Wendy Thacher Jensen

Another young protagonist in this novel. Amber is just out of high school and living in a house with roommates. She needed to get out of her family house.
She begins working at an animal shelter and soon works up the ranks to write stories for the magazine published by Helping All Animals. She does research about testing on animals and other animal cruelty situations.
Along the way, she meets people that become friends. That's something she hasn't had while growing up and moving around a lot due to her father's work.
She allows Mike to come by whenever he needs to, but she is beginning to want more for herself than he provides.
There is a section in chapter 26 where Amber rationalizes allowing Mike to remain in her life and bed. "What would he do out in the world without me, without smothering his feelings in my welcoming body?" The paragraph is heart-wrenching.
I cannot really say more without spoiling the plot, but suffice it to say that I am completely on Amber's side and hope that she heals with time.

A difficult read at times, but the growth of Amber as a person is well thought out. The help she gets from friends and support groups seems to help her move forward. I hope the real life cases are similar.… (más)

Amber, a recent high school graduate, gets a job at an animal rescue center. After the job interview, she gets invited to a cat hoarder rescue. The elderly woman never had the animals spayed and they multiplied into a huge number. The kittens were easy but many of the older ones were feral. The crew got down to one cat, a Tomcat with thick gray hair and very big. He was hiding under a bed and Amber, the new hire got him. One eye was missing, no vet care but the catA high school graduate got a job at an animal rescue center. After the job interview, she gets invited to a cat hoarder rescue. The elderly woman never had the animals spayed and they multiplied into a huge number. The kittens were easy but many of the older ones were feral. The crew got down to one cat, a Tomcat with thick gray hair and very big. He was hiding under a bed and Amber, the new hire got him. One eye was missing, no vet care but he A high school graduate gets a job at an animal rescue center. After the job interview, she gets invited to a cat hoarder rescue. The elderly woman never had the animals spayed and they multiplied into a huge number. The kittens were easy but many of the older ones were feral. The crew got down to one cat, a Tomcat with thick gray hair and very big. He was hiding under a bed and Amber, the new hire got him. One eye was missing no vet care but he heeled. They told her that to just leave him there. Admiring his bravery, she requested to adopt him. Named him Tom.

Her thoughts are woven into the story, we find out that she is being controlled and abused by an older man who comes to her apartment that she shares with other renters. Because she did so well at her job, she was promoted to write articles against animal abuse, visit grade schools with the aim of promoting the humane treatment of animals, and do research for more articles.

The mounting stress while doing research on horrible and needless animal abuse during experiments and combined with the visits by the old man brings her terror to a crescendo.

I highly recommend this book to people who care about humans and animals deeply. It is not an easy book to read but a necessary one.… (más)