Afbeelding auteur

David Cristofano

Auteur van The Girl She Used to Be

2 Werken 567 Leden 50 Besprekingen Favoriet van 2 leden

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Werken van David Cristofano

The Girl She Used to Be (2009) 512 exemplaren
The Exceptions (2012) 55 exemplaren

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Prelim Review: In [b:The Girl She Used to Be|3525895|The Girl She Used to Be|David Cristofano|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1271151172s/3525895.jpg|3567628], we read about Melody's flight to some form of safety through her eyes. She made a somewhat unreliable narrator at times, as prone as she was to being oblivious to some realities of her situation, but her story drew me in and intrigued me.

Now in this, the sequel/companion to that novel, we see things from Jonathan Bovaro's viewpoint. We see their first meeting (long before Melody thinks it was), as he struggles to find a place within his family and without his family, and tries to find a way to bury those emotions which only dragged him down. Melody raised Jonathan to an unreasonable level of idolizing, spurred on partly by her lack of acknowledgement in his role in uprooting her life. Jonathan has no such illusions about himself and is at pains to point this out.

The novel is split into four sections, before THE GIRL, during THE GIRL, after THE GIRL and then 3 years later. This is a stronger book then THE GIRL, and is more focused despite it being a longer novel. Cristofano paints us a picture of a guy who wants to hate what his family does, what he does, but can't. He knows what they do is wrong, but its his family, its how he was raised and all that he's known. He wants to hate the violent person he is, but he also doesn't believe he can ever be more then that and to a certain extent takes pride in it.

Honestly his and Melody's relationship is not by any means healthy. Separate the two of them are pretty screwed up, together they're even more screwed up, but they kind of work. Melody at one point says that he's the only one she doesn't have to pretend with. He knows everything about her and that means everything to her. Jonathan doesn't understand how he deserves her, how she can know everything about him and not run away screaming.

As much as this book is based around the one absolute truth (Jonathan loves Melody), this is really about Jonathan's struggle to reconcile who he is, who he wants to be and who he thinks he should be. Some of the hardest parts to read were when he'd discuss his family. Coming from a fairly close Italian-American family (on my dad's side) myself, it can be hard to lose that sense of community so I can only imagine what its like for him since he betrayed his family.

This also helped to flesh him out from the idolized version Melody spoke about in THE GIRL. Not that Melody ignored the reality of who he was exactly, but she placed him in a position where as a reader it was hard to judge him fairly. Jonathan is brutally honest about what he does and the fact he thinks Melody was fooling herself. I really liked Jonathan in THE GIRL and this did nothing to dissuade me of that.

In the end this is a stronger book, but needs THE GIRL SHE USED TO BE for the reader to get a real feel for what's going on. Its important to see both sides of the equation, so the ending has a full effect.
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lexilewords | 3 andere besprekingen | Dec 28, 2023 |
When I first began reading The Girl She Used To Be I got a weird sense of dejavu. Never been in the Witness Protection Program (and god willing I never will be), but the restlessness, the need for something different, new, extraordinary to happen in my life I understood well. The need to be an active participant in my life and not just a piece to be moved in some game I'll never understand.

Melody was a surprisingly strong character that I found much to identify with. Not the math jargon--anything but the simplest math goes over my head--but she made mistakes I could easily understand and see myself making. What's more natural for a teenager to do then to hit their parents' weakest point and exploit just so they know they can? So that next time their parents will think twice about countermanding their wishes and remember?

Jonathan definitely made a romantic hero. As Melody admits later on, "Perhaps I did fall in love with Jonathan because he set me free." (pg. 240) Which I think she proves when she originally meets her new Witness Protection Handler and has a number of flirty thoughts regarding him and immediately places him on a hero pedestal because he is so different from the last handler she had. She was ready to fall in love with whomever made her life less dull and un-extraordinary.

What made me love this book however is the second part to the quote: "But I believe we all fall in love for some esoteric and simple reason: the first time a man comes to your rescue, the way he holds you when you kiss, his smile that haunts you and has you endlessly daydreaming." (pg. 240) That is possibly the most realistic explanation I've seen of what 'love' means. In the end she wanted to be with him, trusted him, loved him because he made her feel like a real person. He made her feel extraordinary just by holding her hand.

My only lingering question was early in the book Jonathan mentions the fact that his family has a very reliable contact within the Witness Protection Service and that's how he was able to track her all these years. Nothing more is said and its left dangling with no clear closure.

This was David Cristofano's debut novel and it leaves me eager for more in a genre I don't normally read (straight fiction that is).
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lexilewords | 45 andere besprekingen | Dec 28, 2023 |
From the book jacket: When Melody Grace McCartney was six years old, she and her parents witnessed an act of violence so brutal that it changed their lives forever. The federal government lured them into the Witness Protection Program with the promise of safety, but the program took Melody’s name, her home, her family, and ultimately her innocence. Now twenty years later … when the feds spirit her off to begin yet another new life in yet another new town, she’s stunned by a man who accosts her and calls her by her real name. Jonathan Bovaro, the mafioso sent to find her, knows her, the real her, and it’s a thrill Melody can’t resist.

My reaction
That last half-sentence from the book jacket should have warned me (that is, if I’d read the jacket in advance). But I’ll get to that later.

On the positive side, Cristofano writes a fast-paced suspense filled story full of twists and turns. Like Melody herself, the reader doesn’t know whom to trust, which story is factual, which person truly has her best interests at heart. I was quickly hooked and turning pages far into the night. But then …

That “thrill” that Melody feels coming from the Don’s son, Jonathan... Sure he buys her nice clothes, corrects himself when tempted to swear in front of her, comes to her defense when a college boy bothers her in a bar, and buys her wonderful meals with fine wine. But he’s hardly a candidate for “best boyfriend.” WHAT is she thinking?! What is HE thinking?! The situation just stretches credulity too far in my opinion.

At the end I’m left just shaking my head and muttering “Huh?”
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Gemarkeerd
BookConcierge | 45 andere besprekingen | Jun 28, 2018 |
This may be a very good book, but it was just not grabbing my attention. I gave up 90 pages in when I could not take anymore descriptions of how he stalked this woman throughout her life.
 
Gemarkeerd
she_climber | 3 andere besprekingen | Jun 20, 2016 |

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Statistieken

Werken
2
Leden
567
Populariteit
#44,118
Waardering
½ 3.6
Besprekingen
50
ISBNs
19
Talen
1
Favoriet
2

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