"Her Last Death" (pages 232- 273)

Summary:

Suzy's mommy has a false daughter. How? It all started on a day where Suzy's mom went to her first visit to Montana. Suzy's mom took Suzy and Christopher to a dinner, and they were having a nice talk until things began to get too quiet. They did not have much to talk about, and when the waitress came over to ask them what Suzy, Christopher, and Suzy's mom wanted to order, you just see Daphne, Suzy's mother, sweet talking with the waitress asking her so many questions in such a polite manner. The next day, Suzy saw her mom in the waiting room and the "false daughter" was the waitress, Daphne took the waitress out to eat and bought her clothes, treated her like her actual daughter but in reality, the waitress had no relation to Daphne. Christopher and Suzy are having such a wonderful relationship, and to top it all of they are going to have a baby! Suzy is thrilled, she is anticipating everyday for her labor day. "Hello. Daniel." the baby, Daniel, was born and oh what glee did this family have. Having Daniel around was hard because Christopher and Suzy were not rich and did not have much food to give the baby. Suzy in the story you can see how she has grown, she always talked about sex and she would expose how people are in bed, now she just keeps it to herself. When the narrator said the deeds that Suzy does for the baby you can see that Suzy does as much as possible to keep her baby in good condition. As the story keeps going in chronological order in the way that the events of her mom's accidents happened, you see that the narration changed from second person to Suzy talking, speaking to the reader. Suzy was talking about all the good things her mom has done for her and how her mom was always there and now that Suzy's mom is in the hospital about to die, Suzy did not want to be there for her. When Penelope ends up visiting, they talk about how selfish Suzy was for not being there for her own mom. Suzy did not feel sorry because what she did, was done. This story ends with Suzy saying that she is going back to her home and she is going to be with her family, happily.

Quotation:

Suzy said "We will be laughing" (Sonnengberg 273).

Reaction:

Through out this story you see Suzy grow as a character and she always had problems, either at home, school, or love. Suzy always wanted to see the good side in her downs. Suzy tried to always be happy, but failed when her mom would be in the picture and intrude, or ruin the moment. Suzy was seeking nothing but her happiness, she would replace it with sex or found things to do to take her mind of her problems. In the end, you see that she says we will be laughing. When she says "we" she is saying that she included people in her life that bring joy. Suzy laughing shows how her character went form one of the most misunderstood children, to the most happiest by looking deeper into life and coming to find that life's only good, when you feel happy for the right reasons.

"Her Last Death" (pages 150 - 231)

Summary: 

“Knock, Knock!” Suzy's mom, Daphne, went to visit Suzy at college. Amy, Suzy's roommate are very close, until that visit happened. Suzy's mom entered the room and she automatically starts talking to Amy like if she's known her for ages. They talk and they end up clicking at the speed of lightning. Amy talks to Suzy's mom about her boyfriend and how she loves him. First question Suzy's mom asks is if they both have slept together. Amy was uncomfortable answering, because she has not lost her virginity yet. Suzy's mom takes Amy to a birth control center and gets her birth control. Amy's parents come to visit Amy, to their surprise Suzy's mom is telling them with such happiness that Amy has birth control. Amy's parents go bananas, they were enraged by the decision made by someone else's parents. Amy stayed the following weeks not speaking to Suzy and then she ended up transferring to a different college. Martin then comes for a visit, he's the one who Suzy slept with a summer ago, but they never went out. When he visited Suzy's mom was there and like her usual self ends up sleeping with Martin. Suzy got aggravated with her mom and just waited till' they finished and she made love to Martin. Martin then goes back to his place. Noah, Suzy's boyfriend was a gambler, he loved to risk it and roll the dice. He won some and lost some, the times he would win he would sent Suzy pearls to win her over. Noah's gambling won her over. Suzy then realizes that she loves him not because of his money but because of how incredible he makes her feel. In the other hand, Noah only “loves” Sue for her sex and for the friends that she has that he can hook up with. Noah after a month or so, he changed he began lying to Sue and Sue began to lie and told him she would do things when literally she was sleeping with other men. It was a hot afternoon at a restaurant that Noah and Suzy attended where Suzy proposed to him. Noah's answer wasn't surprised it was more of like a 'yeah'. Suzy when trying on wedding dresses she says that she has a desire to be a bride. In the end she never did marry Noah, Suzy left him and took some of his money. Suzy met this guy named Gordon, she moved to London to be with him and then she lasted one year until one night when Gordon was giving love to her ended up confessing he never loved her. This killed Suzy and she left to her mother's new home. When Suzy was at her grandmother's house, she ended up meeting this guy, Christopher, a guy that didn't give her sex on the first night, he made her wait 2 weeks. He would take Suzy out and take her out to eat. In the end they both got married and are expecting a baby.

Quotation:

"I would be the sex he had never dreamed of; I would be sex” (Sonnenberg 196). 

