For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own.
Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.
Not bad, but not really great, either As one other reviewer has already written, I, too, may have had my expectations set way too high before I read this book. I know that Anderson is a highly decorated YA novelist, and I also saw that almost all the customer reviews on Amazon raved about this book. The back of the book has quotes from professional reviewers calling her books “screamingly funny” and “riveting.” So when I sat down to read this book, I was surprised at how unimpressive I found it. Don’t get me wrong;…
Impossible To Put Down Laurie Halse Anderson’s The Impossible Knife of Memory has all the hallmarks of a young adult novel: boy/girl relationship, troubled parent, good friend with her own issues. If you left it at that, it would be the same old story that fills so many YA novels. Thankfully, Anderson’s writing and her sense of character make this book a cut above the rest.Hayley’s job is to make sure her father stays sane and doesn’t hurt himself. Or at least, that’s the job she’s been saddled with and…
Unforgettable, eloquent, and intense Hayley and her father have lived on the run for the past six years to avoid dealing with her father’s PTSD. After an extremely bad incident, they return to their hometown so that Hayley can attend her senior year. Hayley is doing her best to keep her father’s unstable condition a secret, but as she gets closer to new guy Finn and her father sinks deeper into depression, memories of her childhood resurface and she starts to lose control of her life.Hayley’s voice is…