Customer Reviews

Say the Word

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Jeannine Garsee's second novel, and while I am a true fan of her first work, Before, After, and Somebody In Between, I expected to have difficulty liking this one much at all.

Why?

Shawna Gallagher, the lead character in Say the Word, is a rich teenager with a car, a cell phone, a laptop. I thought: How much trouble could this girl possibly have?

As it turns out, Garsee did not let me down. Just for starters, Shawna's mother ran off and set up housekeeping with another woman years ago, leaving Shawna with her father, who is a powerful and bitter man, a surgeon, and a control freak. Apart from a lot of teasing at school, Shawna's not doing too badly though, all things considered. Then her mother unexpectedly dies, and Shawna is plunged into contact with her mother's new family, people she unexpectedly likes.

But her mother's death opens the door for her father to wreak vengeance on the woman who stole his wife away, an insult he has never gotten past. Shawna discovers a secret that winds him up still further, and soon she is caught in the middle between the people she is coming to love and the only parent she has left. And that is a serious problem no matter your bank balance. It is Shawna's attempts to find a balance she can live with that carry this novel to its bittersweet conclusion.

Garsee has a magical touch with characters that make them feel like real people you once knew, or wish you knew. She tells a story in a breathless style that makes her books very hard to set down once you've taken them up. I eagerly look forward to more from this author.

Shawna Gallagher has many different sides: there is Perfect Shawna: who always does and says the right things, Evil Shawna: who snaps at people and doesn't want to be good anymore, and Pathetic Shawna: who grovels at people's feet. When her estranged lesbian mother dies, Shawna is forced to deal with the many emotions that are flooding through her being. She's angry at her mother for leaving when she was young and never coming back, embarrassed over her mother's lover and children, and she's tired of following her father's every rule. Not only does Shawna have to deal with her family drama, but people at school are starting to talk about her sexual orientation, and her best friend, Lee Lee, has a secret that could ruin their friendship forever.

I have to say that Say the Word was a terrific read and wonderful addition to the Young Adult world. Garsee has a very strong voice, and it comes rushing at you through her characters. This was so well written, that I found myself angry at the actions the characters were taking, and furious at the way they reacted to the events in the story. So, kudos to Garsee for getting my blood boiling! Following Shawna was like riding a rollercoaster. Her emotions were all over the place, and with reason; she's struggling with who she is, what she wants to be, and how people see her. Readers please don't think that Say the Word is just a story about lesbians or about a girl dealing with the death of a family member. It's so much more than that. It's about family bonds and losing old ones and gaining new ones. It's about standing up for what you believe is right, even though it may hurt the people you love.

This book just didn't work for me. I liked most of the ideas - they're pretty original, and I thought it would be interesting to read about a girl with a lesbian mom. A lot of interesting topics are mentioned - homosexuality/homophobia, domestic abuse, etc. - but I didn't like the execution, and I never really got the point.

My main problem are the characters. I didn't get Shawna at all. She has no real personality, always changing. First she's so ignorant and narrow-minded about her mother's homosexuality, then she's defending her mom, Fran (her mom's lover), and her gay friend LeeLee. If that showed her character growth or something like that, it would have been great - but she just switches between the two. She can never settle on anything else, either. That made it impossible for me to understand or relate to her.

Most of the secondary characters are like that, too, not having any real personalities and never deciding on anything. All of them go from happy to furious in a second. If that were a trait to describe one character, fine, but since all of them are like that, it's just annoying. None of the characters have anything that makes them unique or interesting. So many of them are incredibly narrow-minded and rude, and don't care about anyone but themselves. Can't we at least have one empathetic character? I can only speak from my own experience, but the people at Shawna's school and Shawna's family are too rude and ignorant to be realistic. I was especially disappointed by Shawna's father's character. He's the "bad guy" most of the time but a normal dad at others. The reader never finds out anything about his motivations. The only character I sort of liked is Schmule, but he's unrealistic at times, too.

I didn't get the relationships between the characters, either. Not between Shawna and her dad, whom she hates sometimes but does anything to please at others; not between Shawna and Schmule, who seems like he can talk to Shawna sometimes but shuts her out most of the time; and not between Shawna and Arye. Their romance happens way too quickly - first they hate each other, and then they're making out in his car. It doesn't even seem like the way they treat each other changes much, except for the physical aspect.

