Book Review: Willow

The book I read is called ‘Willow’ by Julian Hoban. This is such an amazing and moving book. It’s about a teenage girl named Willow who in the past year killed her parents in a car crash. It was an accident but she’s left with all this guilt to live with. She now lives with her brother, his wife and their daughter. She transferred schools because she cannot stand the memories of her friends and their parents and how it used to be for her. She says living back there where her friends are, she’s like a terrorist. 


Willow works at a library and she meets this guy named ‘Guy’. She at first doesn’t want or think she will tell him anything, she was wrong. He’s the one now who she goes to for her problems without her really thinking of it, it just spills out. Not to mention because of the car crash, she cuts to ease the pain. But no one knows.


When Willow first meets Guy she tries her hardest to get away from him to be alone, to cut. To save herself from all this hurt inside by overcoming it with real, physical pain. She’s sitting outside the campus, he comes along. Getting to know her, being friendly. But she drops her purse. Usually a girl would be flattered for a guy to be as kind and thoughtful as him. But she doesn’t want him to find out about her ‘stash’. Her razors. He picks up her purse and starts putting everything on the ground in it. Including the razors. He picks one up and says, “Hey, I use the same kind!” Not knowing at first what it’s for. Then after a few seconds it starts to click. Then he bursts out running for her brothers office. She’s run up with him, holding his hand to stop him, to not tell. He promised her he wont, and he’s keeping his word, too.

All because of that one incident he’s now making sure she stops, or at least calls him before she does it. She figures she would never do that, but no matter how hard she tries to refuse the offer, she now thinks before she does it and it’s really changing her. She finally has someone to talk to about things, about anything since the accident. She first practically hates him, but now she’s starting to feel things, things differently towards him.

I really love this book. I personally think it’s moving in so many ways. Not just that, it’s a cute story, in a way. I believe that any teenage girl would like this or any ‘lover(s)’. The length it’s pretty small. So if anybody who’s a slow reader, or doesn’t like lengthy books, this one is the one to read. The narration is different, it’s third person. It’s so sad/cute/amazing/moving. I didn’t hate anything about this book, really. I couldn’t put it down. This book is about actually depressed people and how people, anybody, will not know what is going on with them unless they actually pay attention. About how you can help people who are thinking about taking their life, how you’re not alone and people feel the same. There are people like you out there who are willing to help.

"Her leg hurts. It's extraordinary that a two-inch cut could be so painful. It's easy to do, really, just open it up before it's healed, take something blunt like the toe of a sneaker and try to enlarge the cut up to three or four inches.... Now that she has her fix, now that the pain is flowing through her blood like a narcotic, Willow is free to think about other things."

"When you found me out, you thought that I wanted to kill myself, that all this slashing was like target practice until I got up enough courage for the real thing. You don't understand at all. You just don't get it. I'm saving myself. I've taught myself, I've trained myself, not to feel anything except physical pain. I'm completely in control of that. Do you understand? Do you get what that means?"

My Opinion On The Death Penalty

I believe that the death penalty should not be legal, but on some cases it should be. The only time you should put them to death is if it’s a horrific crime. Not just something like a drug deal gone bad. Something like a planed out murder. Or the way the killed them was horrible. For instance:

I read about this women who killed her two children! She apparently stabbed them to death while they were sleeping with her downstairs. But her husband and infant son that were upstairs sleeping did not get harmed. There were cut marks all over her, which were self inflicted. She told the police she saw only a back of a man fleeing the residence. Soon enough, the police came and arrested her and got charged with the murders after making inconsistent statements to the police. See, that’s sick. You don’t kill your own children and get away with it. That was on purpose, obviously. So it’s a good thing she got the death penalty.

Now this person is a good example, too, that should be put to death. This man’s name is Gerald Eldridge, and he has been convicted in the deaths of his former girlfriend, her 9-year-old daughter. He broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment, shot her  daughter while she was sleeping on a couch. Then returned to the living room, and shot his own, natural, 7-year-old son in the shoulder. After that, he chased his ex-girlfriend on a stairwell outside, shot her outside the apartment to death as she begged for her life. That’s pretty sick if you ask me. People like this should definitely get the death penalty.

But, in other cases, like this one, should NOT have to be put to death. This man’s name is Velez Manuel. He caused the death of a 1 year old child by striking the victim’s head on a surface or object unknown. He was arrested that night and brought to a jail. See, this isn’t as bad, but still bad. They have no proof that it was him. He should just get life in prison, instead of his own life. 

I believe that the death penalty should raise it’s limits on what you have to do to get the death penalty. It shouldn’t just be that since you killed someone or you’re a suspect of the crime that you should die. But that’s my opinion.

