Houghton Mifflin Harcourt SV-9780544267688 Core Skills Reading Comp Gr 4

by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Overview

For as long as she can remember, Alexandra Tate has been able to see personified Emotions, and she's found a best friend in Revenge. He's her constant companion as she waits outside Nate Foster's house, clutching a gun. Every night since Nate's release from prison, Alex has tried to work up the courage to exact her own justice on him for the drunk driving accident that killed her family. But there's one problem: Forgiveness. When he appears, Alex is faced with a choice—moving on or getting even. It's impossible to decide with Forgiveness whispering in one ear . . . and Revenge whispering in the other.

Product Details

UPC:	9780544267688
Manufacturer:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	11/01/2015
Age Range:	6 Years

Editorial Reviews

"A poignant, heart-wrenching story of grief, love, and loss." —School Library Journal

"With lyrical prose, palpable emotion and suspenseful atmosphere, Sutton weaves a spellbinding tale." —Eve Silver, national best-selling author of The Game series

From the Publisher

Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Tate has a gun and is planning to use it. Her partner in crime is not human. He is Revenge, the personification of an Emotion that Alex can see because she has the Sight. In fact, she can see all the Emotions hovering around her and the other people in her life. Alex’s target is Nate Foster, who murdered her parents and her baby brother, and put Alex in the hospital six years ago, the victim of his drunk-driving accident. Alex could not get to Nate before this because he was in prison. Now he is out, and Alex and Revenge are gunning for him, literally. Alex faces several obstacles to this plan, however, including a mystery involving missing children, a serial killer, a password-protected flash drive, and someone trying to kill her. The biggest obstacle of all is Forgiveness, another Emotion, who, like Revenge, appears in the form of an attractive young man. Unlike Revenge, Forgiveness insists that Alex can make a different Choice. There is still time for her to turn things around and begin to live again. As in her companion novel, Some Quiet Place (Flux/Llewellyn, 2013/Voya August 2013), the author brings to life an intriguing paranormal world in which a vulnerable teen sees Emotions as visitors from another plane who have come to Earth to interact with us. At times the book is dark, bleak, and painful in its depiction of Alex’s struggle, but teen fans of the paranormal will be moved by the choices this adolescent girl faces before she can come to any kind of closure in this intriguing, thought-provoking narrative. Reviewer: Bonnie Kunzel; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, August 2014 (Vol. 37, No. 3) - Bonnie Kunzel

05/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Alexandra Tate has always been able to see personified Emotions, but now she is faced with a Choice. Revenge, her best friend since the drunk driving accident that killed her family, and Forgiveness, a tempting new Choice, compete for her attention. Even six years after the tragedy, Alex struggles with her grief and tries again and again to get justice for her family's murder. Completing her senior year of high school loses priority as Alex uncovers mysteries about her father's past, is chased by haunting voices that no one else can hear, and runs from faceless attackers theatening the lives of her remaining family and friends. A poignant, heart-wrenching story of grief, love, and loss, Where Silence Gathers combines an authentic narrative with tantalizing supernatural elements to create a powerful companion novel to Sutton's debut, Some Quiet Place (Flux, 2013). This will appeal to fans of paranormal romances like Kami Garcia and Meredith Stoll's Beautiful Creatures (Little, Brown, 2009) and Lauren Kate's "Fallen" series (Delacorte) and is highly recommended for both school and public library collections.—Eden Rassette, Kenton County Public Library, KY

School Library Journal

2014-05-19
In the follow-up companion to her daring debut (Some Quiet Place, 2013), Sutton offers readers the same formula: Teenage girl falls in love with a personified emotion she can see but never touch.Eighteen-year-old Alexandra Tate, like Elizabeth Caldwell before her, can see emotions. Appearing human in form, these creatures “from the other plane” have cluttered her world for as long as she can remember. Yet one in particular, Revenge, has stood steadfastly by her side ever since she put a face to the man who killed her family in a drunken driving accident. And now that Nate Foster has finally been released from prison, Alex, emboldened by the intoxicating power of her otherworldly best friend, is on the brink of exacting her own brand of justice on the man who stole her family from her. So why can’t she pull the trigger? Unfortunately, what could have been an intense and intriguing love triangle among Alex and her ghostly suitors, Revenge and Forgiveness, is never allowed to blaze. Instead, it is watered down by distracting and unsatisfying secondary plotlines. The story tries to be too much at once, and it costs the novel its heart and soul.The only emotion that will sit with readers this time around is Disappointment. (Paranormal romance. 14-17)

Kirkus Reviews