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Faithful A Novel Alice Hoffman 9781501157202 Books

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Faithful A Novel Alice Hoffman 9781501157202 Books

This book is about the decade long downward spiral and self-redemption of a seventeen-year-old girl as she tries to come to terms with her grief and her guilt in the accident which put her best friend in a coma.

This is the first book that I've read by Alice Hoffman. It started off strong and had me quite engrossed in Shelby's descent into blame, grief and self-hatred. This teen is hurting so fiercely; her grief is raw and she doesn't feel like she has many people in her corner. Nor does she feel like she deserves anyone or any future.

I found the first third of the book quite interesting but after awhile it seemed like a lot of the same self-hatred, blame game and Shelby pushing people way. The book itself is about Shelby's coming of age/redemption but it didn't feel like it had a strong sense of direction. Instead, the plot meandered along until the pieces started to fall together for Shelby, in her personal and professional lives.

One of the aspects that kept me reading was the mystery surrounding who was sending Shelby secret notes which engaged her in a way that the people around her couldn't. This mystery was quite compelling but its resolution was a little lackluster and I wasn't a fan of how things ended. It felt too contrived and easy.

A big part of my feelings for the book stem from Shelby and my lack of connection to her. She was a hard character to like. I felt for her situation and her grief but she was very cynical, dark and so focused on self-loathing and intent on living a horrible life. She's a hot mess for a lot of the book and believes that she deserves a horrible existence as penance for the accident she believes she's responsible for. Even when the powers that be, including her friends, boyfriend(s), her attachment to animals and sudden scholastic ability, propel her to a better life she still feels undeserved. Hoffman writes the story in the third person and I think that by doing this she loses the chance for her readers to get inside Shelby's head and witness the grief through Shelby's eyes.

Overall, this was just an okay read for me. It's a book about tragedy, loss, grief, blame and the complex relationships that we sometimes have, especially those between mother and daughter. It's also a coming of age story with Shelby experiencing a lot of bumps along the way as she learns that she deserves love and a full life.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.


Tags : Faithful: A Novel [Alice Hoffman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. From the New York Times</i> bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites</i> and The Dovekeepers</i> comes a soul-searching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the power of love,Alice Hoffman,Faithful: A Novel,Simon & Schuster,1476799202,Contemporary Women,Magical Realism,Psychological,Female friendship;Fiction.,Guilt;Fiction.,Life change events,New York (N.Y.);Fiction.,Psychological fiction,Self-realization,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,Alice Hoffman; dogs; stray dogs; New York City; the Strand; coma; veterinary; new york; car crash; The Marriage of Opposites; The Dovekeepers; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; Jodi Picoult; Ann Patchett; IndieNext; ALA; Shelby; Helene; Long Island; Faithful; Leonard Cohen,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Literary,FICTION Magical Realism,FICTION Psychological,FICTION Women,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Psychological,FictionLiterary,FictionMagical Realism,GENERAL,General Adult,HOFFMAN, ALICE - PROSE & CRITICISM,New York,United States

Faithful A Novel Alice Hoffman 9781501157202 Books Reviews

How did this book find me? I was there, hiding out in the section with thrillers, suspense, serial killers, crazed stalkers... and then I chose this lovely book. And for a while it made cynical me a bit less cynical.

[NOTE Apparaently some would like SPOILER ALERT if I reveal the first 20 pages, so... SPOILER ALERT].

Shelby and Helene are high school best friends. They wear matching bracelets. They do everything together. So when beautiful Helene is dumped by her boyfriend and wants to throw rocks through his window, Shelby reluctantly goes along and drives through the winter night. She hits a patch of ice and skids. Instead of turning into the skid (remember that from driver's ed?) she hits the brake. The car spins and collides. Shelby thinks she has died, but she suffers minor physical injuries. Helene is in a coma.

Helene is eventually moved to her home, and is thought to be the bestower of miracles, a sleeping beauty in Long Island. People line up to spend a moment in her presence, to hold her hand and perhaps be cured.

