"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.