While I enjoyed the basic ideas of this book, I couldn't really enjoy the plot, either. Maybe that's because of the strange length of chapters - Say the Word has somewhere between 110 and 120 chapters. Some of them aren't even a page long, while others are almost ten pages. That made the pacing very strange - at times, it's so fast I didn't get what's going on, at others it's slow and nothing happens. The choppy writing had me confused throughout the book.

***This next paragraph contains spoiler-ish information.***
The ending is strange as well. There is no resolution for Shawna's problems with her father, and I didn't get why Shawna shouldn't continue a relationship with Fran, Arye and Schmule. What annoys me most is that Shawna goes to med school instead of art school. The whole novel deals with Shawna finding the courage to be herself and stand up to her father, but then she ends up doing what he wants her to instead of following her dreams. I have no idea what kind of message that is supposed to send.

I'm just realizing this now, but what kind of a title is Say the Word? What word? I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, or what it's got to do with the actual novel.

Say the Word has some nice ideas, but I had lots of problems with the execution. Choppy writing and flat, narrow-minded characters made it hard for me to enjoy this novel.

SAY THE WORD
JEANNINE GARSEE
YA Contemporary
Bloomsbury

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

Seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher is the perfect daughter and student. She follows her father's every rule. Then one day a phone call from her mother's partner, shatters her perfect world. Shawna doesn't know how to separate the anger of her mother's abandonment to live with her lesbian partner Fran and the grief of her mother's sudden death. Then her father's controlling and decisions hurt everyone, including the family of Fran. Shawna is not sure how to react especially when she wonders how Fran's sons fit into the picture. Sometimes being perfect isn't the same as doing what's right.

I really enjoyed this tale. At first I was angry on what happened to Fran and her sons after the death of her partner. How can the laws not help gay partners? Shawna's grief was very realistic as was her peers tormenting her on catching gayness from her mother. I loved watching Shawna's growth throughout the book. Garsee does a wonderful job showing a teen conflicted with a difficult situation and how she draws strength from within. This is a must read book especially on showing how a not typical family survives difficult times.

Jeannine Garsee is the author of BEFORE, AFTER, AND SOMEBODY IN BETWEEN. She works as a psychiatric nurse in an inner-city hospital and lives with her family in a southwest suburb of Cleveland. Find out more on her website www.jeanninegarsee.com

Kim
Enchanting Reviews
April 09

Shawna has been the perfect daughter ever since her mother left her and her family for Fran Goodman at age seven. She strives to make her father proud by getting excellent grades, getting into an excellent college, and becoming a doctor. But she's thrown off course when her mother unexpectedly dies, and her controlling and overbearing father begins to take control over everything. For the first time ever, Shawna gets to know her stepbrothers, who knew her mother better than she did. And she has to face the fact that there might be more to the circumstances of her mother's departure than she allowed herself to realize.

Compelling, emotional, and down-to-earth, Say the Word is a wonderfully written novel that looks long and hard at family dynamics and how the relationships between family members--both the unwanted and the loved--shape, mold, and effect who we are. The plot is unique, and rendered all the more believable by how Garsee distinguishes her characters: Shawna, who feels the need to strive to be perfect, and her father, who takes his abandonment harshly, and becomes bitter and even more domineering. Fran and her sons and their Jewish practices offer a unique view on the situation, and Shawna's strained relationship with them is intriguing to observe.

Best of all, Garsee perfectly captures the idea that life changes, and people don't always stay who you want them to be. Shawna struggles to accept this, and to let go of her prejudices and bitterness, which isn't an easy task (yet another believable element in Say the Word). But overall, Say the Word is an honest and unflinching book that illustrates to readers that life is full of a lot of tough decisions--and there aren't always easy answers or solutions. Witty, entertaining, and completely genuine, Jeannine Garsee is an author to watch.

Cover Comments: I like the orange theme (it's a color not usually seen on cover, and it's done very novely on this one) and the swirl design that is the theme throughout the entire book. The close-up of the model is very accurate to how Shawna is described which is nice, and the two different images provide an interesting contrast. Overall, it's quite an appealing cover!

What makes a family?

Is a family a mom, a dad and children?

Is a family two women and children?

Is a family a dad and a child?

These are some of the questions that are asked and answered in this gritty story written by the talented Jeannine Garsee. Her follow-up book to Before, After and Somebody in Between is clear cut winner and establishes Ms. Garsee as force to be reckoned with in the YA literary world. She writes characters as she sees them; some are lovable and some are downright loathsome.

