A fiercely funny and touching debut novel about a girl with a sharp and mischievous voice of her own -- and her quest to discover the truth about her sister's death 'I want to be awful. I want to do awful things and why not? Dull is dull is dull is my life. Like now, it's night, not yet time for bed but too late to be outside, and the two of them reading reading reading with their eyes moving like the lights inside a copy machine. When I was helping put the dishes in the washer tonight, I broke a plate. I said sorry Ma it slipped. But it didn't slip, that's how I am sometimes, and I want to be worse. Awful is easy if you make it your one and only.' Fear doesn't come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look right at the things nobody else can bring themselves to mention: for example, the fact that her beloved older sister is dead, pushed in front of a train by a man who is still on the loose. Still, after a year of spying and provocations, she's no closer to the truth about her sister's death than the day it happened. When Mathilda finally cracks her email password, a secret life opens up, one that swiftly draws her into a world of clouded motives and strange emotion.
Somewhere in it lies the key to waking her family up from their dream of grief. To cross into that underworld and see what her sister saw, she has to risk everything that matters to her. Mathilda Savitch is furiously funny, awkward and tender; a compelling page-turner, and the debut of an extraordinary novelistic talent.
Mathilda's older sister, is dead. She was pushed in front of a train by an unknown man. A year later her family is still miserably trying to go on, sleepwalking through life. Finally, Mathilda decides to snap them out of it, the only way she knows how -- by being bad.
It is soon realized that Mathilda is in denial of her Helene's death and though she tries to hide it, is just as grieved as her parents. In order to deal with this feeling Mathilda investigates her sister's murder by breaking into Helene's email account and tracing her final steps in order to find her sister's killer. Soon it is revealed the true reason for Mathilda's unwilling acceptance and all goes to hell in a hand-basket.
The novel is well paced and Mathilda is a fun lively character, parading around the house in her dead sister's clothes and amidst it all, dealing with the dreaded puberty. Despite her attempts at being bad, the author, Victor Lodato, shows the innocence and naivety as 9/11 takes place during all this chaos with Mathilda not understanding why her parents were crying while watching t.v. or the significance of her best friend's brother being over seas. Although, throughout her experience Mathilda grows up with eyes wide open and discovers just how cruel and secretive real life truly is.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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31 May, 2011:
Finished reading
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31 May, 2011:
Reviewed