Someone Else's Life

4.0

0.0 (0)

188 0

Write Review Add to favorites

Author(s)

Katie Dale

Publisher

Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre(s)

Contemporary

Age Range

12+

Release Date

February 14, 2012

ISBN

978-0385740654

Buy This Book

When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die.

Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.

Editor reviews

2 reviews

A Wonderful Contemporary

February 10, 2012

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

N/A

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

I was so excited for Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale since I had heard about it. I started reading and there was something missing. I was so bummed. Then about a third of the way into it, something clicked and suddenly, I couldn't put the book down and I started up til 2 AM just so I could finish and see how this amazing story would end.
Katie Dale is not afraid to pull at your heart strings with this one - this is SUCH an emotional read. I had some intense reactions towards so many things that happened. Someone Else's Life is a really eye-opening book and I think makes you appreciate what you have in life.

The plot of Someone Else's Story revolved so much around the characters developing and finding out who they were, which was something I really liked about it. The beginning was a bit confusing for me, but everything soon made sense. I loved all the scenes with Rosie and Andy - they were so fun.

I was not crazy about the two main characters, Rosie and Holly. They both bothered me, Holly more than Rosie. So for me, it was the other characters that really stole the show. I just loved Andy - he had his moments where I did question him, but overall I really just loved him. Ben was another character who had a very minor role, but every scene he was in was absolutely adorable.

Katie Dale is definitely an author to watch. While I had a few issues with Someone Else's Life, overall, it was a good read. Someone Else's Story was a story worth telling, and is really worth the read.

Erica Top 50 Reviewer 192 reviews

Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 2 0

User reviews

Already have an account? or Create an account

Emotional

March 01, 2012

Ms. Dale sure knows how to write. The beginning (and really all throughout the book) she conveys such heart wrenching emotions through her characters, she also does well at the highs, and capturing the true essence of teenage emotions, from one extreme to the other then back again in a new york minute. The emotions really came alive to me with her vivid descriptions.
The jumps in narration was a little confusing for me at first, and then I totally got it, and it was a masterpiece! I love the generational struggles and how they transcend time, she did a really good job with that.
I also had a hard time getting a grasp on Rosie at first, one minute strong and standing up for herself and then the next doing things that seem extreme like being all over a random guy, but I guess that grief, especially raw and fresh grief will do that to you. All in all, I think that her character ressonated with me more than Holly's because she came across as selfish. I tried to remind myself all she faced and the fact that she is just a teenager, but I never really could bring myself to like her much until the end.
This was a hard book to read in that I have no clue what I would do if I were in Rosie or Holly's shoes (or even Kitty at first for that matter.) With the Huntington's hold and the cycle of choices and possibilities, and then the whole family situation to deal with--on top of Holly's other secret, I just can't imagine.
I really liked the adults in this book--Trudie was so strong, and through Nana we can see she had such a positive attitude even in the face of such a horrible disease, and Nana herself is awesome--she reminds me of my own grandma in some ways and that is high praise. Jack is so strong and such a great dad. I can't say alot more without spoilers.
Review from Blkosiner's Book Blog