Reconstructing Amelia

by Kimberly McCreight

Stressed single mother and law partner Kate is in the meeting of her career when she is interrupted by a telephone call to say that her teenaged daughter Amelia has been suspended from her exclusive Brooklyn prep school for cheating on an exam. Torn between her head and her heart, she eventually arrives at St Grace's over an hour late, to be greeted by sirens wailing and ambulance lights blazing. Her daughter has jumped off the roof of the school, apparently in shame of being caught. A grieving Kate can't accept that her daughter would kill herself: it was just the two of them and Amelia would never leave her alone like this. And so begins an investigation which takes her deep into Amelia's private world, into her journals, her email account and into the mind of a troubled young girl. Then Kate receives an anonymous text saying simply: AMELIA DIDN'T JUMP. Is someone playing with her or has she been right all along?

• ISBN10: 1471111288
• ISBN13: 9781471111280
• Publish Date: 1 June 2013 (first published 14 February 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 March 2014
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Bianca]

I don’t trust people. All they want to do is to put a label on you. Call you this or that. Then that’s all you are, forever.

[Kait ✨]

I was a little bit disappointed in the quality of writing given the good things I’d heard about this book. That being said, I was 100% into it and (mostly) able to overlook the poor writing. It’s a nail-biting, fascinating story that addresses some contentious and current issues, like bullying, hazing, and secret societies/sororities, and it raises some questions about parenting styles. Overall this was a great read that I really enjoyed, and I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a fast-paced, all-consuming, thought-provoking read.

This was a quick, easy read. I found the story to be good and intriguing but I found some of the characters annoying and it was a bit soap opera-ish. Overall, I enjoyed it very much, more for the story and mystery than the characters.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Bullying
Verb

"Use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants"

Don't be a statistic.

In Reconstructing Amelia, fifteen year-old Amelia Baron supposedly committed suicide by throwing herself off a school building. Her mother, obviously hysterical with grief, disbelieving that her daughter could do such a thing looks for answers to discover what really happened to her daughter. Particularly after receiving an anonymous text saying "Amelia didn't jump."

Catchy huh?

Reconstructing Amelia immediately grabbed my attention but the theme of bullying even more.

Amelia, against better judgement is invited to join the Magpies, a high school sorority. Amelia desperately wants to be accepted with the lead "Maggies" threatening her if she lets them down.

I found this interesting, with bullying leading to suicide becoming a recent epidemic, it did make me wonder if the text was a ruse; but as I got deeper into the novel I realize that wasn't the case.

Reconstructing Amelia, is told by two voices, Amelia herself and her mother Kate. By flip-flipping in this manner the reader got a panorama of events. Through Amelia, a look at her slow descent into madness and feeling of hopelessness, making it just plausible enough the she could have done it but those girls were so mean that they must have done it. Through Kate, we see a naive mother who thought she knew her BFF daughter, but at every corner realizing how little she did.

The last fifty pages had me riveted. Each door Kate opened had me believing that they killed Amelia (because by this time I'd thrown the suicide idea off the roof) When the truth was revealed, as shocked as I was, I realized I'd thought it all along, just as Kate thought her daughter didn't, couldn't kill herself.

Reconstructing Amelia is like a campfire story, which must be told slowly for maximum effect with the lights turned low. This is how I felt while reading this story, I wanted to read slowly and digest each word like a s'mores but it was just too good, and I devoured it.