Title: How It Ends
Author: Laura Wiess
Publisher: MTV
First sentence: It happened painfully and without warning, this sudden turning of the heart.
My synopsis: This is the story of a young girl, Hanna, who we meet when she is five years old. She has been left to spend some time with her neighbor as her parents try to figure out what they really want out of their life. As she spends most of that summer there, she adopts Helen (and Lon) as her grandma and grandpa.
Their house becomes a refuge of sorts as Hanna grows older. When Hanna asks about Helen's life, she tells her stories that she thinks the child should hear - happy stories to take the place of the bad times in Hanna's life. She shares many memories with her gran of reading books, talking, walking the deer path and taking care of strays. But as Hanna grows older, the inevitable happens, and she begins to spend less and less time with Helen.
When Hanna is a sophomore, her parents send her to a private school and she meets Seth. She thinks that she and Seth would be perfect together and cannot stop obsessing about him and how perfect their love would be. It isn't until she doesn't want him though that she gets him and it isn't necessarily what she bargained for.
As Hanna has grown older, so has her gran Helen - and with age comes frailty and illness. Helen realizes that she must set straight the stories she told Hanna as a child. She had always thought there would be time to tell her the truth - and the right way so Hanna would understand why Helen felt she had to tell her what she did. When Hanna finds out will it blow her world apart? or will she come to understand and love those around her even more.
My thoughts: If you can only read one more book this year - make it this one. I absolutely loved the way it read, it just flowed along and I didn't want to put it down. It didn't take me long to feel like I really knew Hanna. I could absolutely feel those feelings that she had for Seth, and how love hurts and feels good all at the same time. It was told back and forth from Hanna's and Helen's points of view which complemented each other perfectly. When reading Hanna's part it was almost like reading some one's diary. I kept a diary at that age and some of the feelings she shared were definitely ones that I remember! I love what it says about the book on the back - "...how love ends, how it begins, and what it's worth to protect it..." Must read! But don't take my word for it - check out the other blogs at the end of this post for other reviews.
About the author: Laura Wiess is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Such a Pretty Girl, chosen as one of the ALA's 2008 Best Books for Young Adults and 2008 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, and Leftovers. Originally from Milltown, New Jersey, she traded bumper-to-bumper traffic, excellent pizza, and summer days down the shore for scenic roads, bears, no pizza delivery, and the irresistible allure of an old stone house surrounded by forests in Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains Region. (back of book)
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How it Ends
Publisher/Publication Date: MTV, Aug 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4663-4
368 pages
