Monday 27 April 2009

Operation Retirement Rescue (2): How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

Due to all the talk about ARC's, Adele from Persnickety Snark came up with a great idea. Operation Retirement Rescue is a way for bloggers to remember and celebrate old YA classics.

All you have to do is:

Before May begins post reviews for 1-2 YA titles that -
1) were published more than five years ago,
2) hold fond memories, and
3) post the icon somewhere in your review.

How I Live Now - Meg Rosoff

Fifteen-year-old New Yorker Daisy thinks she knows all about love. Her mother died giving birth to her, and now her dad has sent her away for the summer, to live in the English countryside with cousins she’s never met.

There she’ll discover what real love is: something violent, mysterious and wonderful. Then her world will be turned upside down and a perfect summer will explode into a million bewildering pieces.

How will Daisy live then?

How I Live Now was first published by Penguin in 2004.

Meg Rosoff’s debut YA novel, How I Live Now, blew me away. As a fairly sheltered twelve-year-old, this book shocked me. It introduced themes that I’d never encountered before in a starkly beautiful way. Rosoff’s writing style is, in my eyes, one of the most identifiable and individual. She really keeps you on your toes!

I remember this to be one of the first book that kept me reading by the light of my phone (I had to turn my lamp off and stop reading at ten) late into the night. The next day at school, my English teacher asked why I was so tired and just laughed and asked me what book it was so she could read it when I told her!

How I Live Now allowed me to have the confidence to branch out my reading tastes and read what I want about whatever I want. I became less childish and more free in what I read which has allowed me to read amazing books across genres that I’d never have dreamed of reading if How I Live Now hadn’t opened my mind the way it did.

Meg Rosoff’s fourth YA novel, The Bride’s Farewell is out on 6th August in the US and 3rd September in the UK.

Sophie

5 comments:

  1. What an amazing post, and your English teacher sounds great! (And so do you!)

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  2. That's so great that that book did so much! :)

    I really liked it :)

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  3. What a brilliant review!

    I've never read this, because everyone I know who has read it absolutely hated it. I might give it a try one day!

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  4. Great review.
    I read this last year and hated it. But I'm sure there are others who will love it. Each to their own :)

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  5. This is one book I've actually always wanted to read. I really like the cover.

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