The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis GravesMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Final Score - 5+ I AM GUTTED STARS!
From the first moment I read the blurb to this story, I got an immediate sense of what Annika's eccentricities were. Having some knowledge of this, I was ready and open to read this book - not really knowing where the writer was going to take me with this story.
Ms. Graves was able to put me in Annika's shoes - so to speak - and as I read the story and got to see the world from her perspective. She made me feel so much - her pain, her isolation, her fear, her pure heart that just made me want to protect to her from the harsh and often ugly realities of this world. We don't celebrate people we know to be different - we ostracize them, make them feel their inferiority and cast them aside.
The incident that Annika suffered in Seventh grade - I know what she went thru as I too was bullied. My god, it was liked reliving the worst time in my life again. I cried my eyes raw reading that. Hours later, that and other incidents that happened in the book are on playback in my mind.
Needless to say, this book is going to stay with me for a long time to come and I welcome that.
I could NOT put this book down - and believe me when I say I wanted to go slow as to savor it. I may just re-read this again as this story is still with me and once again is causing my eyes to water and my heart to burst. I loved it that much. There's so much more I want to say, and perhaps I will later when I re-read this story again at a slower pace.
This is my first book by this author, but this will definitely not be my last. Ms. Graves has found a new fan in me.
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