Would You [Mass Market Paperback]

Marthe Jocelyn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 9, 2010

WOULD YOU RATHER know what’s going to happen or not know?
A summer night. A Saturday. For Natalie’s amazing older sister, Claire, this summer is fantastic, because she’s zooming off to college in the fall. For Natalie, it’s a fun summer with her friends; nothing special. When Claire is hit by a car, the world changes in a heartbeat. Over the next four days, moment by moment, Natalie, her parents, and their friends wait to learn if Claire will ever recover.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The opening chapters give little hint of the intensity of Jocelyn's (How It Happened in Peach Hill) exquisitely honed novel. Soon-to-be-high school junior Natalie and her friends like to play Would you...—a game exemplified by the book's first lines: Would you rather know what's going to happen? Or not know? Abruptly everything changes: Natalie's older sister, Claire, is struck by a car and rendered comatose. Jocelyn maintains a measured pace as the next few days unfold: Natalie watches her mother numb herself with tranquilizers, her father grow angry and look for someone to blame. Although the plot line sounds like that of a standard weeper, the author resists the urge to magnify emotions. Natalie reacts honestly, neither beautifully nor nobly—she is initially repulsed when a nurse asks her to massage Claire's grossly swollen feet; she lashes out at a boy who already (and needlessly) feels guilty. The light touch with which Jocelyn handles her difficult material is best seen when Claire is declared brain-dead and taken off life support: the humanity in the author's treatment affords the reader a sense both of grief and of peace. Ages 14–up. (July)
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 School Library Journal

Grade 8–11—Natalie and Claire are more than sisters; they're also friends. Only two years apart, they've always shared secrets, clothes, and a bedroom, and Natalie can't imagine what it's going to be like in the fall when Claire goes away to college. Only Claire doesn't go away. At the beginning of the summer, she's struck by a car and suffers massive head trauma. The next time Natalie sees her is at the hospital. There are tubes snaking in and out of her swollen body and there's a crisscrossing of stitches on her shaved head. This is not Claire's story, but Natalie's. It takes place over the course of 12 days of grief and coping, and continuing to live when the unimaginable happens. Natalie, her friends, and her family are well delineated, but as the story is told from Natalie's point of view, hers is the most complete portrayal. Jocelyn captures a teen's thoughts and reactions in a time of incredible anguish without making her overly dramatic. Readers will fly through the pages of this book, crying, laughing, and crying some more.—Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL
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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Laurel Leaf; 1 edition (March 9, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375837043
• ISBN-13: 978-0375837043
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.5 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,201,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Would you rather..., June 1, 2010

By 

Brittany Moore "Reading Nook" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Would You (Hardcover)

Natalie is forever hanging onto her older sister Claire. At times they can be the best of friends, even though Claire is older and has her own friends. One night changes a lot of things. When Claire is in an accident things start to look different from Natalie's point of view. Her friends game of Would You Rather? takes on a different feel as they try to figure out how to cope.

I didn't love this main character. The whole time I really wanted to feel bad or her having to go through all these things, but I just couldn't. At one point Natalie's father cries and she is completely insensitive saying he shouldn't be able to cry. Natalie did not strike me as a sixteen year old. Her and her friends seemed 12 or 13 not almost high school juniors. I liked the Would You Rather? question but that was just about it. I didn't really seem like Natalie was all that upset about her sister, so how could I as the reader be? Natalie was just very juvenile and insensitive, maybe she was in shock, but all in all I didn't like her or her story.

First Lines:
"Would you rather know what's going to happen? Or not know?"

Favorite Lines:
"Picture of neglect. Plenty of dust bunnies. Dust antelopes, actually."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, March 11, 2009

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Would You (Hardcover)

"Would you rather know what's going to happen or not know?" This is the question that starts the powerful story that is WOULD YOU.

Natalie is Claire's younger sister. Claire has just graduated from high school and she's ready to begin the next chapter of her life. She has told Natalie that she is going to break up with her boyfriend, Joe, that night.

But that night, everything changes.

Nat and her friends sit around at the Ding Dong Diner discussing "would you" questions with each other. Little does Natalie know that the opening question would hit so close to home.

As Natalie is riding her bike home one night during the summer, she passes cops putting up police tape on Devon Road. She doesn't think anything of it until she gets home. There she finds out that her sister has been in an accident. She is still alive, but the doctors aren't very optimistic.

WOULD YOU tells the story of Nat's family over the course of a week during one summer. It explores the turmoil that Nat goes through, as well as the despair and struggles of her parents. Nat feels guilty for some of the thoughts that go through her head. Her friends have a hard time with the situation as well, and constantly stop themselves from saying the wrong things.

WOULD YOU is a short story that holds a powerful punch. Long after the cover has been closed, the reader will be pondering the opening question...would you rather know or not? Would it change anything?

Reviewed by: Jaglvr

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The intriguing book you can't put down, December 18, 2008

By 

Mid-Prairie Teen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Would You (Hardcover)

This book Would You, by Marthe Jocelyn is and intriguing story about the life of a teenage girl, Natalie, whose life is turned upside down when her sister Claire is hit by a car and is in the hospital in a coma. Natalie thought she was going to have a fun summer with her sister and friends before her sister goes off to college in the fall, but that all changes in the blink of an eye. Everything changes for Natalie and her family when Claire is declared brain dead and taken off life support. Natalie and Claire both have a lot of friends, but Natalie's favorite thing to do with her friends is go pool hopping. Which is when you sneak over to someone's house and jump in the pool, then run away before you get caught, Natalie and her friends never imagined when they rode there bikes past a car accident one night after doing that, that it would involve Claire.
Jocelyn has written a lot of other books, including the series about "Hannah's Collections" which is based on her daughter Hannah. "Would You" was very good, but there is one thing that I would change, after Claire went into her coma it went on and on about how sad everyone was and I thought that was a little boring. Overall it was a very good book that i recommend to everyone.