THE BOOK OF TOMORROW BY CECELIA AHERN

Published:  2011

It's About:  Seventeen-ish Tamara Goodwin who is grieving the loss of her father to suicide.  A suicide committed after losing the family fortune.  Tamara is left to pick up the pieces for both her and her young mother who has fallen into a catatonic state of grief.  Tamara and her mother must go to live with relatives (the "Deliverance Duo") in the country on the grounds of the old Kilsaney Castle.  Rosalene will not let Tamara be left alone with her mother or Rosalene's husband, Arthur.  Tamara begins to hunt for the secrets that this house and the old, burned castle obviously hold.  Enter the Book of Tomorrow, a diary of sorts that magically writes Tamara's tomorrows for her.  With her tomorrow already written, Tamara begins to discover that she can change her future or leave it and learns that both ways have consequences and repercussions.  From this point in the story, the ruined castle lends itself to a retelling of a fairy tale of sorts.

I Thought:  it has been a strange week for BookBelle.  Not only have I not been around the blogger world much, I feel as though I have only been working and sleeping.  I know that's not true because I can recall some lovely conversations with my boys and some lovely meals shared with my husband.  I know those have not been in my dreams.  For this reason, I feel like The Book of Tomorrow and I have resided in parallel universes.  I don't necessarily recall reading it yet it's definitely been read.  I loved the character of Tamara.  She is fresh, youthful voice that's not afraid of Rosalene's bullying.  She sees her mother closing inward and desperately wants to help her but does not know how.  She falls in lust and love.  She realizes her rich friends from home are fake, plastic.  I feel the love that Cecelia Ahern has put into Tamara.  For this alone, the book is worth a read.  I think the book has been a breath of fresh air for me.  I think this most definitely is Ahern's specialty:  Characters in the flesh.

A Bold Passage:  "All families have their secrets, most people would never know them, but they know there are spaces, gaps where the answers should be, where someone should have sat, where someone used to be.  A name that is never uttered, or uttered just once and never again.  We all have our secrets."


Part of Ahern's Acknowledgment:  "In The Book of Tomorrow" I share my belief in the magic of books, how I believe books must contain some sort of homing device, which allows them to draw the correct reader to them.  Books choose their readers, not the other way around.  I believe that booksellers [or perhaps book bloggers?] are the matchmakers.  Thank you."  Emphasis added.

Amen, Ms. Ahern.