Say Her Name

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The voice of Hope, set in 1994, is reminiscent of a much older voice, replete with daddy-Os and ya digs. It is also incredibly inconsistent from one part to the next and in the ending scene, the lost 80s dialect is nonexistent. Say Her Name pretty much get's into it on the off, we have a little prologue that'll make sense as you go along, but it really starts set in a Boarding School on Halloween night a group of teenagers trying to scare eachother with ghost stories that aren't scary. Until a student starts a tale of an ex Piper Halls student that mixes in with Bloody Mary, and as a scare dare, Sadie dares them to call Bloody Mary in a bathroom, light the candles, stand in front of the mirror and say her name five times. Only three took the dare, our main central character Roberta "bobbie" Rowe, her friend whom she's rooming with, Naya, and Caine, an outsider that the Head Girl (prefect) brought onto the school grounds (and since Pipers Hall is an all girls school, no boys allowed) and it's all fun and games until Sadie goes missing. I also found certain actions or internal dialogue rather repetitive (which, if done well, can really add to the story) but I didn't find that here.

Even though it became clear immediately that the the bio-dad was shady AF, I was curious to find out how all the pieces fit together, and felt it was worth reading for that reason. It’s twenty years since Eva, a biracial woman, was adopted as an eight-year-old, and Cherry and Carlton ‘Sugar’ McNeil have always been the only parents she’s wanted or needed. But when she’s dealt the double blow of Cherry’s death and her own suspension from work, Eva decides it’s time to discover who she was before she was theirs. Eva’s husband (like I don’t even remember his name, that’s how vaguely his character was placed) is a whiny baby who lies and then drops his wife the second things get hard, like a little b*€#. I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of this novel so thank you to the publishers so glad I did.Everything starts on Halloween night where a group of teenagers tell each other not-so-scary ghost stories. Sadie tells a story about an ex student at Pipers Hall (their boarding school), these days she's known as Bloody Mary, and because everyone thinks it's a stupid story she dares them to say her name five times in front of a mirror while the room is only lit by candles. Only three did it, our main character Bobbie, her best friend and roomate Naya and a handsome boy from another school, Caine. At first it's all fun but suddenly weird things are happening and Sadie goes missing and each of the three gets the same message: Five Days. I've been saving Say Her Name as a Halloween read for god knows how many years, and I finally got around to it! Needless to say, I zoomed through this YA horror in a couple of sittings, and surprisingly it did get to me a bit! El desenlace me dejo pensando bastante, honestamente, no esperaba ese giro en las ultimas paginas, sobre todo porque ya antes habia habido algunos giros inesperados, sin embargo, me gusta, cuando un libro no te deja pensando es señal de que quizas no fue tan memorable como te lo parecio en un determinado momento. Dropped threads/ Plot holes More info on the medical experiments could have easily upped the creepy factor, but it’s glossed over. The whole thing of WHY her bio-dad wanted Eva to take a DNA test in the first place is unclear. The husband’s involvement. Sugar’s dealings with Ronnie. The doctor job that she’s conveniently suspended from (otherwise the story arc might have had to be about work/life balance. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a mystery thriller with unique characters and twists to the end.

It is not until the end of the book that we learn of the tragic death of Aura...how she actually died. Throughout the book, I wondered about it, but I thought Goldman's method was perfect since it kept me held close to the story, compelled to know the details of their relationship, drawn into his personal voyage through crisis, loss and grief to the apex of his life's worst nightmare. I respected his handling of her death. I also completely loved that the fact that the dialogue was realistic. One of my biggest pet peeves is when authors write conversations between teenagers and makes us sounds like idiots. We don't always use slang, we don't abbreviate everything and we don't put 'like' and 'Oh my God' into every sentence. James Dawson manged to capture "our language" to utter perfection. I smiled so much and it's just.. well, it's fantastic. I don't think that any other author - that I can think of right now - has managed to write this so perfectly. I wasn't so sure of James Dawson's writing at first ... it's simple and easy to read but the fact that it's third person POV slightly disturbed me since I usually don't read them as much. However, as the novel progressed, I quite enjoyed it and had no problems feeling with the chracters - they were scared and freaked out and so did I. The cover is another thing I absolutely love about this book! It's already kind of creepy but so cool and awesome to look at. Goldman escribe desde un lugar muy común a todos, pero, muy difícil de traducir. Escribe desde el dolor, desde la pérdida. Escribe también desde el amor, pero, un amor abstracto que está en el corazón y está en un árbol y está en unas olas que ya rompieron y de las que apenas vemos espuma que vuelve al mar. I can't make up my mind if I like the twist at the end or not. I think I do? Right now I do. The newspaper clipping was a nice touch.I've always found the myth of Bloody Mary (and anything to do with bloodthirsty ghosts in mirrors) to be quite unnerving - I was terrified of going into my bathroom alone when I was in P4 (age 7-8) after a girl in my class told me about Candyman, and even as an adult I won't say 'Bloody Mary' however many times into a mirror. I mean look at this book - people who don't believe it say it and it happens! And Goldman tries everything to arrive at that elusive truth. He tells. He shows. He gives us excerpts from Aura's diaries and short stories. He writes close to her point of view as a child. He even writes close to her mother's point of view. He studies the science of waves (his wife's killer; this is revealed early). He deconstructs linear time. He writes short chapters. He writes long chapters. He speaks directly to Aura and to the reader. He tries with all his might to understand how and why this could have happened, and what he is supposed to do in its aftermath. And all of this formal experimentation does not distract from the story. Somehow it makes the content even more raw and visceral. Bobbie and her friends Naya attend a prestigious boarding school. On Halloween Night, they are dared to summon the ghost of Bloody Mary by saying her name 5 times into a mirror. Bobbie, Naya and a boy named Caine agree to the game, as they have never believed in ghosts. After they perform the summoning, strange things begin to happen and they realize that the legend of Bloody Mary may be true after all. It seems to me the only reason the authors made Eva a doctor is so she has access to/knowledge of the haunted hospital annex. Because there’s no other indication of the thinking or behavior a person needs to be successful getting through medical school, residency, etc. Doctors need critical thinking skills, of which Eva had none. Borges nos legó su Funes y su Menard y sus libros de arena interminables y sus centros del universo bajo una escalera.

This is the true story of Francisco's courtship and then very brief 2 year marriage to a much younger mexican PhD literature student with aspirations to become a well-known writer, before she dies tragically in a sudden accident. I didn't realize it was a dead-spouse grief book and probably wouldn't have bought it if I'd investigated further. There were some touching moments but otherwise just on and on stories of their time together and how he is dealing or rather not dealing with it and other people who were in her life after the accident - I skimmed very fast the last third of the book.A thoroughly thrilling tale from two authors who always put their heart and soul into their writing, and it very clearly shows. Proust se dio a la búsqueda del tiempo perdido y a ello dedicó su obra. Joyce se afanó en el lenguaje como personaje en una etapa final y en lograr un día. Un solo día. Say Her Name is the best YA horror I’ve read in a long time. I love urban legends and ghost stories (even though I don’t believe in ghosts) so this was perfect for me. And yes, it is as creepy as promised! Francisco Goldman is positively a man familiar with the agonies of grief. He knows the living death of grief. He knows the impossiblities of having to go on living after the death of the one person who makes life worth living. And, he is the most gorgeous and generous of tellers of that experience I have ever known to be alive in my time. He's a writer of the most profound gifts to share.