Skip to main content

SHINE by Lauren Myracle


copyright date: May 2011
primarily marketed for: young adults (high school)

Shine by Lauren Myracle is one of those books I felt an itch to talk about as soon as I finished reading.  The story is that powerful, the craft that stunning, the characters that compelling.  It is a book that will surely linger in my mind for days to come.

Ever since I took a summer literature class in Southern American Fiction, I have been in love with stories set in the South.  So, I am sure that element drew me further into what is already a captivating story.  Shine begins with a fictitious, yet chilling, newspaper article reporting the brutal beating of sixteen-year-old Patrick Truman, apparently driven by his homosexuality.  From that point on, while Patrick lies comatose in a hospital, the story becomes Cat’s.  Cat used to be one of Patrick’s closest friends, before a traumatic event in her own life caused her to quietly withdraw from all social activity.  It is the attack on Patrick that prompts Cat to end her period of withdrawal and reengage with the world around her. 

However, reengaging with the world means looking in the face of both its beauty and brutality.  So, Cat’s quest to uncover secrets and dangerously break through the small town code of silence forces her to grow up quickly. 

Shine is a coming-of-age story filled with poetic language, deep thoughts, and no easy answers. Although it is rife with harsh language and mature situations, they are handled with just the right balance of shock and grace to tell this story and leave it lingering in your heart and mind.


Lauren Myracle signing my copy of Shine

some of my favorite lines…

“The approach of twilight, along with the insect sounds that heralded it, made me feel alone in a way of separating me from all things human.”
from Shine by Lauren Myracle, page 143 (paperback)

“Dark flecks messed with my vision, because turned out I wasn’t so good with heights.  I didn’t know it till then.  Wasn’t that odd?  All the stuff that went into mind and body and soul, and so much of it left buried unless the right situation came along to unearth it.”
from Shine by Lauren Myracle, page 157 (paperback)

“I hid in the shadows, but hiding had the power to hurt, too.”
from Shine by Lauren Myracle, page 291 (paperback)

Labels:

Comments

  1. Deb DayJuly 5, 2013 at 9:11 AM

    Wasn't this a wonderful book? It stayed with me for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Linda BJuly 5, 2013 at 10:20 AM

    I loved this book, Christy. How great that you got to meet Lauren Myracle. Thanks for reminding about the story.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tara @ A Teaching LifeJuly 5, 2013 at 9:41 PM

    So, I need to get this book, Christy! I love meeting authors - something so very cool about having a few words, and getting that signature.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY by Kevin C. Pyle

copyright date: March 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) Despite the fact that the teacher in me sees so many lesson possibilities in Kevin C. Pyle’s graphic novel Take What You Can Carry , you should read it simply for the grace of its stories.   The artwork is as striking as the stories it tells.   Using artwork in two different colors and styles, Pyle tells the stories of two teenage boys living years and miles apart.   And yet, he communicates the universality in their experiences.   One boy is a Japanese American forced to move into an internment camp during WWII.   His family struggles to maintain their dignity and sense of peace under unbearable conditions. The other is a rebellious boy with an attitude whose reckless behavior causes him to wind up in trouble with the law.   To make amends, he finds himself completing community service hours in the most unlikely place.   I found my...
1 comment
Read more

NOTHING SPECIAL by Geoff Herbach

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: young adults (12 and up) This is Geoff Herbach 's sequel to Stupid Fast and continues Felton Reinstein’s story in true Felton fashion.   This is definitely a smart guy book—a book for smart guys, who definitely love a good chuckle. The story opens at the end of summer with Felton typing a letter to his girlfriend Aleah while flying in an airplane on his way to retrieve his younger brother from Florida.   The entire book is written as one giant letter to Aleah explaining how his summer led him to this moment in time.   After Felton and his brother Andrew got some help with their mother’s issues, Felton went right back to throwing himself into football and track—because he is stupid fast.   However, Andrew did not cope quite as well as Felton did.   Felton ignores his brother’s cries for help and continuously lets him down.   His brother ends up cooking up an elaborate plan to run ...
1 comment
Read more

ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE by Gabrielle Zevin

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (8 th grade and up) I wish I would’ve known this was the beginning of a series before I started this book.   Then again, I might never have picked it up if I thought I might be committing to multiple books… At any rate, this is not a story I will be sad to return to this fall when the sequel is released.   Anya’s story takes place in New York City, in the future.   Around the time you will be old enough to be grandparents. This is a sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian kind of book in a mild way.   Basically, the United States has self-destructed, and yet life seems to go surprisingly similar to the way we live nowadays.   Except that water and paper are costly and hard to come by.   Chocolate is prohibited.   Caffeine is an illegal drug.   Which is all to say that the setting alone is intriguing. Add to that setting, the fact that Anya is the oldest daughter of the ...
3 comments
Read more