Vanishing - Softcover

Brooks, Bruce

3.08

85 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064472345 ISBN 13: 9780064472340

Publisher: HarperTeen, 2000

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Alice just can't stop crying. To her, it seems as if it should be simple. If your parents split up, you live with the one who understands you best. Alice's father had always been the one to "get" her. But somehow she had ended up living with her mom, who drank too much, and her stepfather, who didn't like her and didn't care who knew it. So when a bout with bronchitis lands her in the hospital, she decided she just can't face going home again--ever.

What if she simply stops eating--goes on a hunger strike? They would have to keep her there, wouldn't they? It seems like the simplest solution, even when the hallucinations start, even when they kind of take over. But suppose she goes into a coma--or dies? If that happens, she'll have her new friend Rex, the mysterious boy who says he's dying, but whose jaunty ways have brought Alice to life.

Once again, Bruce Brooks tells an intriguing story that puts new twists on the oldest, biggest issues--love, death, and taking charge of your own life as you move toward adulthood.

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Review:

Roommates in a hospital ward, both Rex and Alice are 11 years old and both are "vanishing"--he into a terminal illness (although he calls himself the Prince of Remissions) and she into hallucinations from not eating. Alice has imposed a hunger strike upon herself in hopes that she won't have to return to her cold mother and domineering stepfather. The irony of her choice--death over a difficult life--is bitterly amusing to Rex in contrast to his own situation. The story is saved from pathos by the exchanges of gallows humor among the two kids and a wiseacre nurse, as they spar to see who can put up the coolest front. Rex, for example, refers to an unidentified burn victim in the next bed as Bobbie Q, a quip of black humor that shocks even Alice. But when Rex is taken to the intensive care unit for his last hours, he finally drops his pose of sophisticated detachment to convince Alice that "dying sucks"--an admission that helps her make the choice that Rex has been denied.

This genuinely funny--but also quite serious--novel will appeal to younger teens for its short length and quick pace, and older teens for its sophisticated dialogue. Bruce Brooks brings a brilliant surprise to each of his novels: The Moves Make the Man, with its rich basketball imagery; Midnight Hour Encores, with its vivid invocation of the '60s and the mind of a self-centered cello prodigy; and Asylum for Nightface, a strange book about the search for God. (Ages 11 and older) --Patty Campbell

About the Author:

Bruce Brooks was born in Virginia and began writing fiction at age ten. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972 and from the University Of Iowa Writer's Workshop in 1980. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, newsletter editor, movie critic, teacher and lecturer.

Bruce Brooks has twice received the Newbery Honor, first in 1985 for Moves Make the Man, and again in 1992 for What Hearts. He is also the author of Everywhere, Midnight Hour Encores, Asylum for Nightface, Vanishing, and Throwing Smoke. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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