When She Was Good

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Summary: "When She Was Good"
Review: This book is heart-wrehnching! It is very interesting. It gets so interesting that at times I had to refer back. It was good and strange at the same time.
This book was about a girl named Em is trying to live a life alone. Her abusive older sister dies and Em just doesn't know how to live without Pamela telling her whate to do and what not to do. Em hears Pamela's nasty sayings in her head all the time and thinks she's going crazy. This book is full of Em's thoughts and feelings while trying to adjust to her hew life. Here's an interesting paragraph from it.
"I sit on the edge of my bed and stare at the floor. I woke as tired ast when I went to sleep; it was from thinking of things all night long. All night my dreams where thought-dreams, and I woke up feeling almost nauseous from so many thoughts. The rise in my mind like fireworks, sparkling and exploding, scattering bits of light and then dark in my mind"
I can relate to this book and if you like real life books, you should read this one.

Rating:
Summary: Stinging, sensitive, amazing
Review: This book is one of the best I've ever read. Em deals with her brutally unfair life with a sweet, clear, almost innocent outlook that makes it hard to read. The characters are well-drawn, so real you almost expect them to live in your town, and Em's quest for a stable life finally comes together with a soft sort of triumph. Almost worth a sequel...but then again, it's best to make up a happy ending for yourself. My favourite characters are Em and the happy-go-lucky William ("That's a good one. I'm wet today, William...") Five stars. Absolutely.

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Summary: Review on Mazer's When She Was Good
Review: This book was a good book, but I am uncertain what age group for which it would be best suited. The book opens with a 19/20 year old girl, Em Thurkhill, trying to choose a coffin for her sister, Pamela. She and Pamela ran away from home because their father married again after their mother's death. Pamela is an abusive sister and paranoid, not allowing Em a life outside of their cramped apartment. When Pamela dies, Em must come to terms with her past and who she is at present. By the end of the novel, she finds contentment, peace with her past, and a friend- all things she desperately wanted.

Rating:
Summary: When she was Good
Review: This is a really good book. It talks about Em and her sister Pamela. It is about verbal abuse and Em's sister is telling her what to do all the time. Her mom died. In chapter 5, Pamela dies too. It's kind of sad. Em is always thinking of Pamela and she gets sick of it. The book isn't hard to read and I really hope to finish it.

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Summary: When She Was Good
Review: This realistic fiction novel was very intriguing. The main character is a young girl Em who is a good person but is subjected to mental and physical abuse at the hands of her family. Now that her abusive sister is dead and her alcoholic father remarried after her mother's death, Em has the chance to overcome her horrible past. This book portrays the human spirit and how people beat overwhelming obstacles to have happiness.

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Summary: Simply brilliant...
Review: This story left me in tears. Amazing.. just amazing

Em, the main character, was brought into this world by an alcoholic father and a mother suffering from depression. Alongside with these two influences Em has a sister, Pamela, who suffers from major emotional problems herself. Her mother, kind in mind, was the only one who Em really had a deep compassion for. Her father would come home drunk and beat both Pamela, Em, and the mother.

When her mother dies, Em and Pamela are left destroyed. Shortly after her death the father remarries. His drinking stops, but it leaves Em questioning just why her father wouldn't stop drinking for their mother. Pamela and Em resesnt him and his new wife, Sally. As teenagers Pamela and Em run away. Pamela and Em go through many tough times living on their own. Pamela is abusive and psychologically draining to Em. Although Pamela displays so many bad traits, Em does love her.

Pamela dies at a young age and leaves Em alone in the world. Em is only 18 and has nothing and no one. SHe is haunted by Pamela's memory, and this holds her down throughout her life. The novel focuses on the regaining of strength from Em.

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Summary: Amazing!! must read--- every word: ABSORBING!
Review: Though depressing and sad at times, this novel is beatufiully written! For all girls who have struggles in life, this is a must read! The detail in the writing is truly so absorbing, it is worth every minute that you read! possibly a little bit of a tear jerker--

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Summary: When She Was Good
Review: Title: When she was good.
Author: Norma Fox Mazer

The book when she is good is very sad. It tells of a girl Em Thurkill and all of her hard times. The book is kind of backwards, it begins with the ending part in the beginning and then it goes back to the start. It begins with Em telling how she feels about Pamela's death (her older, cruel sister). It then goes back to when she was 13 years old, it was a tough time for her father went out drinking and would come home and beat their mother up, and then her mother got very sick and died. After their mom dies their father got remarried to Sally Pearson. She moved into the trailer and started redoing the whole house, and then she stated telling Em and Pamela what to do. Pamela didn't want to live with her anymore so they ran away to the city. When they first got to the city, they rented an apartment , and had plenty of money. Then they started running out of money and they got kicked out of the apartment and had to go to a shelter. Pamela made Em get a job, Em was tired of listening to Pamela so she ran away to Vermont for a few days. Pamela said she missed her and was sorry , so Em went back home. Not to long after that Pamela died, Em had to live by herself. Even though Pamela was gone Em could still hear her nagging at her. Em gets back on her feet and gets a Job to pay for her apartment. The book come to a turn and Suddenly things are looking much better for Em.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: When Pamela collapsed and died on the kitchen floor, her sister Em didn't exactly mourn her passing. Pamela was mentally ill and both physically and verbally abusive, and Em was rather glad to get rid of her. But without her sister, she felt lost. She had known nothing of life without Pamela, and now she was totally on her own.

The book is written in three sections. The first one details what happened to Em right after Pamela died suddenly of a stroke at age twenty-two. Em was only eighteen herself, but quite self-reliant. The second section is Em and Pamela's history: their family background, and what lead them to run away from home. "Take care of your sister," Em's mother always told her every day before she died, and Em tried. But after Em's father married a woman both girls hated, they decided to run away and make it on their own. The third section is Em trying to put her life in order without Pamela. Slowly she begins to climb out of the black pit. She finds a job doing secretarial work for a compassionate man, and makes a few friends.

I thought it was a beautifully wrought piece of work. You can see the sisterly bond between Pamela and Em, even though they hated each other, and the book also clearly shows the effects mental illness can have on family dynamics. Pamela tore her family and her sister apart. Now quiet, courageous Em has to pick up the pieces.