No More Booklikes, BYE

A heart wrenching, wonderfully written book that was so unexpected I'm slightly in shock. It was revoltingly beautiful. It was about a sweet girl who had the worst mother, or was she ? She was angry, she was violent, she was majorly screwed up by her history. I saw bits of some of my own childhood, some of the ugly bits and was blasted into some acceptance of where I came from, where my mother and grandparents came from and the events that made me, me. Life is never black and white, sometimes it’s red and angry. This is not a happy book, it is a book that will make you sick and open you up to the horrible pain of several people who collide and burn. Still I thought it was beautiful, a horrible ugly beauty.
What worked in tis story very well was Ambrose. He was a complex character, smart and he had decent lines. He carried the book, he was tough, troubled and new.
This book, Arguh !!! It was so beautiful with the fish and the descriptions of their peaceful world. The resemblance to human beings and our complicated issues. The story starts with the simple life of a girl who loves the aquarium, the undersea life. She absorbs every detail, from the shades of the water to the texture of the fins. Being a huge aquarium junkie I can relate to her need to be there. It was a safe place for her, because she had few places that she felt safe.
Then is was the ugliest thing. Her mother, a young uneducated, angry, hateful, vengeful, single and screwed up by her history lashes out at her daughter at the world and anyone who gets in her vision. She is a difficult person to read about, she was truly viscous, and disgusting. I couldn’t imagine her getting worse at the half way point, she did, much worse. It was so horrifying I was in tears. I hated her, wished for her to die, life would be better without this person. Yes, a truly awful character. The author never tried to make her better, to see the light, but he did make her understood. I did understand her, I still hated her, I never forgave her. This character went farther, darker then any I’ve read before.
The desperate feeling of the lives written on the pages filled me with sorrow, hope and so much hope for them. The moments with the fish and an old man, tied the lines between the worlds and left time to breath and recover from that ugly thing happening.A W