Reading Response 7: I Heart You, You Haunt Me

For the last blog of this semester, I decided to read one of Lisa Schroeder book, I Heart You, You Haunt Me. This book is about a girl named Ava who is devastated by the recent death of her boyfriend, Jackson, who was killed when he jumped off a ledge into the lake, and hit his head on a rock below. All Ava wants is for him to be able to come back to her, for he had said he would never leave her. However, now she is not so sure. Ava is miserable and torn away from her so-called life. She no longer visits her friends; she goes to parties all the time, and sometimes do not do anything at all, but sit at home all day. Ava and Jackson were close before, but now far away…so she thought. One day, however, when Ava is looking in the mirror she sees a quick, faint flash of a familiar face--Jackson’s--. Is this really him? Could she be imagining it? You have to read the book and find out.

Here is an excerpt from I Heart You, You Haunt Me:

I'm putting on makeup. 

I'll be like a clown 

and no one will see 

the real face 

behind the mask.

I don't want Cali to see 

the sad me, 

the depressed me, 

the shamed me.

As I stand in the bathroom, 

carefully lining my eyelids 

bronze, 

I feel a splash 

of cool air.

I shiver.

I feel something. 

Something behind me. 

Something familiar. 

Hauntingly familiar.

I glance behind me, 

but I don't see 

anything. 

Or anyone.

And then, 

when I look in the mirror 

again, 

I see, 

for a split second, 

not just me, 

but someone else.

Jackson.

This excerpt is important because it sets the whole plot of the story. The rising action of this excerpt catches the reader’s attention. This book is very similar to one of the other books by Lisa Schroeder: Chasing Brooklyn. They are both very similar in plot, setting, and characters. Both books are about a death of a loved one and how the main character is struggling to regain his or her life back. The characters are both emotional, and mentally unstable because the death of his or her loved one has a dramatic affect