34 Pieces Of You
34 Pieces of Youby Carmen Rodrigues
There was something about Ellie... Something dangerous. Charismatic. Broken. Jake looked out for her. Sarah followed her lead. And Jess kept her distance, and kept watch.Now Ellie’s dead, and Jake, Sarah, and Jess are left to pick up the pieces. All they have are 34 clues she left behind. 34 strips of paper hidden in a box beneath her bed. 34 secrets of a brief and painful life.Jake, Sarah, and Jess all feel responsible for what happened to Ellie, and all three have secrets of their own. As they begin to confront the darkest truths about themselves, they will also find out what Ellie herself had been hiding all along... (goodreads.com)
This is another one of the awesome books I received at the SimonTeen event in NYC this past June. Regular readers of my blog already know how much I love my issue novels and when I saw the cover for this one up in lights in June I immediately thought "Oh, that looks like a suicide novel!" Sure enough.Score!(I make light of this only because I have my own demons, I do not think these issues are to be taken lightly. I just happen to really, really, enjoy novels with subjects like these.)It has taken so much willpower to not read this book most of the summer. When I realized earlier this week that we were already at the end of August (How the hell did that happen? It's SEPTEMBER tomorrow!) and this book comes out in September, I was all, WOOT! and picked it up to continue my Issue-a-thon. (EDIT: So I was supposed to post this on August 31, but I didn't have time to finish writing this up. So it's a week later and I'm back-dating. Shhhhh!)Told from multiple points of view, the story leading up to and following the death of Ellie is told in a haunting manner. At first I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the book very much because I often find the multiple POV angle distracting and annoying, this time, however it wasn't so bad. I did get confused a couple of times between Sarah and Jessie, but I chalked that up to my own fault of reading too fast.The glimpses of Ellie we get throughout the story just make me want to hug her and befriend her. She's trouble and suffering and you learn that as you go along, but she's such a real, sympathetic character even though you never hear her story from her own mouth.34 Pieces of You is a novel that made me feel very similar to when I read Ballads of Suburbia by Stephane Kuehnert. I felt slightly suffocated and uncomfortable and anxious. It made me feel raw. I love when I can feel a story prickling my skin. When it feels like my entire body is reacting to the words on the page. I don't get this very often, but sometimes a book can be so powerful and emotional that it sticks to me like spiderwebs. I hate it but am oddly curious about it.Considering the cover for this book is the one that drew my eye instantly at the SimonTEEN event in June, I felt like I was destined to read this story and I am so very, very glad I did. I don't know if I'd have noticed the book otherwise, what with my lack of bookstore visits lately.If you like issue novels, or raw & gritty contemporary novels, then pick this one up for sure.