Space
By Emily Sue Harvey
Publisher: The Story Plant, 2011
282 pages, paperback (ARC)
Date Finished: 23/10/2011
Genres: Mature Teen, Realistic Fiction
Emily Sue delivers us a deeply moving story of a family on the brink. Dan and Deede Stowe have worked for years, planning and saving for their idyllic retirement years. Just when they finally are about to realize their dream, their adult, recovering drug-addict daughter, Faith, moves back in with them and everything changes. Their “miracle child”, complete with druggie baggage, upsets the tranquil balance of the Stowe’s existence. Private romantic moments evaporate. Faith’s endless needs intrude hour by hour, devouring both their finances, their emotions, and most crucially, their space. In turn, Faith finds herself bereft of everything she cherished most, her health, her marriage, her child, her family, her reputation and, most of all, a space to call her own.
Amid chaotic challenges, all three battle to find peace with each other, a harmony that doggedly eludes them. For the sake of family solidarity, each is forced to sacrifice elemental components of self, until desperation turns them one against the other. Will love be enough to turn the tide? Is it strong enough to warm again hearts grown cold?
~from goodreads.com~
~First Line: " ' Now, let's go through this area.' "
~Last Line: "Waiting."
Review: Once again, Emily Sue Harvey has proven herself to be a spectacular author. This, for the current period of time, is my favorite book of hers. It pulled me in automatically, the pages flying by.
The main characters are Deede, her husband Dan, and their daughter Faith. After countless times of trying and failing to conceive, Faith becomes their miracle child. While she's growing up, both parents can tell that Faith is on her way to greatness. However, everything doesn't play out exactly as they'd planned and hoped.
Space had an amazing plot. It jst seemed so real to me, the whole time. I know stuff like this happens all the time, but reading about it just put it in a 3-D perspective, so to speak. While Faith struggled to get her life back in order, her family's trust and hope for her just kind of disappeared. Of course, there were those handful of people that still believed in her no matter what, but, for the most part, no one trusted her in their houses or near their children. To them, she was just another bad influence.
The characters,
wow, the charries. Absolutely amazing. I don't think I'll ever be able to pick a fave. It just wouldn'y seem fair to the rest of the Eagle cla. Dan was someone that I could, to a point, relate to. His daughter had dishonoured them, lied to them. Why should he keep housing her and paying expenses if she couldn't appreciate it? I could understand where he was coming from.
Deede, on the other hand, had hope and faith. She was fed up, yes, but at a certain point in the book, she can tell that Faith really is trying to turn her life around. She, like all other caring mothers, doesn't want to see her child out on the streets, in desperate need of help. I can understand, again only to a point, her perspective of their situation as well.
And finally, the infamous Faith Stowe. Once she had her mind set on something, she wasn't going to be deterred. She had such wonderful relationships with her cousin Jensen and her Aunt Priss. With people like them, she was truly herself. Her cocaine addiction was, in a way, both a wonderful and horrible that happened to her. Horrible for obvious reasons, but wonderful because in the end she discovered who she truly was and appreciated everyone and everything in her life.
This book, in general, left me crying tears of joy and so happy about the way it all turned out. I can say that the last few pages are definitely tear-jerkers. I just, wow. . . . I can totally see me rereading this sometime soon. An unquestionably marvelous read :D.
Plot Rating: 5
Character Rating: 5
Cover Rating: 4
GoodReads Rating: 5
Overall rating:
and three-fourths :)
