Customer Reviews

Shine

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is October, 1998. I am close to the end of the first semester of my senior year of college, just a few months away from beginning my student teaching experience and one month away from my 21st birthday. Early in the month, the news is dominated by the story of Matthew Shepard, a boy the same age as me, who has been tortured and left for dead in a field in Laramie, Wyoming. His crime? Being gay. On October 12, Matthew died in a hospital, unable to recover from his injuries. This crime haunted me then and still does today. How is it that human beings can be so cruel to one another? What drives someone to act out so violently just because someone else is different?

Reading the first pages of Lauren Myracle's Shine brought back all these emotions. The book begins with a newspaper clipping, "stunned residents of Black Creek, North Carolina, pray for seventeen-year-old Patrick Truman, beaten and left for dead outside the convenience store where he works." The article goes on to describe the abuse Patrick suffered, clearly the victim of a hate crime. All the emotions I felt in college hearing about Matthew Shepard came back at once. This introductory article would not be the last time this story brought me to tears, Patrick's story is agonizing and, unfortunately, very familiar.

Shine is narrated by Cat, one of Patrick's friends, who struggles with feelings of guilt for not having been a better friend and anger at the abuse he suffered not only the night he was beaten, but daily as he was the victim of school bullies. Unsatisfied with the attention the local police are giving this crime; Cat takes it upon herself to investigate and to bring justice to Patrick, who lies comatose in the hospital.

Myracle is a master story-teller with an uncanny insight into the human experience. None of her characters are stock, none are uncomplicated. Readers will recognize in the characters the complexity of the human experience. In flashback, Cat describes a particularly terrible instance of bullying that took place on the first day of high school. Patrick is pushed into the boy's bathroom and tormented by some of the school jocks. Instead of helping her friend, Cat turns a blind eye, afraid if she stands up for him, she will also become a victim. Those are the kinds of choices humans, whether teenagers or adults, are faced with every day. How many times have you turned a blind eye to something because it was easier than getting involved? We all know what the right thing to do is, but sometimes are unable to speak up for fear of drawing attention to ourselves. Through Cat's journey, readers will be inspired to take a stand and will be forced to evaluate their own actions towards others.

Equal attention is paid by Myracle to creating a cast of supporting characters who are every bit as human and imperfect as Cat. She brings to life the reality of living below the poverty line in the south. The school Cat attends is divided sharply down socio-economic lines. Patrick, as it turns out, is not the only one who has been the victim of bullying. Cat has also experienced torment, though she suffers her victimization silently, afraid of the ramifications of standing up to a rich and powerful family in the town. What would happen if her aunt, with whom she lives, is fired because she speaks up against her boss? Again, Myracle deftly illustrates the painful decisions we are faced with every day.

Beyond her mastery of characterization, Myracle is a master of words, able to paint beautiful or terrifying pictures with her words. Through her brilliant use of imagery, she is able to draw readers into the scene and set the mood. "Patrick's house was a ghost, dust coated the windows, the petunias in the flower boxes bowed their heads, and spiderwebs clotted the eaves of the porch. Once I might have marveled at the webs--how delicate they were, how intricate--but today I saw ghastly silk ropes." These first lines of chapter one paint a beautifully haunting picture and let readers feel the pain Cat is feeling--a house that once was beautiful and full of life is now empty and somber, symbolic of both Cat and Patrick. Myracle is indeed a master wordsmith.

To say Shine haunted me would be an understatement; I struggled to write this review hoping to do justice to the book. The story is both tragic and inspirational and is one that needs to be read. Parents, kids, teachers, everyone needs to read this book--the story is too important not to be heard. After reading Cat's tale, you will see the world differently, you will be different yourself. This may be the most important YA release of 2011.

Review from [mymercurialmusings.com]

It's been awhile since I have read a book that I had such mixed feelings about. On one hand I love the setting and the premise, on the other hand I just couldn't get past some of the actions--or should I say inaction-- of the characters.

The plot is engrossing and it's hard to put this book down once you get started. But I did find it a little predictable. I had things figured out before Cat did, but that didn't make it boring. I was still interested to see how things would unfold. That's where things started to fall apart for me. The ending, to me was inexcusable. I don't want to say too much and give anything away, but I was disappointed. Sure, I've never been in that situation, but I don't think I could just...let it all go. Is that cryptic? You need to read the book to find out what I am talking about! I would really like to hear some other opinions on the end!

