Book Review: #1
Title: Feeling Sorry for Celia
Author: Jaclyn Moriarty
No. Pages: 276
Pub. Date: 2000
Feeling Sorry for Celia leaves one feeling sorry for Elizabeth, the book's main character, instead of the book's name's sake: Celia. Through personal letters to and from A Stranger, wacky notes to and from Mum, anonymous notes from bus riders, and letters regarding her life from imaginative operations such as The Cold Hard Truth Association, The Association of Teenagers, and The Young Romance Association, readers are brought into the life and troubles of a high schooler living in Sydney.
When Celia runs away and seems to finally not have a plan for returning home, Elizabeth is brought through a ride trying to figure out her thoughts on the situation while writing to a complete stranger in a rival school across town for a class project. When Elizabeth starts the program, she had no intention of receiving neither a reply nor actually becoming friends and relying on a complete stranger. The more intimate and wordy the letters became, the stranger Lizzy's situation increases. Celia had joined a circus, and Elizabeth and her new friend and potential lover devise a plan to retrieve Celia and bring her home. Once Celia is safe back where she belongs, feelings change for everyone; new friendships form, old ones sever, and love isn't want it seemed like to the girls.
When I read reviews for this book, I had a notion that it was going to be a deep, macabre story such as Stick Figure and CUT. But when I finished this book, I felt that my hopes were set too high by the reviewers of having a depressing book. Though I was disappointed with my thoughts prior to opening the pages the book was still amazing! The way Ms. Moriarty's style is with different letters being thrown about deepens the plot and thrill of the book. Characters are sketched and grown by hints and progression in the communication through paper and script.
Stars I give? *****