#614 Someone Ought to Tell Her There’s Nowhere to Go- Danielle Evans

#614 Someone Ought to Tell Her There’s Nowhere to Go- Danielle Evans

Georgie went to Iraq for a year. His best friend, Lanae, the woman who finally just became his girlfriend didn’t understand why. She had cut him off to prtoect her daughter. Now he’s back, having been discharged from the army with something akin to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had a bad experience in Iraq involving little girls and it haunts him.

“you didn’t get to pick your ghosts, your ghosts picked you.”

He needs something to give him perspective, something to make his feel safe. He doesn’t get back together with Lanae, but he does start taking care of her daughter, Esther. They get along great and start pretending that he is her Father. This fanstasy starts out harmless but eventually leads to a bit of a scandal. 

Notable Passage: “What’s the difference between you and some other asshole…Either nobody’s responsible for nothing, or every last motherfucker on this planet is going to hell someday.”

Rating: 7-7-6-7 Total= 27

#551 Snakes- Danielle Evans

#551 Snakes- Danielle Evans

A rift in a family can be absolutely toxic for children. Tara is eight, her mother and grandmother do not get along, but this summer as her parents are on a research trip to Brazil, Tara will stay with her grandmother. Also staying there is her cousin, Allison, who’s parents also don’t get along with grandma.

The summer goes along with the cousins attached at the hip. Grandmother proves to be miserable, and judgmental and even when well-intentioned, does nothing but inflame and belittle Tara. Disaster strikes when Allison pushed Tara into the lake, and she barely makes it out alive. Her parents come back and for the next 15 years, none of them speak to either the grandmother, Allison, or Allison’s parents.

We learn later that before that summer, Allison was having “problems” and sent to grandmothers semi-permanently. The lake incident was just a manifestation of the girls trying to get back to their parents. But the situation and the split pretty much ruined Allison’s life. The isolation from the family drama may have helped Tara, but the details of the grandmother’s psychosis (or whatever you want to call it) are frightening. The story, Tara’s survival, and the revealing truth make for one hell of a story.

“My recovery turned my scars into part favors. If you had seen them—the dot on my leg, the line on my elbow, the water in my eyes when I talked about Allison—then you had something about me to take with you. If you knew what was behind it, you had even more.”

I was feeling towards the middle of this story that is trended a bit too long, like there might have been too much “filler”, but I was proven wrong. The story developed exceptionally well and unfolded perfectly by the end.

Notable Passage: “We are safe, with our families, until we are not.”

Rating: 9-9-9-9 Total= 36