The setting is what I loved most about the book. It's very atmospheric. It takes place in this back woods southern town. I thought I lived in a back woods southern town, but it's nothing like the town in this novel. You can tell that Myracle has some experience with the bible belt, because she hits the nail on the head with the 'Bless his heart, but he had it coming' attitude. That is, unfortunately, how a lot of people are around here. It's sad, but true and Myracle really shines light on that.

Cat was a good main character. She did some things I would never do, but for the most part I liked her. My biggest problem with the book--even bigger than the ending--was what happen to Cat and how everyone just went on their merry way afterward. I guess that's realistic, sometimes bad things happen to people and we choose to ignore it, but I've never been good at that. I hold grudges and I get outraged on behalf of people. I was outraged for Cat. This whole situation, especially regarding Aunt Tilly felt a little unresolved for me at the end.

Sorry this review is full of vague thoughts. I don't want to give away too much, but I wanted to share what I have conflicting feeling about. I still recommend the book. It's definitely worth the read. I like when books leave me a little unsure of where I stand. If you do too, read it!

This review contains SPOILERS. Read at your own risk!

The book is about the aftermath of an attack on a young gay man in a rural southern town. His former best friend decides the police aren't doing enough to find out who attacked him and so she sets out to figure it out herself. Interesting plot, okay execution, but something about this rubbed me the wrong way.

The author, in the end, seems to forgive a whole host of things; the attack itself, the rape of one of the characters (even refusing to call it rape), the way that many of the people in the town are addicted to meth. And part of me gets it; people are complicated, motivations are complicated, being high makes you do messed up stuff. But you also have to take responsibility for your actions. You can't blame attacking someone on being high, or rape someone because you're young and confused. I mean, seriously?? This is a book written by someone who writes for a teenage audience. How can you excuse something like that?

There is also hateful speech used throughout the book, almost excessively (and I am no prude when it comes to language) without any real counter to it. I get that people talk that way, but someone should also be calling them out on it. Or even put a freaking author's note at the end to talk about the language.

There are no resources provided in this book to teens who might be struggling with their sexuality, with sexual violence, or with addiction, which just makes me angry.Wwhy are you tackling these topics if you're not doing it to provide information, hope, resources? If it's just for a good story, then quite frankly your story needs to be better.

Lauren Myracle's Shine uses atmosphere and suspense to examine small-town life and the intolerance and complexities that can underlie it. When Cat was thirteen, she was best friends with Patrick, but then something happened and she stopped speaking to most people. Now, three years later, Patrick is the victim of a horrible hate crime. When the investigation stalls, Cat decides to unravel the mystery for herself and bring Patrick's attacker to justice. In the process, Cat uncovers startling information about small-town politics, hidden secrets, drug culture, and what it means to stand up for someone.

From the outset of SHINE, Myracle impressed me with her clear, descriptive writing and its ability to create a stifling atmosphere for the town and its inhabitants. This style worked well for a story that provides an unflinching examination of homophobia, poverty, drugs, and the long-term impacts of intolerance and assault. The author also managed to do what most writers do not: she portrayed the people of a small, rural town as real and complicated, not stupid or backwards. Instead of falling into easy stereotypes, the main characters are depicted as people with complex desires but limited opportunities. Each character, even the protagonist, is not wholly good or wholly bad. The mystery plot also plays out in a mostly believable way, without any need for Cat to put herself into unlikely, supernatural, or unbelievable situations in order to solve the crime.

Even with this mix of suspense and compelling issues, SHINE never grabbed me as much as I had hoped. Though there were many emotional and poignant details in the story, I never became really invested in the characters. Parts of the mystery were predictable, and some clues were discovered too easily with characters too willing to talk. Slow pacing pulled things down a bit in the middle, and the outcomes at the end of the novel felt too convenient and somewhat unsettling in their possible messages. Despite the uplifting connotation of the title, which is referenced in the book, the story also ended without much uplift or hope.

SHINE has much to offer with its realistic and gritty depiction of the often harsh realities of living in small town America. In future books, however, I hope that Myracle's ability to create mood and setting pull me into the characters' lives and struggles more.

Note: This review refers to an advance reader's copy.

