Where the Staircase Ends

by Stacy Stokes

[shannonmiz]

So, I am thinking that maybe this is one of those cases where I may be too old, or too much of a goody-goody, or something because I simply could not connect to these characters. At first, I did feel for Taylor, not just because she was hit by a car, but because she was being ostracized by the entire school and all her friends. And then, you know, is hit by a car, and is stuck on these stairs, presumably that will lead her to an afterlife? So yeah, it started off pretty good, I was interested!

But then…. Taylor. She just stopped being someone I could care about, and started to be someone I wanted to smack and tell to get ahold of themselves. Yes, her “friends”, especially her best friend Sunny, were being awful, but so was she. Yet she kind of refused to acknowledge that side. On the stairs, she encounters a series of flashbacks that basically take her through different defining moments in her and Sunny’s friendship, and it kind of makes more sense as to why Sunny is so awful at times. There are boys involved in this feud of course. One was decent, and the other was pretty awful, and it didn’t make a ton of sense to me, except I guess that Taylor has some self-esteem issues, which also makes some sense because her mom was a real piece of work too.

Taylor did exhibit some character growth during the story, but it really did not have the impact I was hoping for. And when things were unraveled, and the “scandal” was revealed, I was very underwhelmed. I still don’t really understand what happened in the end, either, so if you have read it… let me know what you think! I asked someone who read it, and I thought something different than they did, so… let me know.

The bottom line is, it is a very character driven book and I did not like the characters. They were simply too harsh and immature for my tastes, and the reveals just weren’t enough to keep me excited about it.