Shelby Richmond was behind the wheel the night of the
accident that put her best friend into a permanent coma. Helene continues to
exist, and for some reason people thing being in her presence can perform
miracles of healing. People crowd Helene’s house, with her parent’s admitting
them in lines. Shelby, on the other hand, is alone. She retreats to the
basement, shaves her head, doesn’t speak, and attempts suicide. The only friend
she has is the boy who she buys weed from, and she doesn’t consider him a
friend. She doesn’t consider herself worthy of having a friend. But for some
reason she follows him when he goes to pharmacy college, and slowly comes out
of her shell, getting a job cleaning cages at a pet store. Unwillingly, she
forms a friendship with a co-worker, even having the co-workers children-
Shelby hates children- dumped on her one long weekend. Meanwhile, throughout
this time, from accident to the end, she receives mysterious postcards with art
on them and brief statements: Say Something, Be Something, See Something, Believe
Something.
Saddled with major depression, PTSD, insanely low self-esteem,
and survivor guilt, Shelby is a mess at the beginning of the story. She grows
slowly through the years, but she goes grow- life sort of forces itself on her.
Even though at times I wanted to shake some sense into her, it was beautiful to
watch her spirit unfold. Of course she makes mistakes- we all do. It’s a coming
of age story, albeit slightly delayed as she finds out who she really is. Hoffman
almost always writes stories that I can’t put down, and this one was no
exception.
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I received this book free from Net Galley in return for a fair review.
Neither of these things influenced my review.
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