looking for JJ is like looking for a new life and soul quite literally (Looking for JJ - Anne Cassidy)

Member Name: angiebabyqueen

Product:	Looking for JJ - Anne Cassidy
Date:	24/11/05 (3596 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a brilliantly written book that I adore truely

Disadvantages: I got lost in some places and had to re-read, but all became clear at the end

Looking for JJ, looking for a new life, looking for a new start where no one knows her past, or her background, she’s changed; she doesn’t know what overcame her to kill her.

“Three children walked away from the cottages on the edge of town towards Berwick waters. Later that day, only two of them come back…”

Jennifer Jones has been in prison for the last six years for murdering a girl who was bossy, and b***hy. Jennifer didn’t mean to, she remembers everything, and has been in deep guilt for the past years. She doesn’t need papers, or prison to make her feel the guilt of it all, she already has it lumbered upon her back. That one spring day, where an accident happened, three girls went out to the woods, yet only two of them came back.

Alice Tully is one of the only people that know who Jennifer is, and what she’s like as a real person. Alice has a life, a job, a boyfriend who she loves truly, and friends who stand by her through everything. Alice has many friends who support and care for her; she is one of two people that know what happened that day that changed who Jennifer was. She’s trying to get on with her life, making a real go of it, but will Jennifer’s past come back, haunt and rip Alice’s new life apart?

Through the storms, through the wind, through the rain, will Alice be able to get through the worst of the media, through the worst of what people think? Will Alice be able to have the new start, the new life that she’s always wanted, to forget the past she thought she left behind? Will she be able to withstand this storm within her life?

This book is wonderfully written, and I love it truly. The story is amazing, the plot is wonderfully written, and the characters were well thought out. At one point, I got confused, but when I re-read the page, I managed to get it. Sometimes, I even ask myself, I wonder if this sort of thing has happened to a child killer before, although I don’t know of any child murder stories.

My final conclusion is that this is a brilliant book, which goes from the past, to the present, to the past and so on. It’s written perfectly and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. This is a magically written book, catching the essence of the world with people who just want to start over again, without the past haunting them.


Winner of the Book trust teenage prize 2004
Short listed for the Whitbread children’s book award 2004
‘Compassionate, unsensational and unflinching’ guardian
‘The power play between the three young girls at the centre of the story is spot on…this book is difficult to put down.’ Adele Geras, TES
‘Dark, chilling and clever’ Celia Rees


Prices and availability:
www.scholastic.co.uk/zone
Amazon: new and used from £0.99 or their price £4.79
E bay: couldn’t find it on there
Tesco: £4.49
RRP: £5.99

Thanks for reading. Angiexx2005

Summary: I recomend this book and you need to go out and buy it