En flicka berättar om sin uppväxt med sin dödssjuka mamma, den nersupne pappan och en syster som är aggressiv och väldigt utåtagerande. De bor i en husvagn, de är fattiga och utstötta. Trots det kämpar flickan för att göra allt gott.

Det här är en riktigt bra och stark berättelse om ett maskrosbarn. Det går inte att läsa boken torrögd!
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A girl tells about her childhood with her terminally ill mother, the alcoholic father and her very aggressive sister. They live in a trailer, they are poor and outcast. Despite everything that’s bad around her, the girl struggles to make everything well.
This is a really good and powerful story! ( )

Em denkt door lief te zijn het geluk te vinden. Maar na de plotselinge dood van haar zus ontdekt ze dat ze altijd in de schaduw van anderen heeft geleefd en besluit dat het tijd wordt haar eigen leven te gaan leiden. ( )

When She Was Good is a poignant yet dark account of eighteen-year-old Em's coming to terms with the tragic events of her past. Suddenly on her own, Em spends the entire book reflecting back on the drunken rages of her father that sent her and her sister hiding under the trailer for safety, the episodes of letting boys "touch her" in order to feel love, and most oppressively, the years of physical and emotional abuse her sister puts her through when they run away together after their mother's death. Despite her sister dying of a stroke at the age of 22, Em continuously hears her voice berating and taunting her. It isn't until Em hits absolute rock bottom, and skims the dark side of hopelessness and insanity, that she realizes there are no angels that are sent to save us, and there are no rules that say if you are good, good things will happen to you. It is then that she is able to find the forgiveness that silences her dead sister's voice and the dignity and will to take control of her life and make changes for the better. Mazer's writing is so brilliantly descriptive with metaphors that ring with beauty and truth that the reader has absolutely no choice but to feel what Em is feeling. However, the depths of Em's pain and depression are so deep and thick that the reader may find it hard to endure their weight through to the end. (Claire M. Dignan (KLIATT Review, May 2000 (Vol. 34, No. 3))

Won: No awards listed.