Reconstructing Amelia: Thoughts & Questions (spoilers)

[C73OakleyH]

"Reconstructing Amelia" started as an intriguing read with McCreight's simplistic and unique chapter set-up, and somewhat overly simplified characters. The story starts on, what readers do not yet realize is, a blog called "gRaCeFULLY", and switches between the blog, Amelia, posts by Amelia, and her mother Kate. Every book I begin starts with anticipation and excitement, I think the chapter set-up helped me feel this, but to be honest, towards the middle of the book I was getting aggravated with the constant switch between character perspectives. I did, however, really like the moments when we read "gRaCeFULLY" because the perspective in which it was written was incredibly true to the character McCreight was intending to portray; a teenage girl eager to spill the latest gossip. "gRaCeFULLy" also gave us an inside perspective on the students at Grace Hall, which is the private school in Brooklyn, New York, where Amelia has attended her formative schooling years. The gossip blog gave the dirtiest deatails about friends and allies of Amelia's, while also sharing how they felt about her situation, which brings me to the theme of the story. "Reconstructing Amelia" follows the journey of a single mother working in an extremely demanding law firm; crushed by the death of her fifteen year-old daughter, Kate begins to look for answers to the supposed suicide of Amelia. The theme (as apparent at it may be to me, might be semi-translucent, or I may not be truly digging deep enough for the right theme) is that no matter the injustice you have done to your children, you have done the best that you could possibly do, and that we may not know our children fully, we may not be capable of reading their every move and the purpse of their every move, but we know who we raised and who's hearts it is we will cherish and for that, something counts. There is also the theme of how everlasting the effects of bullying are; no matter how strong a child stands for the wicked acts that students can bring forth and rain down on you, some battles can only really ever end once won.

Now for the SPOILERS, and big purpose of this post. To give a forthright review I must say that I didn't get hooked until, ohh, about halfway through, maybe about a quarter of the way through. For some reason I was stuck on how simple the characters seemed, I might just be incredibly biased, or maybe I just needed a read that was more challenging, but I am writing this for the sole purpose as to review, and hopefully help McCreight add depth to her characters. My biggest problem is trying to pin-point what exactly it was about the characters that I couldn't relate to, or rather imagine "fleshed-out", if you will. Another issue I had, was the sense that I could quickly sense what characters were going to do next, how they would react to a situation; which I guess isn't all bad. It's nice to be able to analyze the way in which the characters' moves will help guide the development of the plot. For example, Kate works for a lawyer named Jeremy, and is, what I gathered, partners or equals to another lawyer, Daniel. Daniel and Kate went to law school together and were equally competitive in school as they are in the work place. There is an instance where Kate and Jeremy are in the office together, the day Kate gets back from her time of leave after Amelia's death, which gives obvious foreshadowing. "Kate hadn't seen him since the funeral, but they'd talked a couple of times by phone, and Jeremy had sent several e-mails--brief, but flawlessly kind--checking in on her.... As they stared at each other, Kate could feel Beatrice watching them, looking from Jeremy to Kate then back to Jeremy. Kate knew Beatrice's eyebrows were raised without even having to look at her." There are move examples of apparent connections between characters, moves characters will make; McCreight's flaw with this is due in a large part to her loaded language. There is another instance, earlier than the example given previously, where Kate is describing Jeremy in such vivid detail that it is nearly embarrassing how recognizable she feels for him -- then again, this could have been details McCreight wanted us to pick up on quickly.

Raving Time: McCreight did a fantabulous job throwing us readers for a spin with a major plot twist, although unlikely as it was, with Jeremy as Ben, Liv as the writer behind "gRaCeFULLY", and Zadie's mother, Adele, behind the motivation for Amelia to join the Magpie's. While this turn of events was rather unrealistic to some extent, I was intrigued nonetheless.

I have many unanswered questions, though, for example, we never really learned why Zadie hated Amelia so much. Was her hate feuled by her mothers dislike for Amelia? For herself? For both? What happened with Jeremy? I feel as though consequences for his actions should have been looked into further. What about Liv? Were there any repercussions for her with writing "gRaCeFULLY"? I would also like to know what it was about Liv that made her write such terrible things about her students. As a teacher myself, I've tried to look at different angles as to why she would do such things but I've yet to draw a conclusion. Even if we learned a background on Liv it may have helped us formulate a reason for her actions. And lastly, Dylan. What is up with that? We don't get any follow-up on what her "disorders" or "diseases" her mother said she had? My best guess was that her actress mother suffered from munchausen by proxy, therefore giving Dylan whatever illness was bestowed upon her.

Please, please comment below if you have thoughts about my post! I haven't had many and I'd love to know what I can improve upon, and I'd also thoroughly love your insight to my questions above