Shine (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Patrick: Victim of a hate crime. For majority of the book, he's in a coma. Ran with a bad crowd who didn't really like him, gay
• Tommy Lawson: The rich boy, made fun of Patrick a lot although he is friends with Patrick
• Robert: 11 years old, Bailee-Ann's little brother, just wants to fit in. He's a hyperactive boy who is dealing with the transition from child to teenager and onto adult.
• Dupree: Drug addict, high school drop out, stoned most of the time. Works at a sandwich shop with Beef.
• Jason: College kid that Cat becomes friends with
• Aunt Tildy: Cat's Aunt
• Wally: Pervy guy in the woods, sells meth
• Gwennie: Beef's sister, sweet
• Mama Sweetie: Patrick's dead grandmother, always full of advice and affection
• Doyle: Sheriff; lazy bones
• Carl: Add a description of this character.
• Roy
• Beef: Used to be a great wrestler, high-school drop out, friends with Patrick. Cat loves and trusts Beef because Beef has always been a loyal friend
• Ridings: Old man who lost wife and daughter in tornado. Runs a fruit and vegetable stand.
• Christian: Cat's older brother. She once saw him as a hero.
• Verleen
• Darren
• Dottie
• Mario Mario: Fake ID name of a thug
• Bailee-ann: Widely considered Beef's girlfriend, really sweet but has some issues she has to sort through. Formerly a close bestie of Cat's. Full of guilt feelings.
• Kelly
• Tammy: Tommy's ex-girlfriend
• Cat: Main character and narrator of the story. dealing with the "loss" of a dear friend
• Miss Hattie: The sweet librarian

Quotes edit see section history

• “It was proof that knowledge was power, not being a bully or rich or thinking you were better than everyone.”

  Cat

• “Knowledge was more powerful than fear.”

  Cat

• “Love was stronger than hate.”

  Cat

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• I loved everyone who said yes to the world and tried to make it better instead of worse, because so much in the world was ugly—and just about all the ugly parts were due to humans. I counted myself among those pitiful ranks. I didn’t slam meth or get stinking drunk or go off and molest anyone, but that didn’t let me off the hook. I hid in the shadows, but hiding had the power to hurt, too.

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• “God loves you even on your blackest days, and He will always, always be there to guide you home. All you have to do is look for the light of His love. As long as you remember that one thing, why, then you can cast off the darkness and shine again, can’t you?”

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• It was unfair how the kids who were starving for attention tended to be so annoying that people had no inclination to give it to them.

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• He said that grief had the power to transform us, because when our hearts were hurting, we often let God in. We were imperfect, every one of us, but through God’s love, we could be healed.

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• shoved the ugly under the rug. If we didn’t see it, it wasn’t there, right?

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• I wondered if a bit of God’s light was maybe back inside me. If so, it was a dove that might at any moment fly away. But for now, here it was: soft and wondrous in the branches of my soul.

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• I guess what I’d decided was that looking only at people’s outsides—what they wore, what they did, how they regarded cows—wasn’t good enough. I needed to think about their insides, too. I needed to remember there was a difference. For a while there, I think I forgot there was one, and so I spent a lot of time comparing my insides to other people’s outsides, which made me feel broken and didn’t get me anywhere.

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• The dead tongue spoke to me from the woods, insisting in the horror of the moment that ugly things couldn’t be thrown away so easily. They had to be dragged into the light, or they’d keep growing.

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• That was a problem with lying to yourself. Sometimes you got too good at it.

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• Now I saw the world through new eyes. I saw people through new eyes, especially. People like me, and people who were completely different from me. Maybe they lived in Black Creek, or maybe they lived in Atlanta, or maybe as far away as New Mexico. As far away as India, even.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Black creek
• Asheville
• Toomsboro
• Suicide Rock
• Atlanta
• Malibu
• Sharing House
• Good Lord

First Sentence edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Lauren Myracle (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• National Book Award (Finalist, 2011: Young People's Literature)
• Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award (Finalist, July 2012)

Notes for Parents edit see section history

This book is VERY mature in nature; I had to skip some parts. The mature parts are easy to recognize, though. I suggest fourteen or up, depending on what they know. I also REALLY believe you should DEFINITELY flip through it first.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Being a Teen
• Books › Teens › Health, Mind & Body › Sexuality
• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Violence
• Books › Teens › Social Issues › Homosexuality › Fiction