One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies

Reader reviewed by Colleen Driscoll

A good book I recently read is One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies, by Sonya Sones. Sonya Sones is an excellent author who creates stories using poem form. Her stories always intrigue me with their interesting and unique plot lines. Although the title makes it actually sound like one of those hideous books where the mother dies, it is far from that. This book is about a girl named Ruby whose mother dies from cancer and she is dragged across the country, to California, to live with her movie star father, Whip Logan. The whole story is told from Rubys perspective. Throughout the book she longs to be with her best friend, Lizzie, her boyfriend, Ray, and of course her recently passed mother. The story has the emails Ruby sends to her friend, boyfriend, and even her dead mother in it which really helps for the reader to get to know the real Ruby. She never seems to give her newfound father a break and just sees him as a scumbag who divorced his mother before she was born. She ignores his constant attempts at creating a relationship, meanwhile creating a friendship with her fathers assistant Max. She always talks with Max and he is like her diary, being such a good listener, except unlike a diary he gives her advice on what to do in many situations with her father. In the end an earthquake causes a secret to be revealed and leaves us, the readers, with a satisfying conclusion. This was a page turner book that I strongly recommend reading if you need a break from everyday writing!

Reader reviewed by safia

This is the story,
of a girl,
whose mother has died.
The girl,
she moves to L.A.,
away from her boyfriend,
away from her best friend,
to live with her famous movie-star father,
whom she's only seen in movies,
but never actually met.

This book,
is her thoughts,
and emotions.

'One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies' is a story that has been told many times though maybe in different forms. Girl has famous father, girl's parents are divorced. Girl loses mother, girl moves town and misses best friend/boyfriend. Girl feels alone and so on and so on. Yep, heard it all. But this story is special because it's broken down into simple poems. It's predictable, but lovely anyways.