Shelby, meanwhile, is institutionalized. She stops speaking. She cuts herself. She shaves her head. She feels guilty for every bad thing that happens to others. She is convinced she causes bad things. She feels guilty and responsible for what happened to Helene.

Then one day she receives a mysterious postcard. It has a drawing and a simple message. "Say something."

Thus begins Shelby's slow climb back to life.

What makes it a great book. Well, since you asked...

10. Even in my deep cynicism, I believe that miracles happen. Alice Hoffman apparently believes this, too.

9. If I had to start on motherhood all over again, I would want to be exactly like Shelby's mother, who stands by her daughter through the deepest tragedies. She doesn't judge. She supports and finds beauty where others might see none. She is strong when she needs to be strong and gentle when she needs to be gentle.

8. One of the best portrayals of teenage angst, shown through Shelby's friend's daughter and understood by Shelby, who has clearly completed the AP Teenage Angst course.

7. Where does your soul go? Shelby wants to find out.

6. The writing is tender and sensitive without being mushy and trite.

5. The mystery of the postcards. Who is sending them? Why? How does the sender know what the next message needs to be?

4. Hoffman has the ability to make us feel the depths of despair and the glimmers of hope.

3. Can a stray dog (or cat) save your soul?

2. What is behind you is gone. What is in front of you awaits.

1. Through love and understanding and the goodness of humanity, we can be healed.

Okay. Enough tenderness and hope. I'm heading back to my usual literary diet of serial killers.
This is not an easy feel good light hearted read. It's a testament to how one seemingly innocent decision can lead to a life filled with regret, guilt and self punishment. I have to confess that midway through I wanted to put it down and walk away because as much as I was rooting for Shelby to let herself feel some level of happiness I was getting tired of the doom and gloom on page after page. I actually did put the book away for a couple of weeks to give myself a break from it and then when I picked it back up I found I couldn't put it down because I just couldn't let go of wanting her to get some sort of a happy ending or at least a glimpse of what a happy life could feel like. I won't spoil the ending for you but I will say reading this book is a long slow uphill climb but in the end it's worth it.
This book is about the decade long downward spiral and self-redemption of a seventeen-year-old girl as she tries to come to terms with her grief and her guilt in the accident which put her best friend in a coma.

This is the first book that I've read by Alice Hoffman. It started off strong and had me quite engrossed in Shelby's descent into blame, grief and self-hatred. This teen is hurting so fiercely; her grief is raw and she doesn't feel like she has many people in her corner. Nor does she feel like she deserves anyone or any future.

I found the first third of the book quite interesting but after awhile it seemed like a lot of the same self-hatred, blame game and Shelby pushing people way. The book itself is about Shelby's coming of age/redemption but it didn't feel like it had a strong sense of direction. Instead, the plot meandered along until the pieces started to fall together for Shelby, in her personal and professional lives.

One of the aspects that kept me reading was the mystery surrounding who was sending Shelby secret notes which engaged her in a way that the people around her couldn't. This mystery was quite compelling but its resolution was a little lackluster and I wasn't a fan of how things ended. It felt too contrived and easy.

A big part of my feelings for the book stem from Shelby and my lack of connection to her. She was a hard character to like. I felt for her situation and her grief but she was very cynical, dark and so focused on self-loathing and intent on living a horrible life. She's a hot mess for a lot of the book and believes that she deserves a horrible existence as penance for the accident she believes she's responsible for. Even when the powers that be, including her friends, boyfriend(s), her attachment to animals and sudden scholastic ability, propel her to a better life she still feels undeserved. Hoffman writes the story in the third person and I think that by doing this she loses the chance for her readers to get inside Shelby's head and witness the grief through Shelby's eyes.

Overall, this was just an okay read for me. It's a book about tragedy, loss, grief, blame and the complex relationships that we sometimes have, especially those between mother and daughter. It's also a coming of age story with Shelby experiencing a lot of bumps along the way as she learns that she deserves love and a full life.

Disclaimer My sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.