Review & Giveaway: Pieces of Me by Amber Kizer

Title: Pieces of Me
Author: Amber Kizer
Publisher: Random House
Pub. Date: February 11, 2014
Genre: Young Adult
Rec. Age Level: 12+

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It isn’t until Jessica Chai dies that she truly learns what it means to live. Jessica spent the majority of her short life invisible to her parents and peers. It isn’t until the final days of her life that anything remotely notable happens to Jessica, when her long, beautiful hair is hacked off by a posse of mean girls in the short span between classes. Jessica’s hair, a shield to hide behind and an integral part of her identity is suddenly gone, leaving her with unexpected, but not completely unwelcome clean slate. But, before Jessica can unveil her reinvention to her peers she’s in a fatal car accident. She doesn’t see a tunnel of light calling away from her old life, she doesn’t simply blink out of existence, she simply stays, as invisible as before. When her parents decide to donate her organs, giving four teens a second chance, Jessica is angry; she knows her mother is manipulating Jessica’s legacy for their own gain. She lingers somewhere between life and death, following the daily lives of the four recipients. Time soothes Jessica’s bitterness about her life and untimely death; what she first considers a betrayal by her parents, becomes the very act that gives Jessica life and allows Jessica, finally, to be seen. Amber Kizer’s PIECES OF ME is a raw, inspiring story of life after death and the enduring legacy of a girl whose untimely death grants the gift of life.

PIECES OF ME is a departure from what I’ve come to expect from Amber Kizer, but it carried the intensity and directness that I’ve come to associate with her writing. Kizer doesn’t do fluffy, she does real. I was so affected by the topic of organ donation that, immediately after I finished PIECES OF ME, I went online and registered to be an organ donor.

The four recipients Jessica follows are so much more than their illness or medical issue. They face complicated home lives, financial hardships, and bullying. But, at the same time, they experience first love, connection, spirituality, freedom, happiness, and best of all, the chance at a future.

The only aspects of the novel that I felt off to me were the romantic elements. Maybe it was that I wasn’t expecting any romance or simply that I was focused on other plot lines, but I found the romance distracting.

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Review: Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield

As a boy, William Bellman commits one small, cruel act: killing a bird with his slingshot. Little does he know the unforeseen and terrible consequences of the deed, which is soon forgotten amidst the riot of boyhood games. By the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, William seems to be a man blessed by fortune—until tragedy strikes and the stranger in black comes. Then he starts to wonder if all his happiness is about to be eclipsed. Desperate to save the one precious thing he has left, William enters into a rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to found a decidedly macabre business.

And Bellman & Black is born.

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Deftly written with gorgeous language and phrasing, Diane Setterfield's newest novel, Bellman & Black, is sure to resonate with readers. Subtitled A Ghost Story, the novel fulfills the role in an unexpected manner: it isn't a specter or monster that haunts the main character Bellman and the reader, it's everyday actions, intentional and otherwise.

Bellman & Black tells the tale of William Bellman, a man blessed with good health, good fortune, and happiness. No one would dispute that Bellman works hard what he has. Smart, attractive, and successful, Bellman leads a charmed life. But what is his happiness worth? Because, as Bellman comes to realize, all actions have a consequences and time always comes at a price.

Bellman's story is interspersed with information and anecdotes about the rook, which plays both a literal and symbolic role in Bellman's life. These short chapters are beautifully written and are sometimes factual, sometimes anecdotal. The rook itself becomes a central character in the novel, who, if not mentioned for a period time, becomes, curiously, almost missed.

It's hard to describe the premise of Bellman & Black. What struck me most after completing the novel was how little actual action was contained in its pages compared to the amount of thought and contemplation spurred by the story. This may come as a surprise to some who see the subtitle A Ghost Story and expect the typical scary story. To be clear, Bellman & Black is most definitely a ghost story - and I would say it is, in many ways, much scarier than any paranormal story might be. Bellman's story forces readers to consider the price of their own lives... To consider the happiness and fortune they've been blessed with in their lives and how much payment might be owned to the figurative man in black that haunts Bellman's every conscious - and often unconscious - thought.

I haven't read Setterfield's first, and immensely popular novel, The Thirteenth Tale, but, after Bellman & Black, I feel I need to. Setterfield is a powerful storyteller who leads readers with a light hand to thoughts and feelings that, even if we might now acknowledge them often, have a steady weight that influences our lives and choices. Bellman & Black is not to be missed.

Atria/Emily Bestler Books, November 2013,Hardcover, ISBN:9781476711959, 336 pgs.