Say Her Name

Product Information

If you read this story, you might want to skip "the dare" part. You might want to refrain from saying her name out loud. Or else, Bloody Mary will come get you! No sé. Puede que sirva para aclarar lo que sucedió y como toda la historia de ambos se encaminó, desde el principio y paso a paso, hacia aquel lugar y aquel momento, pero este texto es muy íntimo, muy personal. Hasta un poco de reparo da leerlo, a veces; es como espiar en los diarios de alguien. Aunque reconozco que es muy emotivo y sincero.

I had such high hopes for this book, but I am incredibly disappointed. And frankly, I’m surprised that a co-authored books could be so bad given the fact that it has multiple brains behind it! I’m going to release some spoilers here.And it’s unfortunate, because Goldman does offer a moving portrayal of his grief, and the difficulty of battling with his mother-in-law on everything from evicting him from an apartment in Mexico, to her withholding Estrada’s remains from Goldman. I was particularly moved by his descriptions of using Aura’s toiletries, his reluctance to use her shampoo, of eroding what’s left behind of her, of his fascination by the grooves her fingers left in her jar of body scrub, these are all truly touching. more but I’m bored listing them all— oh yeah, the writing style itself was annoying. Also the timeline was often unclear.

Now, I'm usually not a fan of horror. All that doom-and-gloom and usually a dose of pure gore and violence... Not my cup of tea. And although this book made my toes curl and make me "Eeek!" plenty of times and made sure that I haven't looked in a mirror since I started it, I was definitely a fan of this one. Her characters are always so well drawn and these ones are no exception. I felt for Eva from the start. I loved the twists and turns they really kept me reading and on the edge of my seat too. 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. Bobbie was an okay character, although I didn’t think that Bobbie and her friends were particularly bright. Saying ‘Bloody Mary’ five times in front of the mirror is just stupid. Even if it’s not true, why tempt fate? I'm not sure if it was cathartic for Mr. Goldman to write his book or if it simply worked as a chronicle and a memorial. I found no real resolution for him except that he seems to feel he's done all in this life he can do for Aura that would matter to her (that is my sense at the end of the book). I believe in that resolution. There comes a time when that's all we who are left behind can do...that and speak their names, continue to miss them and never forget. And, with time and working through our grief as Mr. Goldman does, we come to understand our loved ones better and to accept them for who they really were. We are never the same, however.None of that is necessarily bad in a book, if the nuts are at least sometimes presented with a touch of humor. Unfortunately, there's not much humor in this book; it is, after all, a book about a promising young woman's tragic death at an early age and the loving friends and family she's left behind. It shouldn't be funny, that's not appropriate, but somehow, I was finding the family dynamics of this screwy bunch so dreadful that I was laughing while reading. And it wasn't written to be humorous! I'd love to read a psychiatrist's view of these people. Now that would be interesting reading. No la sueltes, si la tienes. No la sueltes, pensé, ése es mi consejo para todos los vivos. Aspírala, pon tu nariz en su cabello, aspírala en profundidad. Di su nombre. Siempre será su nombre, ni siquiera la muerte puede arrebatártelo. El mismo nombre tanto viva como muerta, para siempre. 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. 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 have mixed feelings about this book. It is beautifully written and certainly a paean to the love shared by Francisco and Aura. It is touching and accurate when describing the feelings of loss and its aftermath. Aura was a poet and novelist, and the use of her own words to revivify her works quite well. Yet there is something over-the-top about his devotion to her that sometimes takes the edge off this love story.