Few authors catch me right off the bat on the first page, gripping me with either wit or wisdom or stunningly beautiful prose, and pulling me along until the book is done and I find myself dazed and wishing for more. I had seen Ms. Myracle's books on the shelves before - those brightly colored books with netspeak abbreviations for titles - and I had sort of dismissed them as being for a much younger reader. Shine is definitely not for a younger reader. It is a breath-taking, sweeping, all-encompassing mystery about not only the hate crime which propels Cat forward from her funk, but about people and who they truly are.

I was dumbfounded on the first page by the completeness of Cat's description of the world around her in such gorgeous language as to draw impressions from classic literature by Austen or Dickens. Cat, though having started out life as a very happy, upbeat girl, is now withdrawn and has shut herself off from her friends but one can believe by the way she saturates the narrative with all five senses that she has not completely shut herself off from life. Which becomes an epiphany for her later one, something she hadn't known yet about herself even though the reader can sense it.

Each one of the characters in the cast is multi-dimensional, which as I've said before can be very difficult in a first person narrative when the narrator doesn't know the others' thoughts or motivations. Cat is adept at observing but Ms. Myracle layers into those observations little nuances that Cat may not pick up herself when she is relaying what she's experiencing but which make for a more full and rounded understanding of the characters on the part of the reader.

I have to say I was a bit hesitant to read this story to begin with because the subject of hate crimes is such a sensitive one. I feared that, because it was set in the Bible Belt and Matthew Shepard was mentioned very early on, I would be ensconced in a stereotypical world of Christian piety and the perpetrator would turn out to be the ubiquitous Bible thumper from every police crime show with a heart full of hypocritical hatred. I was impressed by the fact that Ms. Myracle chose to write a more realistic tale that led not only through the garish gossip mongers in the local church but through the world outside the church as well. I was also impressed by the fact that even though the victim of the hate crime was in fact gay, we were treated to neither a hard core gay agenda nor an equally heavy handed anti-gay agenda. It is a rare book, I've found, which can touch on this subject without becoming a study of morality on some level. Bravo, Ms. Myracle.

All of that said, I attempted to put the book down several times out of a dire need for sleep, but each time I snuggled down into the covers I felt utterly drawn back. My hand reached for the light of its own accord and I found myself devouring page after page until I had read the entire thing. I found myself in tears by the last page - a feat accomplished only by the amount of books I can count on one hand. I went through the full range of emotions with Cat on her journey to find out not only who had hurt her friend but who she truly wanted to be in spite of what others had done to her. Her internal epiphanies and her drive to find the criminal and herself were believable in every way.

I have a feeling this was a stand alone novel and I feel sorry for that. I would love to read more from Cat's perspective and get to see her in action as she continues her journey toward healing. I suppose I will have to content myself with the fact that I have found a new favorite among authors and seek out other stories by Ms. Myracle from the past and in the future. Definitely, definitely read this one.

PS: I really liked that this book didn't have a girl in a puffy prom dress on the cover!

I ordered this because I heard the NBF had totally flubbed its book award nomination and left this author out in the cold. I was particularly interested because it dealt with homophobia, and had at least one gay character. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to know there was good YA fiction that dealt with gay themes.

Unfortunately, I found very little to like. The narrator stuck me as, well, hateful. Very. Constant judgments about people. Impossible to spend a whole book with her. (Couldn't finish it.) Most of the characters were portrayed as if they were the descendants of the characters in "Deliverance", crossbred with the descendants of one of Flannery O'Connor's more troubled characters.

I just don't buy it. I haven't lived in the South. But I have lived in small, isolated towns. And I did not recognize these characters as real.

To be fair, I am way past YA age (I don't believe the category even existed back then :), and I don't read YA fiction. So I can't judge this against other YA books. I just hope there are much better ones out there. (If anyone can recommend some good gay-themed ones in the comments, please do.)

If there was one good thing that came from this whole NBA fiasco? It's definitely that so many more people were made aware of this wonderful book! See, when I think of Lauren Myracle, I think of the cutesy covers that my sister (who is 7 years younger) used to have on her nightstand - TTYL, TTFN, etc. Books that didn't particularly interest me... I had no idea how powerful this book would be.

Shine gripped me from the first page, with Lauren Myracle's perfect descriptions I felt like I was thrust into this small Moutain town and the characters came to life in a way that I haven't had characters dancing (or sulking as this case may be) in my mind in a long time.