Shawna Gallagher's life changed ten years ago when she was seven years old and her mom walked out on her and her dad--for another woman.

Good Girl Shawna will attend medical school and follow her father's rules to the letter.

Bad Girl Shawna wants to make out with Devon and focus on her art. She also can't stand the word Lesbian.

Good Girl Shawna wants to respect her mother's deathbed wishes.

Bad Girl Shawna wants nothing to do with her mom's lover, Fran and her two sons.

In a story that focuses on family and friendship and how these relationships evolve, Shawna is a good teenager who doesn't want to be good anymore. When her mom dies of a stroke, she must spend time with her mom's lover, Fran and their two sons, Arye and Schmule. With subtle prejudices, Shawna realizes that she wasn't the only person who was affected by her mom's decisions as well.

Shawna's best friend, LeeLee is the only person that she can trust and talk to, but LeeLee also holds a secret that could threaten to destroy their friendship.

Shawna has lived with the choices that were made for her by her mother and her father. When Shawna realizes that she doesn't want live with those decisions, she takes matters into her own hands and the consequences are far reaching.

With delicate humor and gritty storyline, Ms. Garsee delivers a winner with Say the Word. Her characters jump out of the book and are your friends. She is also master of creating the worst humans ever known, and Dr. Gallagher is definitely high up on that list. Like Martha's mom in Before/After, Dr. Gallagher is the epitome of evil, all the while deluding himself that everything he's done was for the greater good.

Shawna tries to always be "Perfect Shawna" not "Evil Shawna" or "Pathetic Shawna". It doesn't always work out that way. When Shawna's mother leaves her without a goodbye to be with her lesbian lover Fran, Shawna feels totally abandoned. Years later Fran gives her a call saying to come quickly because her mother's in the hospital and probably won't make it much longer. After her father catches wind of what is going on he intervenes, and between her mother's outdated will and her father's controlling decisions, every one's lives are being thrown out of control. Will "Perfect Shawna" prevail or will "Evil Shawna" need to make an appearance in order to straighten things out and make things right?

I enjoyed this book. I wish Shawna was never "Pathetic Shawna", but that's kind of how she seems throughout this book. She just seems very whiny and self centered. Even near the end when it seems like she's being selfless and still all seems to be about her. The characters were very well developed and they seemed real. I really enjoyed watching the relationships change and grow throughout this novel, it was stunningly realistic. This wasn't necessarily a GBLT book although it was mentioned throughout with many different characters being gay. This was a really great book though and I don't know what else to say that wouldn't spoil some of the surprises. It was a really great novel with growing characters that grow on you.

Complex, realistic, surprising. Shawna and all the supporting characters feel so real to me. The ending left me in conflicted tears.

Brother
Chica
Perfect
Pathetic
Mother
Lesbian
...

Shawna Gallagher is a perfectionist, a pleaser. From all outward appearances, she's living a charmed life in a seemingly perfect world. But tragedy strikes, and family secrets come to light, fracturing her relationships and challenging all that she has come to believe about herself and others. In this heart-breaking but ultimately uplifting story, Shawna discovers her authentic self when she learns to Say the Word.

Using brilliantly spare language, author Jeannine Garsee shows us that words have the power to wound or heal, and to define us in unexpected ways. I am a huge fan of Jen's writing, which is polished, substantive and real. I highly recommend this book, as well as the author's debut novel, Before, After, and Somebody in Between.

Wow, to be compared to Sarah Dessen and Laurie Halse Anderson? That's a tall order. But it's totally appropriate. Say the Word is one of those books that, even as you're reading it, you're growing. Shawna is a completely real person, even when she's being "Perfect Shawna." But as she's forced to deal with betrayals and perceived wrongs from everyone around her, the perfection is stripped away, and Shawna sees herself as we see her: not a robot or trained pony, but an emotionally intelligent, loving human being.

I related to Shawna more than I've related to a character in a long time. In high school, I tried to be That Person. By the time I was about seventeen, I realized I could no longer live for someone else's expectations, and, with my own life falling down around me, I finally had to step out and be my own person. For me, it took a few years more, and I'm still dealing with a lot of those things...and avoiding some others. And, even though the book is "over" for me, I know Shawna's still dealing, too.

All that to say that Jen has created a fully relatable character, and around that character, a fully relevant story. This isn't a book to read alone--it hits so many issues on so many levels that it deserves to be talked about in depth. I'd totally recommend this for a book club--adult or teen.