Stop Pretending
Juvenile Fiction
Harper Collins
January 23, 2001
160
Stop pretending. Right this minute. I'm your sister. Don't you tell me. You don't know me.
When her older sister has a shocking and unexpected mental breakdown, Cookie is left behind to cope with a family torn apart by grief and friends who turn their backs on her. But worst of all is the loss of her big sister, her confidante, her best friend, who has gone someplace no one can reach. Inspired by Sonya's own true story, this novel explores the chilling landscape of mental illness, revealing glimmers of beauty and of hope along the way. It's an intense and brutally honest account, told in succession of powerful poems that take us deep into the cyclone of the narrator's emotions: grief, anger, guilt, resentment, horror, and ultimately, acceptance.
"A haunting novel. The poems have a cumulative emotional power. They record the personal and translate it into the universal." - ALA Booklist (starred review)
"It celebrates truth-telling, and has a purity and passion that speaks to the heart." - The Boston Globe
"Unpretentious. Accessible. Deeply felt." - SLJ
Stop Pretending is a concise read, but compacted with satisfying material that really drew me into how the girl felt about her sister. The story is told through the eyes of the younger sister, Cookie. It is truly an emotional story, written in a free verse poetry form. Cookie recalls memories with her sister during their childhood and how she feels now that it is all gone. She uses a great deal of imagery, and sometimes the words are so powerful that they can bring a reader to tears.
You really feel for the character Cookies as she watches her older sister unexpectedly experiences emotional breakdowns and is eventually placed in a psychiatric institution. This story really deals with the aftermath of this tragedy. You can really feel the guilt, anger, denial, turmoil, and finally the reconciliation.
It was overall a really good read. It really opened up my mind to mental illnesses.
Watch Out For: Mental illness outbursts
