Alessandra is reading…

When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica – Review

TW: parent death, cancer

***Review contains a HUGE spoiler

Jessie Sloan’s mother is at the end of a brutal battle with cancer. Jessie needs to figure out what to do after she has dedicated her teenage life to lovingly caring for her mother. But when Jessie hears from a college admissions counselor that her social security number belongs to a dead Jessica Sloan, she has to search for her identity while grieving for her mother and having very little to no sleep every night. Her sleep deprivation begins to take a toll and she cannot distinguish reality from hallucinations. Find a longer summary here.

This was an amazing thriller; I almost abandoned this at one point, but I’m so glad I didn’t. Because the ending was crazy. Maybe 10-20 pages before getting to the crazy shit, I thought to myself “hey, wouldn’t it be funny if she was sleeping this whole time” and then she wakes up in the hospital by her mom’s side and I was just open mouthed.

It would’ve been even crazier if Jack had known who Jessie was and if his name was actually Liam (like it was in her dream). That would’ve been the perfect thriller for me.

Also, the thought just occurred to me now that that’s an extremely long dream. Or maybe when we’re sleeping, that’s how long our dreams are and we only remember so much when we wake up.

Which makes me want to keep a dream journal so I could potentially write a book from my subconscious. I’ve been thinking of that for a while, I’d just have to do it. Definitely putting this on a post-it note for my Accountability Mirror (which I have to start or it won’t happen – thanks for the inspiration to keep changing, Goggins).

Random quote and thoughts:

“Something bad has happened in the world, I think. Something bad always happens. I wonder what it is this time. Terrorist attack. Women and children being slaughtered by their own leaders. A shooting in an elementary school. Children murdered by their own moms and dads.”

This quote is so true – but it’s the way that American media works. The news shows only negative and terrifying things that make people so scared of life. I had a professor in college say that the news fear mongers and if we thought about it, we didn’t experience much of what they try to scare you about on the news. Which is true!

Read and dream on.