogging with that review on Friday.
Hi Kelly,
It is so good to have you back and I hope that being amongst friends at your book club, is the morale boost you need after the stress and emotion of the last couple of weeks 🙂
This really is a well written and intriguing story, however this may not be the right time for you to consider reading about what is definitely a troubling and rather morose subject. Something a little more upbeat and light-hearted might be called for.
‘Fourth Of July Creek’, is also probably one book you really want to have done with and despite the excellent descriptive lines you have shared, I still doubt that it is one for me. There probably is no truer thought, than that you can’t leave trouble behind you, it always has a way of catching up with you!
Thanks for taking the time to visit and take care of yourself 🙂