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SAVING ZOE
by Alyson Noel
Reviewed by Amy Alessio
Paperback
St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN: 9780312355104
240 pages
Author Biography |
Review |
Excerpt
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-- ABOUT THE BOOK --
In Alyson Noël's newest novel, one dead sister's secrets save the other's life --- in more ways than one.
It's been one year since the brutal murder of her sister, Zoë, and fifteen year old Echo is still reeling from the aftermath. Her parents are numb, her friends are moving on, and the awkward start to her freshman year proves she'll never live up to her sister's memory.
Until Zoë's former boyfriend Marc shows up with her diary.
At first Echo's not interested, doubting there's anything in there she doesn't already know. But when curiosity prevails, she starts reading, becoming so immersed in her sister's secret world, their lives begin to blur, forcing Echo to uncover the truth behind Zoë's life, so that she can start to rebuild her own.
Prepare to laugh your heart out and cry your eyes out in this highly addictive tale, as Alyson Noël tackles the complicated relationship between two sisters and shows how the bond can endure long after one of them is gone.
-- AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY --
I was born and raised in The OC (although I never actually called it that until the TV show), and attended the Richard Nixon Elementary School for two years --- a fact I find both amusing and embarrassing.
After high school, I was desperate to flee suburbia and see the world, so after many trips to Europe I eventually settled in Mykonos, Greece for several years, before moving to Manhattan for several more, where I worked as a Flight Attendant for a major airline and wrote my debut novel, FAKING 19, during long weather delays and boring layovers.
Then one day I was visiting a friend in Newport Beach and I met my husband. And it wasn't long before I'd come full circle, setting up house right back in The OC where I live and write full time.
-- REVIEW --
Echo is getting ready to enter high school on the eve of her 15th birthday. Her friends are talking about upcoming social events to which they are looking forward. But Echo is not too excited. It’s been one year since her sister Zoe was murdered, and Echo is still finding it difficult to envision any kind of a future. Her father stays at his job, and her mother takes pills that make her flat and emotionless. Things start to change, however, when Zoe’s boyfriend Marc gives Echo Zoe’s diary as a birthday present. Now she has a chance to get to know more intimately the sister she misses so much.
An Internet predator was arrested for Zoe’s murder, but there are so many unanswered questions. Will the diary help Echo find the answers she seeks? Echo recalls that Zoe used to sneak through her room at night and down the tree outside her window to spend time with boyfriends. She’s not sure who Zoe was meeting or why.
Echo is also curious about Marc. The entire town suspected him of the crime before the police nabbed the online predator. Marc said only that he was waiting for Zoe in a park when she was killed. Why did he hold the notebook back from police? Was he afraid there would be something incriminating about him in there? Echo was two years younger than Zoe and sees Marc as a handsome and exciting guy, too. For a while she tries to be Zoe and connect with him. But it isn’t the same.
Zoe was beautiful and had lots of friends. However, things appeared to cool off with her best girlfriend Carly in the months before her death, and she also seemed to be fighting with Marc frequently. Were these the reasons she died? The diary begins to unravel clues to these problems for Echo as she reads.
Soon Echo loses interest in going out with her friends, in dates with her cute new boyfriend Parker, and in her emotionally struggling parents as she delves back into Zoe’s world. She wants only to stay in, away from the pitying looks and pointing fingers as other students talk about what happened to her family. She is determined to find out who Zoe really was and what led up to her murder.
Echo learns that Tessa, a girl she knew from junior high as a preppy popular type, has a secret life of borderline friends and drinking. She hangs out with a creepy guy named Tom, who says he knew Zoe. Marc warns her to stay away from Tom. Was this loser involved in Zoe’s demise?
No one seems to know why Zoe would come into contact with an Internet predator, either. From the diary Echo learns that Zoe aspired to be a model or an actress and move away from their small town. She wanted to fulfill this dream so badly that she did not realize the increasing danger she was facing.
Zoe’s diary will reach the emotions of readers of Alyson Noel’s moving and compelling novel while bringing peace and understanding to Echo. As she faces the reality of life without her sister, the diary gives her extra time with Zoe and the answers she so desperately needs.
--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio
-- EXCERPT --
They say there are five stages of grief:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
Up until last year I didn't know there were lists like that. I had no idea people actually kept track of these things. But still, even if I had known, I never would've guessed that just a few days before my fourteenth birthday I'd be stuck in stage one.
But then you never think that kind of bad news will knock on your door. Because those kinds of stories, the kind that involve a stone faced newscaster interrupting your favorite TV show to report a crucial piece of "late breaking news" are always about someone else's unfortunate family. They're never supposed to be about yours.
But what made it even worse is that I was the first to know.
Well, after the cops.
And of course, Zoë.
Not to mention the freak who was responsible for the whole mess in the first place.
And even though they didn't exactly say anything other than, "May we please speak to your parents?" It was the regret on those two detectives faces, the defeat in their weary eyes, that pretty much gave it all away.
It was after school and I was home alone, trying to keep to my standard cookie eating, TV watching, homework avoiding routine, even though I really couldn't concentrate on any of it. I mean, normally at 4:10 pm both my parents would still be at work, my sister Zoë would be out with her boyfriend, and I would be sitting cross legged on the floor, wedged between the couch and the coffee table, dunking Oreo's into a tall glass of cold milk until my teeth were all black, the milk was all sopped up, and my stomach was all swollen and queasy.
So I guess in a way I was just trying to emulate all of that, go through the motions, and pretend everything was normal. That my parents weren't really out searching for Zoë, and that I wasn't already in denial long before I had good reason to be.
But now, almost a year later, I can honestly say that I'm able to check off stages one through three, and am settling into stage five. Though sometimes, in the early morning hours, when the house is quiet and my parents are still asleep, I find myself regressing toward four. Especially now that September's here, putting us just days away from the one-year anniversary of the last time Zoë shimmied up the big oak tree, climbed onto my balcony, and came in through my unlocked French doors.
I remember rolling over and squinting against the early morning light, watching as she pressed her index finger to her smiling lips, her short red nail like the bottom of an upside down exclamation point, as she performed her exaggerated, cartoonish, stealth tip toe through my room, out my door, and down the hall.
Sometimes now, when I think back on that day, I add a whole new scene. One where instead of turning over and falling back to sleep, I say something important, something meaningful, something that would've let her know, beyond all doubt, just how much I loved and admired her. But the truth is, I didn't say anything.
I mean, how was I supposed to know that was the last time I'd ever see her?
Excerpted from SAVING ZOE © Copyright 2007 by Alyson Noel. Reprinted with permission by St. Martin’s Griffin, Inc. All rights reserved.
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