3.5
The Impossible Knife of Memory
ByPublisher Description
For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own. Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Impossible Knife of Memory Reviews
3.5
““You're the one who doesn't understand, I've been standing on the edge with you for years.”
-very heavy YA!😭💔 well at least for me it is. Having a depressed dad who takes it out on you hits very close to home. It’s very hard to be a kid when you feel like anything you do is controlled, restricted and judged. You either grow up a rebel or a people pleaser or both. I understand Hayley because I am her in so many ways. I wish my dad told me directly that I had to be the strong one, I wish he just showed vunerability instead of hitting me and shouting at me everyday for the most random, shallow reasons. In the end, I understand where he’s coming from and despite our tumultous relationship, I would still give my life for him. He raised me and home would forever be where he is.
-I like the parts where Andy remembers the war because it makes me understand him more. That last chapter was so intense I had to scream “Noooo, okay this is not gonna end like this nooo!” I almost thought of this being my last YA for awhile since I’m doing a readathon at the moment.
-I used to have a Finn too. A lot of Finns actually, they make me forget the gravity of the situation at home even for a little while. I have a particularly strong memory very similar to that scene and it involved getting caught with a guy under my bed and my dad holding a shot gun in his lap confronting him. But unlike Finn, he never came back… so I’m happy for Hayley that his did.
-I was watching another series called Imperfect Women and that scene where a young Nancy was in the car with her mom driving recklessly, shouting at her and they go straight crashing to a wall, i felt that! That was it, the metaphor of my teens, with shards of glass everywhere in her body, that was me. Sometimes I wish that happened instead, one big crash fo end it all than all the years of verbal and physical abuse. I may not have physical scars anymore but there is a lot of healing still going on inside. It may take years, it may take forever. Im here for all of it.
-this is my 2nd Laurie Halse Anderson after speak and I love how she gives a raw, authentic voice to our adolescence.
These were the experiences that shaped us. They are a part of us and we carry them through adulthood by being the resilient, independent, cautious but empathic, loving people that we are today.”
“As always with Laurie Halse Anderson there were some pretty hard hitting topics, told through the perspective of a teenage girl. It was a decent read but nothing breathtaking.”
About Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson has received both the Margaret Edwards Award and the ALAN Award for her contributions to young adult literature. She has also been honored by the National Coalition Against Censorship in recognition of her fight to combat the censoring of literature. She is the author of the groundbreaking National Book Award finalist and Printz Honor Book Speak. She is also author of the critically acclaimed YA books Prom, Twitsted, Catalyst, Wintergirls, and The Impossible Knife of Memory. She has also authored a number of middle grade titles including The Vet Volunteers series, and the historical fiction Seeds of America Trilogy, which includes Forge, ALA Best Book for Young Adults Fever 1793, and the National Book Award finalist and Scott O’Dell Award-winner Chains. She and her husband live in northern New York State. Follow Laurie on Twitter @halseanderson and visit her at madwomanintheforest.com.
Other books by Laurie Halse Anderson
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