Tuesday 16 August 2016

Teaser Tuesday: Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.
To play along just do the following:
  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Goodbye Strager by Rebecca Stead.

Goodbye Stranger –
Wendy Lamb Books

My grandfather used to say that everyone alive has already beaten the craziest odds, just being born. Like one in a trillion. Your parents could have had a million different kids, but they had you. And before that could happen, your parents had to be born themselves, and their parents had to be born.
— Part 2

People act like riddles are hard, but real life is harder. In real life, there are always more than two doors.
I guess I know what I’m going to do.
— Part 3


Here’s a cute feel-good book at first glance that turned out pack quite an emotional punch looking back at it. Not in the sense, that it made me ugly cry, but rather that I find myself still thinking about it. The quick summary sounds almost dull: The plot covers a few months of the lives of three eight grade girls, one boy, and one other initially not defined person. But yikes, if the characters don’t have an interesting few months! High School looms and they don’t yet know, who they are or who they’re going to be or whom they might like. Maybe. Or maybe not. And in addition there are family incidents and other growing up navigating problems.
One very special feature of this book is the narrative style. The arc of the three girls is shown in third person with one of the girls as focal point, then there is the letter format for the boy (which are surprisingly plot advancing), and the mysterious person is narrated in second person (which took me some getting used to, but then it became an act of pride for me to find out who this you sitting in a café is). Very cleverly executed and while it sounds pretentious if not over-ambitious to write three narrative perspectives this book seriously profited from this method. Kudos to Rebecca Stead for that feat!

Do you have a book in mind that is narrated in second person? Share them and your teasers in the comments.

8 comments:

Tea said...

I like the cover of the book. I also like the Teaser from Part 2. It's very thought provoking.

Anonymous said...

Wow - this one sounds like a really intriguing read. As for 2nd person reads... Halting State by Charles Stross comes to mind - it's a sci fi book about gaming coming to life and he uses the 2nd person pov as that is the viewpoint used in role-playing games. The one that really still has me reeling, though, is N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season, where the main protagonist is in 2nd person pov. It's one of my outstanding reads of the year.. Back to my TT - https://sjhigbee.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/teaser-tuesday-16th-august-2016/

Laura said...

I particularly like the teaser from Part 3. There are definitely often more than 2 doors in real life. My Teaser this week is from a domestic suspense.

Unknown said...

Definitely intrigued.

Mine today is from Nerve by Jeanne Ryan recently adapted to the silver screen. https://wp.me/p3Nz8P-JD

Kathy Martin said...

Sounds interesting. I've read her picture books but not her novels. My YA teaser this week comes from Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty. Happy reading!

Unknown said...

I am fascinated! I've often wondered about the luck of being born too!

My TT from The Madonna Of Notre Dame

Vicki said...

I like the cover and the teaser!

Vicki said...

I like the cover and the teaser!

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