Why I still read YA at my age

Sorta Like a Rock Star
by Matthew Quick





I haven't cried so much at the end of a YA book in years. I think the author did it on purpose--set out to invent a really cook person in really horrid circumstances just so he could mess with our emotions. He succeeded, admirably.

But the heroine of the tale, Amber Appleton, is just one of many heroes and heroines. There's her mother, who raised an awesome girl under the worst of conditions; her priest, an immigrant from North Korea with an honest bu unbreakable faith; Private Jackson, a Vietnam war vet who writes Haiku to handle ordinary life, her friends from school, misfits who bond over Halo 3; her English language students whom she calls the Korean Divas for Christ; the old people in the home whom she visits with her dog B-Thrice and does a weekly battle with Neitschze-quoting Joan of Old; and Donna, lawyer and single mother of an autistic boy who's a math genius but repeats anything he is told. Just listing those names makes me want to read it again.

But I don't want to have to cry at the end!

I'm sure the book has many flaws but it would sure make a sparking discussion topic for young folk. So many questions and so few answers and still more questions. And maybe, some answers...or should I say suggestions?