Reaction:

In this part of the book, this is when Suzy had lost every “love of her life”. This was when she was in recovery and she thought that the best medicine to feel loved is sex. Suzy became an addict and was wild for sex. Until she encountered Christopher, that's when her desires had to be put on hold. Christopher did not give her what she wanted for two weeks, and she was perfectly fine. Suzy learned that there's more to life than sex. Suzy said, “... I would be sex” (Sonnenberg 196). This showed that she felt very powerful with her herself when she was in bed. She felt like royalty, the tone of this is confident and feisty. Suzy learns through Christopher that life doesn't revolve sex, it revolves happiness.

"Her Last Death" (pages 89-149)

Summary:

Sue entered a whole new environment, boarding school. It's miles away from her mom and her little sister Penelope. She leaves her safe environment into a whole new world. At boarding school she has a room all to her own. Sue started off with a crush on a senior, Larry. Larry and Sue would go to the forest and make out. After two kisses they 'broke up' and Sue was crushed by news from her mother. Justin, who was one of Sue's summer loves, ended up hooking up with Sue's mom, Daphne. This crushed Sue. Sue's mom ended up taking away Justin's virginity. Sue later on met this boy from her algebra class named Hammond, he clutched Sue's wrists down, and he opened his jean pants, took his penis out and put it in Sue's mouth. Sue thought it was all a joke but when she got into her room, she got scared and reported him. In Taos, Sue's mother was physically assaulted by Randall, one of her boyfriends, he beat her over the head hitting her in the face and punching her gut. Randall then drove to Michael's office, Daphne's other boyfriend, and Randall fought Michael. Sue's mom ended up in the hospital because she had injected tap water with cocaine into her thighs. Sue turned 16 and her mom took her to the club, Sue was admiring a young fella named Theo. Daphne told Sue she would bring him over the house so that Sue can talk to him. The next morning Sue didn't want to speak to her mother, her mother ended up having sex with Theo. That morning Penelope, Sue and their mother went to the boarding school in which Penelope and Sue were enrolled in. This was a new fresh start for the both of them. When Sue was at school she ended up having an obsession with her english teacher, Dr. Crawford. Dr. Crawford knew that Susy had a crush on him and he ended up having a talk to her telling her that he was married and that he could help decode teenage boys, but he would not have any relationship with her. Sue had an affair with her english teacher and she ended up loosing her virginity to him. They had an affair for months until Sue graduated and forgot all about Crawford.

Quote:

“Even with my meticulous diary pages open before me, I felt crazy, unnerved, as if my life had vanished. My eyes moved over words, but my mother could rewrite everything” (Sonnengberg 149).

Reaction:

From the quote I perceived an image in my head. The quote had such high detail to make a reader stop and picture it. My reaction to this quote is that the diary symbolizes Sue's life, her whole entire life, her secrets. She had her diary pages open, which meant she opened up and she felt crazy and unnerved, she felt as though her life had vanished. Her eyes moved over words, meant that she looked over her life, but her mom would always rewrite everything, her mom would always contradict or just change the whole entire memory. This quote was very powerful, it made me think on how Sue being an open diary, can tie into the next chapter.

"Her Last Death" (pages 40-88)

Summary:

The Chapter “Famous Names” was all about how the mother, Daphne been always been weaved in with a famous person. Daphne's dad was famous, he was a Hollywood film score composer and also a harmonica player. Daphne's dad resembles her to an extent that they love to date famous people. Daphne's dad was married to a different wife. Suzy's grandmother, Patsy, remarried a guy who she now refers to, the love of her life. In this chapter the author begins to talk more about the mother and her taste in men and how all the guys she has dated have been filthy rich, for example, she dated a New York Giants quarterback. Suzy's mother has back problems and there would be times where the mother had a problem and she would be very weak to even get out of bed and there was one incident where she was injecting herself and screamed and Suzy had to finish her injection to save her own mother's life. This left her a little traumatized. When Suzy and Penelope's mother, Daphne took them out to eat brunch, the mother was very excited because when they left from eating they went to visit Daphne's dad. When Daphne came out of the house she was in tears because the father hated her for leaving Suzy's and Penelope's dad. She got home and her back pain was acting up. Daphne was sent to the hospital and is in recovery for a few weeks, meanwhile her daughters visit her as much as they can. Suzy finished her school year and her and her family headed to New Mexico. There Daphne found a cowboy boyfriend named Randall, Daphne warned Suzy not to steal her man. Daphne, Suzy's mom, gave cocaine to Suzy. Towards the end of the reading Suzy's mom became over protective with her boyfriend and told Suzy to stop being phony and punched her in the gut.

Quote:

"We wanted that sound, her voice like a bird caught in the apartment, bright, wings beating" (Sonnengberg 47).

Reaction:

My reaction to this quote was intense, I could see what Suzy saw. This quote is a simile, it as well shows symbolism between a caged bird and Suzy's mother. Suzy's mother was in pain from all the back pain she was having. Having back problems kept her caught in the apartment. The "bright, wings beating" symbolized the youth of Daphne and how she is young and beautiful, and her 'wings' (heart) is beating. Suzy is was healthy but her voice sounded caught in the apartment. Daphne had something internal that she wanted to talk about but just couldn't.