Just Listen

The book I read was called 'Just Listen' By Sarah Dessen. It was amazing. I loved it. It's about this teenage girl, Annabel Greene. She's a model and has been since she was 3. She has 2 other sisters. One of her sisters, Whitney, almost dies from anorexia. Meanwhile, that summer her ex-best friend, Sophie, accuses her of sleeping with her boyfriend at a party; but really, he tries raping her. Sophie gets the whole school against her, or as Annabel thinks, with all the rumors being said. She thinks life can't get much worse. She hates her modeling carer, but she doesn't have the heart to tell her mother. After her mother's mother died, she was depressed as is.

Annabel goes to lunch and always sits against the brick wall, alone. Till she sees this one guy, Owen. He's tall, strong and really scary looking. He always has his headphones in. One day, Annabel got in sort of a mash-up with Sophie at the end of the day and Owen comes over and asks her if she's OK, gives her a tissue, and brings her home. Since that day, they become the best of friends. She tells him things about her life that are very secretive, without knowing what she's doing. They talk about music, and she listens to his radio show every morning at 7:00 am. She goes to his radio show one morning and tells him what happened at the party, for the first time ever telling someone. He convinces her to go to trial about it. After testifying, things get better for Annabel, and for her family, too. Her sister is healing just as quick, also.

I loved this book so much. Not because it's pretty much like a chick-flick, but it's just really moving and awesome. I honestly did not hate anything about this book. I could not put it down. I would recommend this book to someone who likes drama, chick-flicks, and girly-emotional stuff. It's not a series, and it was really quick to read because it was just so good, and couldn't put it down. The book is only about 300 and something pages. Not too long. The book was not unusual, it's about the real world. These things happen.

Quotations

"I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be riskier, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.

"There's a real bonding in someone beating the crap out of you. -Rolly"

"What are you like then, Annabel. A lier like you told me that first day? Come on. That was the biggest lie of all."

"Silence is freakin' loud!"

"If you could just be nice, then you wouldn't have to worry about arguments at all. But being nice wasn't as easy as it seemed, especially when the rest of the world could be so mean."

Letter About Speak

To Whom This May Concern,

I do not believe that the book, “Speak” shouldn't be banned. It is very moving and should be taught in all schools. She was raped, and went through so much pain and it was not her fault. She thought it was her fault. Andy Evans (The guy that raped her) put her school life through so much pain. She wanted to tell people, just let it out! But she couldn’t, people hated her and no one would listen even if she told. 

The whole point of this book is not to be “soft pornography”, it’s to tell whoever is reading it that no matter what, there is always a chance. That you need to tell someone, just let it out. Get help. Kids who are raped or sexually assaulted may think they have to kill themselves to get through the pain. It just teaches you that there is always hope. After reading this book, there is no way that it’s anywhere close to “soft pornography”. The scene where she is brutally raped just says, “he hurt me, he hurt me, then sat up and zipped his pants.” It doesn’t say anything pornographic, not one bit. 

One fact about sexual assault/rape is that, there are different reasons why a person might not resist a sexual assault. Since almost 70%* of assaults are conducted by a person that is trusted by the victim, he/she may have been manipulated, coerced, or drugged by the perpetrator. The perpetrator may threaten the victims life if he/she puts up a fight, so they become too scared to scream or struggle. This is what happened to the main character of the book, Melinda. She was manipulated by the perpetrator, Andy Evans, by making her believe he liked her and wanted to date her. She was scared to scream, to say no, to struggle. Once he raped her, she called the cops when she was at the party. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t say anything. She was scared, in a state of shock.

That rape changed her life. Not just her regular home life, but school life as well. To see his face almost everyday must kill. Also, to think that if she told anyone they wouldn’t believe her and think she’s even more nuts as is; since she called the cops at that party, and not gave a reason. Many people all over the world, and people you may see everyday, may have had this happen to them as well. Not exactly like Melinda’s, or as tough as her school life was, but the same feeling inside. The feeling of being little, weak, violated, non important. To have no meaning in life anymore. 

This book will show that you can tell someone. It’s not the end of the world. Nothing bad will happen, you will feel safe and feel better about yourself. You will not carry that burden of feeling horrible, knowing you didn’t tell anyone. Melinda was popular after she told. She felt alive again. She wasn’t hated, she was smiled upon. Plus, more people spoke up. She gave them hope. Gave them something to look up to. This book is all about telling, speaking up. Getting help. It gives people a push to tell. There is nothing wrong about this book. Just tell, let it all out!

Sincerely,

Freshman Student.

Found Poem: Bullying

I am Gay

Relationships with men, that's who I am.

Everyone knew,

Everyone turned and looked at me.

"I don't want you checking me out."

I dread school.

"Could you be a little less gay?"

Started having nightmares, thought of taking my life.

This isn't crazy, happens all the time.