Please Stop Talking

I know that today is Friday and it’s supposed to be my weekly post featuring a piece of online fiction, but the story that I wanted to feature was taken down from FictionPress and I can’t find it anywhere.

So, since that happened – and it’s really too bad. If you can find someone who has a copy (or locate the original author) it was called Behind the Cameras and it was FANTASTIC – I’ve decided to forgo this week’s post and just post a book review. My guess is that the online story was plagiarized somewhere and the original author decided to take down the original so that it wouldn’t happen again. Or maybe they’re trying to get it published. It was one of the best online stories that I have ever read.


Say the Word

Written by: Jeannine Garsee

Released: March 17, 2009 by Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books


Summary: Dredging up the past can knock the present right off balance.

The world expects perfection from seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher, and for the most part, that’s what they get. She dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father’s every rule. But when her estranged lesbian mother dies, it’s more than perfect Shawna can take.
Suddenly, anger from being abandoned ten years ago is resurfacing along with Shawna’s embarrassment over her mother’s other family. As she confronts family secrets and questions from the past, Shawna realizes there’s a difference between doing the perfect thing and doing the right thing.



This was just one of those books that I couldn’t get into and I’m not entirely sure why. I admit that I didn’t like the main character Shawna and her multiple personalities – I’m pretty sure that she was schizophrenic – and the way that she addressed these different personalities was weird.

I did like how the main focus at the beginning, in the few chapters that I read, was how she dealt with her mom suddenly coming out and moving to live with her girlfriend. I think that the issue of parents suddenly realizing their true selves is an amazing issue to tackle with young adult novels because of the stigma that can be placed upon their children by their community. I completely am against the horrible feelings and attitudes that people express towards those in the GLBT community and their loved ones. Sexuality is something that I believe doesn’t define a person solely for who or what they are.

I almost wish that I had tried to read further with this book but I was just not in the mind-set to push myself to read something that isn’t clicking with me. I think that this might be a book that I will take out from the library at a different time and perhaps then reading it won’t seem like a chore. I do think that this book has the potential to be a really great read.