Protected by Claire Zorn is the story of girl who loses her sister in a car accident. It the draw for me to pick up this book. I’ve never read a story like this and I felt like I would identify strongly with it. As it turns out, I did. Hannah and her family is in mourning over the loss of her sister Katie. I lost my sister in a car accident in 2009. It changed my life, and the way I look at life. A small part of me, I know, will never be happy again. “People say stupid, stupid things when someone you love dies. Rubbish. Nothing gets easier Hannah. You just go on with life.” page 197. Hannah and her sister didn’t have the best relationship, they weren’t best friends anything, they didn’t even socialize at school. It’s coming up on the one year anniversary of Katie’s death and Hannah is dealing with remembering the hazy details of the accident so she can recount it for their court date. Did her dad cause the accident? Is he the reason why Katie is dead? Or did Hannah cause it? Was everything somehow her fault?
On top of this, Hannah is bullied in school. I’ve read stories about people being bullied, but they’ve never seemed more familiar to me than this one. I feel like the author somehow knew what I personally went through. This could be my story. I could be Hannah. In high school, I was her. She dreads everyday. She’d public bullied and humiliated on the bus, no one stands up for her, or does anything to stop it. People throw food at her, write on her, terrorize her daily. They make up stories and spread them across Facebook and Instagram. They torment her when the teachers aren’t looking and they just teases her relentlessly. It gave me flash backs to cold mornings on the bus with everyone laughing at me. That time they stuck gum in my hair. The name calling, the rumors, the pranks. I feel like this is one the best books to read if you really want to know what school bullying is like. This is it. This is real.
This girl has a lot going on and I felt for her so much. I saw myself in her. Everyone needs to read this book. Also, the cover of this book, I think is perfect. I have a vase full of dead, old, funeral roses. Sad reminders of people that have died. Love that has been lost. The flower on the cover is symbolic, to me, of loss, sadness, and grief.
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