When Cat starts searching for the person who viciously beat her childhood best friend, Patrick, and left him fighting for his life in a coma, she starts to uncover many secrets about her small mountain town. Exposing us to the poverty of this region in our country, we see the local teenagers involved in a Meth scandal, as well as the lifelong effects of abuse.

The discovery of the unlikely perpetrator definitely had me shocked, as did the story revolving around the why. The climax of this story is one of the best I've read, with Cat racing to save an innocent victim I was on the edge of my seat.

I commend Lauren Myracle for writing such a beautifully touching book about so many tough subjects. I give Shine 4 hearts! ' ' ' '

Lauren Myracle is a local author, and I was vaguely aware of her text-message novels, like TTFN and TTYL, but I hadn't read them. I hadn't heard of her latest book, "Shine", until my sister brought my attention to the brou-ha-ha over the way Myracle was un-nominated for the National Book Award. My sister was so indignant that I ordered the book for my kindle and started reading it that morning. I was so hooked that I continued reading on my commute by using the kindle's text-to-speech robot, and finished it that night.

The quality of the writing astonished me. From the first page, the writing style reminded me very much of Harper Lee, and I wasn't surprised when the main character's favorite book turned out to be "To Kill a Mockingbird".

The story takes place in today's world, but it feels like the 1950s, in a rural town in North Carolina, where the people are so poor they don't have cell phones, and have to go to the library in the neighboring city to use the Internet. A gay teenager named Patrick is found badly beaten at a gas station, and tied to a gas pump with a nozzle forced down his throat. As he lingers in a coma, his friend Cat tries to find out whodunnit, since the local police aren't trying very hard.

At first I wasn't sure I would be able to read this, since I broke my heart over Matthew Shepard, who died in the same hospital where my children were born (Lauren Myracle's children were born there too.) But the writing pulled me in, and the suspense drew me along.

I have to say I was disappointed in the ending. I'll discuss it in a spoiler section without revealing whodunnit. But despite that, I loved the book, and will probably buy a hardcopy.

Spoilers:

Patrick's attacker is never brought to justice by society; the attacker dies as a result of his own actions, but Cat decides not to tell anyone. Cat also decides not to tell anyone about the boy who raped her, letting him off when he apologizes. And she never tells anyone about the meth dealers in the town. The unspoken message seems to be don't rock the boat, don't tell the grownups because they won't do anything. I did like that Patrick survives and seems likely to recover from his horrible injuries, though it wasn't entirely believable. It seemed like the author set up a lot of important themes and then never brought them to a satisfying conclusion. And even if she'd decided that justice wouldn't be done, at least she could have acknowledged that, but her moral seemed to be "forgive and forget", and she seemed to follow that moral in real life as well. Patrick's grandmother, Mama Sweetie, would be proud of her. I hope it serves her well, and that her book becomes a best-seller.

This book gets down and dirty. To the point and in-your face. Nobody likes the fact that Cat is looking into each of their stories on the night of this beating, but the stories that come out of her investigations are just as shocking as the resulting hate crime.
I have to say that I knew that some sex was going to be involved but was a little shocked at the descriptiveness and details of the scene in this book. I do consider myself to be on the prude side when it comes to sex talk but I was a little more than embarrased at having to read through that chapter.
This book hits on every type of negative thing that one town could attribute. Alcoholism, poverty, drugs, hate crimes, death, bullying, rape.
This was a very sad story to read, very real and very intense.

At first this book seemed intriguing. As a staunch advocate of gay rights, I was deeply moved by the theme of this book. However, the end disappointed me in so many ways. This contains SPOILERS (but I will try to be vague)

First of all, the beginning is thoroughly descriptive and grabs the reader; however, about 3/4 of the way through the book, this stops. In the beginning, Cat is shown as being fairly intelligent compared to her peers, but this fades through out the book. Perhaps it is purposeful because the author wanted you to see how deeply the denial was sunk into this community, but for me it just did not work. The book flows so well, but then it just ends. We are left hanging with no justice for the two major victims in the book. Cat's life was ruined in so many ways by one event and we are expected to believe that a simple apology makes it all go away? Or that the attacker should be forgiven because of his state of mind when the crime was committed? Seriously?

Since this book was penned with young adults and teens in mind, I believe it sets a bad example. The truth should ring out and while you think Cat is going to change the trend of the people of this small town hiding from problems, she really doesn't. And that is not the way a story should end.