Review: BookWhisperer Reviews: Sleeping Handsome
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 6, 2012
This is an inspiring, innocent, and honest love story. The kind of story that will tug and pull at your heart strings long after the last page. Being such a short story readers will crave more of this wonderfully talented author's style. Paige is a young girl that has traded popularity for something real. Years she has spent bending to her, so called, friend's every whim. Just her luck, the most recent event has proven to cost her more than she was willing to give. To avoid expulsion she has agreed to community service in exchange for her teacher agreeing to look the otherway about her current situation. Only she never anticipated her community service would involve daily readings to a young man only a year older than herself that has been comtatose for the past couple months. His mother is determined to try every means neccessary to bring her son back. After researching studies proving patients with regular interaction had higher recovery rates; she set out to make it happen. This is where Paige finds herself in a very uncomfortable situation of daily visits for the sole purpose of reading to Zach while his mother is at work. What begins as a job soon turns into Paige's favorite passtime. This is a very awkward transition where Paige is very overwhelmed by the machines and the unconcious boy laying in the bed, but as time shifts and her time grows she finds her comfort growing. After reading through several books she comes across Zach's private journal hidden within the bookshelf. After much diliberation she decides to read his journal, and learn more about the boy which she has grown fond of. This was such a truly incredible book, but the fact is nothing really happened in the story. Every single day, Paige reports to Zach's bedroom where he lays on a hospital bed, and machines make sure that his body continuing to work as normal. So, she just talks about her life, or what they are reading in his journal, or what type of person she thinks he was, anything and everything and she just keeps talking. As they journey through Zach's past everything begins shifting for Paige where she used to be so uncomfortable and uneasy; she now finds herself drawn to this boy that she really doesn't know. Paige knows that he probably can not hear anything she says, but interacts with him by commenting and analyzing everything. She even begins discovering their common traits, and making changes in her own life as a result. As this relationship (for lack of a better word) grows she finds herself overlooking Zach's current state and noticing him as a person. It was as if the journal gave him life, and allowed her to meet the person. Then oe day, it all falls apart when Paige is visiting Zach's, and his Mother informs her that the family needs to move forward; and her assist will no long be necessary. As Paige returns to Zach's room for her one last moment with the boy she has come to care so deeply for it is a heart wrenching and earth shattering moment. This was a wonderful and inspiring story about truth and honesty. I loved every minute, and my only complaint is that it is over. Paige and Zach are incredible characters for an equally incredible story. Anyone looking for a deep and thoughtful story should take a chance on this short story. BookWhisperer Recommended Read.