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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
How Raquel Is Remembered After Death By Those Who Knew Her In Life Is A Powerful and Surprisingly Good Read, May 30, 2008
This review is from: Remembering Raquel (Hardcover)
A few weeks before her fifteenth birthday, Raquel Falcone stepped off a curb and into the path of an oncoming car. Was it a suicide attempt, an inadvertent shove or just a tragic accident that caused her to take that fatal step? Through the eyes of those connected to her in life--her father, her classmates, the witnesses to her death, and others--clues are dropped about what happened to lead to her death, although the reader, like the characters in the book, will never really know the exact truth. What they will see is a portrait of Raquel, a girl who was smart, wickedly funny, kind, a gifted artist and a fantasy enthusiast. She was also the school's fat girl, shy, largely ignored and unable to make friends among her high school classmates (her best friend since first grade, Hayley, went to a different high school).
I picked up REMEMBERING RAQUEL because I am a huge Vivian Vande Velde fan and have absolutely adored nearly everything I've read by her. Still, I was hesitant to read this novella, despite its slim size. I, in general, avoid tragic books, feeling that the world is sad enough without reading something that will only make me feel worse. However, in the end I'm really glad that I did read it. It's true that it's tragic--it deals with the sudden and violent death of a teenager, how could it not be?--but at the same time it is not unrelentingly grim. Vande Velde's clever writing and humor shine through, such as in online posts between Raquel and her friend Hayley about becoming a cat lady, where Hayley points out that cats "do not wait for a master to die, but will try to eat anyone who has stopped moving. This is why you should never let a cat sleep with you on your bed. Unless you're a restless sleeper, the cat is likely to mistake you for dinner." That line made me giggle, which surprised me, as I couldn't believe that a novella about such a sad subject would make me laugh as well as cry.
The structure of the book was also really interesting. Besides blog entries posted by Raquel before her death, we never get to see things through Raquel's eyes. Instead, it is how everyone saw her (or didn't see her, as the case may be). This turned the book into almost a puzzle, as my perception of Raquel, and her death, changed as I learned more about her with each chapter. It also made me like her more and more. Despite the fact that the public Raquel was almost a ghost in her own school, the private Raquel was someone who seems like she'd make a fun, great friend (unfortunately, Hayley seems to be the only to have seen this while Raquel was alive).
The other thing that makes this novella so powerful and so good is that it feels so true. Although Vande Velde writes so intelligently that I think a lot of the teenagers came off a lot smarter and more articulate than most teens actually are, the sentiments rang true, such as the terrible shallowness and self-centeredness of popular girls Zoe Kanisky and Stacy Galbo and the heartbreaking grief of Raquel's father. It is also the sad truth that there are Raquel Falcones--ignored outcasts--at a lot of schools. And, like Raquel, there is probably a lot more to them than a superficial first impression reveals.
I would not hesitate to recommend this novella. Despite the fact that it's a sad story, it's also filled with bits of humor and seeds of hope. And, moreover, it's very well-crafted and surprisingly absorbing.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
short, moving piece about community, October 18, 2007
This review is from: Remembering Raquel (Hardcover)
"How would you be remembered?" That's the tagline on the back of "Remembering Raquel" by Vivian Vande Velde.
In this short, quick novella, Velde paints a picture of 14-year-old Raquel Falcone, who dies in a car accident, from the eyes of her friends, family, classmates, and even the people involved in the accident. The book focuses on the events immediately leading up to the accident, the accident itself, and the funeral after. While people reminisce about Raquel and her life, readers get a sense that this "invisible" girl actually touched quite a few lives. Raquel's death is actually the birth of many new things, from new causes to new friendships.
Even though the book is a fast read (I flew through it in just a few hours), Velde does a great job with characterization, both of the late Raquel and the people she left behind. Throughout the book you feel the community of people is disjointed, but Velde neatly brings them together emotionally at the end.
The book also brings up some interesting questions - not necessarily the obvious, "How would you make your mark?" but more, "How do we get past our biases to see how people really are?" Peers, at first glance, remember Raquel as that "quiet, smart, fat girl," one even going so far as to say, "Now that Raquel's dead, I'm the class fat girl." But as the characters delve deeper into their memories and remove the social bias, they remember a girl who was dynamic, caring, and fun.
A thought-provoking read from a great author, and one I highly recommend.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, January 3, 2008
This review is from: Remembering Raquel (Hardcover)
The facts as we know them: Raquel Falcone was fourteen years old. She was the class "fat girl." She loved her father, and her father loved her. Her best friend was Hayley Evenski. She died when a car hit her as she was leaving the movie theater.
The things we don't know: Pretty much everything else.
Told in alternating chapters that are more like the thoughts and ideas of those who knew her (and those who really didn't), REMEMBERING RAQUEL is a short but powerful story.
We hear from Hayley, Raquel's best friend, who feels that, even though she didn't go to the movies with Raquel that night, she still should have been able to prevent her death. We listen to the girls who now remember themselves as Raquel's friends, even though they wouldn't have given such a fat, invisible girl the time of day in real life (who knew death was such a popularity booster?). We hear from the boy who might have, maybe, one day, asked Raquel out on a date, or to the school dance. We get a glimpse of the older woman, another movie patron, who fears she may have
been responsible for Raquel stepping into the path of that car. We kisten to her father, who had already lost his wife, grieve over the fact that his last words to his daughter were "Yeah, yeah," said in a "whatever" type of voice as his daughter left the house.
Vivian Vande Velde is a great author who has mastered the pace of writing a short, emotional story. It's passages such as the one from Nona Falcone, Raquel's grandmother, that make this book worth reading:
"I've watched Alzheimer's steal my husband's memories, one by one, from most recent to oldest -- so that at the nursing home he'll say, "Hello," as thought I haven't been holding his hand for the last half hour. He'll give the smile that won my heart in high school and say, "Thank you for visiting me. Do I know you?"
Oh, Raquel. Why did God bless him, and not me?"
Pick up a copy of REMEMBERING RAQUEL. You'll be glad you did.
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
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