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kathymartin9237

kathymartin9237

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Good As Gone
Douglas Corleone
Awoken
Timothy Miller

The Opposite of Hallelujah

The Opposite of Hallelujah - Anna Jarzab This is a big book filled with big ideas. What does it mean to be sisters? How do you deal with grief? What about jealousy? What do you think about faith and God? How do you handle change?Caro is just about to start her junior year in high school when the sister who left to join a convent when Caro was eight comes home. Hannah comes home sick and depressed and without a plan for her life. Caro doesn't know how to cope. When she was younger she got the name Caroliar for telling her school friends that Hannah was dead. She has rebuilt her life in high school without mentioning that she even has an older sister. Naturally, her first reaction is to lie again. This time she tells her new boyfriend that Hannah was in the Peace Corps. This lie blows up when he is at the "meet the family" dinner that is a part of early dating losing her his esteem and making her parents very angry with her.I found it hard to like Caro much of the time. She was so angry - with her parents, with her sister, with life. She seemed so self-absorbed and so self-centered. I could see flashes of caring that grew in frequency as the story continued. She seemed really young in her search for some kind of magic bullet that would make everything right for her sister Hannah. But it did fit with her rational scientist sort of personality. I was particularly intrigued with her whole relationship with God through the story. I thought that her frequent conversations with Father Bob helped us as readers think about our own relationship with God while she was clarifying her own. I liked seeing Caro's growth through the story. I also liked seeing how the relationship between the two sisters changed for the better. This was a very moving and thought-provoking story that should appeal to older young adults.