Review: The Rest of Her Life
Eighteen year old Kara Churchill is on her way home and she stops to pick up a stray dog so it won’t get hit. When she pulls back on the road, she’s talking on her cell phone and laughing with her passenger and doesn’t see sixteen year old Bethany Cleese. Bethany dies in the accident. Kara is numb with grief and at first, the family doesn’t know how to cope. They hire a lawyer who recommends Kara apply for a diversion. By doing that, Kara can do community service instead of going to trial, and she won’t have a record, so she can go to college in the fall. At first Kara refuses to apply for the diversion because she feels she deserves to be punished. Kara’s Aunt Pam comes to visit and Kara’s mother (Leigh) notices the ease in the relationship between Kara and Pam, and that makes her examine the relationships in her life. Pam helps Kara make a decision about how to deal with the accident – at first her parents aren’t happy with it but they learn to accept it.
In The Rest of Her Life, Laura Moriarty tackles some tough issues about families. I really liked this book. It’s about so much more than the accident. It’s about relationships in a family. After the accident, Leigh realizes that her relationship with Kara is strained and she doesn’t know how to repair it. It’s about learning to accept yourself, your friends and your family. Leigh sees that she’s not a very good friend when she is confronted by her only close one. Leigh is definitely a flawed character, but I think she is one most of us can relate to. Book Club Girl hosted Laura Moriarty on Blog Talk Radio – you can listen to the interview here.
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Well written review. Does the book explore the relations with the victims family and the effect on them? http://www.SandySays1.wordpress.com
I really liked the book too. =)
have you noticed that lately, a lot of books have a cover with the back of a lady’s head? cold rock river and this one… and there was one more with a brown pony tail… it must be the new “thing.”
Great review!
I was about to say the same thing that Sheri did. But i find this cover more fresh and interesting. Although it makes the book look fluffy and light.
This sounds like a really great read! Thanks for the review, Rest of Her Life is going right to the top of my ‘wants’ list 🙂
Great review…I really enjoyed this book, too…
Great review and this looks like a very interesting read. I have always wondered about the guilt a person would go through after killing someone in an accident and this book seems to answer my question.. (don’t ask me why I think about such things! i just do)
Sounds good! I’m adding it to my Friday Finds for this week.
Nice review. Sounds like a book that makes you think — and that’s a good thing!
This sounds interesting.
Great review, Kathy. I’ve been wanting to read this since I read The Center of Everything also by Moriarty. Have you read that one?
Nice review…This book has been on my radar for quite a while now. Definitely going to have to read this one.
Great review Kathy. I really liked this book. I didn’t make it to the chat last night-I’ll have to listen to it at some point here. I hope to get my review up this weekend sometime.
Sounds like a great book — I’ll look for it!
Great Review. I would like to read this one.
Kathy, I skimmed the review and will check back after I read the book. I got the book a bit late and couldn’t get it read in time for the author chat. I look forward to reading it and listening to the chat with the author!
Sheri…yes! I was going to say I thought I had this book, but the review didn’t sound at all familiar. I think I’m confusing it with one of the other back of the head books.
I liked this book a lot as well — in fact, it ranks in the top 5 of this year’s reads for me. I liked that the author never took the obvious or easy way out. I had a real sense of the characters struggling toward their growth — it didn’t “just happen.” Now I’ve got her first book on my TBR list for 2009.
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That is a thought subject matter, but it sounds like it was handled very well. It really sounds like a great read.
Great review! I’m stumbling this one!
Sounds like one I might like!
Sounds like a good book!
It inspired a post about similar covers here.
An excellent review. I can’t imagine such a difficult situation.
Thanks for the review! This looks like something I’d really like.
Great review! Wow, it sounds like a hard-but-rewarding read. That healing process would be so difficult!
I always think it is interesting when a character is named the same as I am. Oh, no! It is too bad that in this case my namesake was the one who dies hit by a car.
Based on this review, I think this would be the perfect gift for a friend of mine. Also, I really liked The Center of Everything.
That sounds great. Thanks for the review!
I really enjoyed reading your review of this book. I have seen it around, but hadn’t really known what it was about until now.
I read an earlier book by this author and really liked it. I definitely hope to read this one as well. Great review, Kathy.
Great review! I read this one, too, and I also liked it.
I was not adding this to my list because I wasn’t sure about it. But now I know I should read it. Thanks for the review!