Just Like That [Mass Market Paperback]

Marsha Qualey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 2007

Things change so suddenly. one day Hanna has a long-term boyfriend; the next, she realizes she doesn’t have strong feelings for him and breaks up with him. one day Hanna trusts her two best friends completely; the next, all of that trust is toppled. And then Hanna finds herself the bearer of a major secret: she was the last person to see two teenagers before they died in an accident on the icy lake. she can’t tell anyone, so when Hanna finds herself drawn to will, the elusive boy she’s noticed around town, the kind of boy who’d increase any girl’s pulse, she doesn’t hold back. what she learns about him will astonish her. but what she learns about herself—her friendships, her family, her life—will affect her far more.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–Hanna Martin, 18, is independent, opinionated, and fierce. Yet, even for her, taking a walk late at night, alone, along Lake Calhoun is definitely near the top of her list of dumb things to do, and that act has serious consequences for her. Deeply affected by an encounter with two teens shortly before their tragic death at the lake, Hanna uses her talent as an artist to explore conflicted feelings of guilt, disengagement, and secrecy; art becomes both obsession and therapy. Her best friends Maura and Kelsey react to her distress in ways that begin to unravel the skein of their long friendship. Her mother is astute and caring, but Hanna will not confide in her. When Hanna encounters Will, who was also connected to the fateful events of that night on the lake, their reactions to one another ring true: attracted, confused, hopeful. Qualey writes with quiet fierceness, giving her characters depth and the plot complexities that transcend the sometimes hackneyed trend toward grim realism in YA novels. Previous novels feature poignant characters and out-of-the-ordinary plots. With this new offering, Qualey does not disappoint.–Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gr. 9-12. Eighteen-year-old Hanna believes that she may have been able to save two teens before they died on a subzero Minneapolis night. Consumed with guilt, she visits the tragedy's site, where she spots Will, a boy who harbors his own shame about the deaths. Will tracks Hanna down, the teens find solace and a strong attraction when they share their stories, and, just hours after they meet, have sex, which is depicted in a skillfully authentic and nonexplicit scene. Then, Hanna is horrified to learn that Will is 14. Although she breaks off a romance immediately, she is drawn into his family, which, like her own, struggles with tragedy and secrets. Qualey's uneven novel is crowded with contrived connections, and Hanna's motivations aren't always clear, despite her strong first-person narration. Even so, many YAs, particularly those who share Hanna's prodigious artistic talents, will see themselves in the unhurried, absorbing portraits of sensitive teens who are learning to forgive their own mistakes and make choices for an independent life. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Speak (July 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142408301
• ISBN-13: 978-0142408308
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read That Now, June 16, 2005

By 

Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Like That (Hardcover)

Just Like That explores the story of a teenage girl named Hanna. After breaking up with her boyfriend, she thinks she'll have a quiet moment to herself, sitting near the frozen-over lake late at night. She sees a slightly older couple, who urge her to come with them to be safe. She stays put. They warn her about the thin ice and depart. Shortly thereafter, a couple about her age drives by on an ATV, loud and giddy, teasing her. Lonely and cranky, she doesn't pass on the warning about the ice.

The next morning, she hears about their deaths on the news. She realizes she was the last person to see them alive - and that she might have been able to prevent their deaths. But she doesn't tell anyone that she was there, not even her mother, not even her two best friends.

And things start to change.

Soon, Hanna meets Will, someone else tied in with that night's events. She gets involved with him rather quickly. Just as quickly, she finds herself drawn into a family with hearts on their sleeves and skeletons in their closet.

Just Like That is highly realistic dramatic fiction in the vein of Sarah Dessen - and that is a high compliment coming from me. It is a must-read book for anyone looking for a poignant story with true-to-life, flawed characters. When I make my top books of the year selections in December, Just Like That is sure to be high on the list.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: JUST LIKE THAT, December 5, 2005

By 

Richie Partington "Richie's Picks" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just Like That (Hardcover)

From the Associated Press, November 26, 2005:

"CEDAR GROVE, Wis. - The deaths of two children and a man who broke through frozen ponds in southeastern Wisconsin have led officials to warn of the dangers of skating or driving on early winter's thin ice."

Just like that, the horror of the headlines plunged me right back into the tense, cold memory of Marsha Qualey's JUST LIKE THAT, a story of broken hearts and frozen secrets:

"Snowmobiles and ATVs were illegal in the city parks, but that didn't ever stop people from tearing down streets and over the lakes when there was fresh snow. A sinewy cloud of breath shot out of my mouth as I swore at the disturbance. I stood up, ready to stalk away so I could be alone with my bad mood. A four-wheeler raced past me toward the lake. Its bright headlight cut a swath out of the darkness. There were two people on the vehicle. More happy lovers, no doubt. I'd ventured out tonight to purge my head of thoughts of romance and look what I'd run into. The ATV sped over a snowbank at the edge of the ice and rode the air for a few feet. When it landed, the passenger tumbled off. The driver immediately cut the engine. A girl laughed and shouted, 'I love you Derek!' I sat back down. The movement must have caught her eye because she called out, 'Friend or foe?' They laughed at her wit in a merry tenor-soprano duet. Before I could answer 'Foe,' they sped off again. Then they made a sharp turn and came toward me, angling away at the last minute and stopping with a spray of snow that missed me by inches. 'It's our one-year anniversary!' the girl said. 'Here's a present in reverse! Find someone and have fun!' An unwrapped condom landed on my lap."

In dealing with the thoughts surrounding her having broken up with her longtime boyfriend, eighteen year-old high schooler and aspiring artist Hanna Martin impulsively takes a chilly midnight stroll and finds herself on a bench at the edge of frozen Lake Calhoun. And so Hanna is in no mood for the young couple's antics. She ignores her impulse, and neglects to warn the young lovers that a pair of skiiers had just come off the ice and had made totally sure that Hanna had no intention to go out on the lake, which the skiiers found insufficently frozen to be safe. Little does Hanna Martin realize, stuck in her own thoughts, that she will be the last person to see the ATV couple alive. The girl's frozen body is found the next morning at the edge of the lake, to where she had dragged herself before succumbing. The boy's body is later recovered out in the middle of the lake.

Just like that, they're gone. In coping with her role in the tragedy, about which she says nothing to family or friends, Hanna repeatedly returns to the pond, where she keeps spotting a young man who clearly must have a connection to the young couple. First, she draws him. Then she tracks him down and meets him. The young man, Will Walker, turns out to be the one to have discovered the girl's body. And the secrets surrounding Will--beginning with the fact that his father is the local Congressman--caused the young man to anonymously notify police about his discovery.

Through her getting to know and becoming involved with Will while sharing with him her feelings surrounding the dead teenagers, Hanna Martin will find herself immersed in his family's multiplicity of secrets and will become estranged from her longtime friends.

As Will tells her, "My family's close. We don't let a lot of outsiders in, not like we used to, but anyone who gets near us tends to get sucked in pretty good."

Just like that, Hanna Martin's entire life is scrambled. And there is little that Hanna can do to move on until she overcomes that belief that she has sole responsibility for what happened at the lake.

Marsha Qualey's JUST LIKE THAT is a bone-achingly cold, honest, and memorable tale of life after tragedy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best one yet, Marsha, August 16, 2005

By 

Sarah J. Hanna "sahara savannah" (florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just Like That (Hardcover)

This was a wonderful book. I felt like I was right there in Minneapolis, in the cold winter. The author really brought home the feelings that come with betrayal and forgiveness. I would recommend it to any teenager.