Sparrow
This was an emotional read for me. I wasn’t expecting his novel to pull me and move me like it did.
The story begins with fourteen-year-old Sparrow in a psych hospital ward. Sparrow claims that it wasn’t suicide that led her to the ledge on the school’s roof but she won’t tell anyone what she was doing there. It isn’t until she is deep into her therapy sessions that she starts to open up about what is really going on in her life.
Sparrow has only been going to this school for a few years and literally has very few, if any friends. That should have been a red flag and I would have hoped her mother noticed this but it looks as if everyone has been busy. I would have to say that her best friend is the school’s librarian, Mrs. Lexler. Mrs. Lexler allows a few of the students to hang out in the library after lunch, mainly the students who have no one. I start to adore Mrs. Lexler myself, as Sparrow talks more about her. If only things could have continued as they were but events occur that we have no choice in the matter and Sparrow life takes a drastic turn. She’s been unseen by the individuals around her but now, she has no voice. Communication and motivation are sliding backwards. Her mother threatens therapy and Sparrow attends, participation takes a while.
I could feel the pain and the frustration as the story was slowly revealed. Bits and pieces of Sparrow’s suffering spills out until it is too much and then the scene ends and we have to start over again. Embarrassed and elated at what her life has turned into, Sparrow keeps everything inside. I really enjoyed this novel, I felt like I was peeling an orange. Peeling back a piece of the hard layer, a bit at a time, to get at the best part.
