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Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel by…
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Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel (edition 2014)

by Chris Bohjalian

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6846833,332 (3.72)48
"Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom had experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened? Thousands of people are forced to flee their homes in the Kingdom; rivers and forests are destroyed; and Emily feels certain that as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following the social workers and her classmates after the meltdown, Emily takes off on her own for Burlington, where she survives by stealing, sleeping on the floor of a drug dealer's apartment, and inventing a new identity for herself -- an identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. When Emily befriends a young homeless boy named Cameron, she protects him with a ferocity she didn't know she had. But she still can't outrun her past, can't escape her grief, can't hide forever--and so she comes up with the only plan that she can" --… (more)
Member:upinthestacks
Title:Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands: A Novel
Authors:Chris Bohjalian
Info:Doubleday (2014), Edition: 1St Edition, Hardcover, 288 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:****1/2
Tags:2015, borrowed, fiction, nuclear disaster

Work Information

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian

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Showing 1-5 of 67 (next | show all)
Very powerful and interesting story. A slight mystery throughout the book, but not a mystery/suspense feeling. Written from a slightly too-precocious teenage perspective. ( )
  kimreadthis | Jul 9, 2022 |
A heartbreaking tale told by a homeless teenager living in a trash bag igloo . Six months ago, a nuclear plant inVermont experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily’s parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge and it may have been his fault. This is a story of loss, adventure, and the search for friendship in the wake of catastrophe. ( )
  creighley | Apr 27, 2022 |
3.75 stars

Emily (grade 11) was at school when it happened. There was just a couple more days until the end of the school year. Both her parents worked at the nuclear plant in town. The kids at school only knew that sirens were going when they were loaded on to buses and taken away. Emily kept overhearing things about her parents, about how her drunk father had caused this. She needed to disappear. She didn’t want anyone to know she was their daughter, since they were being blamed for the meltdown.

Emily, who since changed her name to Abby, is telling the story in hindsight, and going back and forth in time, and she does jump around, as it’s kind of a conversational tone. There is one dividing line that makes it easier to tell when in time you are as you read: B.C. and A.C. (Before Cameron and After Cameron). Cameron is a young runaway boy that she takes under her wing, as they are both homeless on the streets of Burlington, Vermont.

The book is rough as it shows the life of a homeless teenage girl. I did cry a few times, usually in reference to Maggie, the dog Emily had left behind in the radioactive zone (not that she had a choice). I had to laugh at the “connection” between Emily Dickinson’s poems and the “Gilligan’s Island” theme (and then I sang the poems as they came up in the book)! I quite liked this and it got just a bit more interesting toward the end, but I’m not sure I liked it as much as others I’ve read by Bohjalian. ( )
  LibraryCin | Jul 4, 2021 |
Chris Bohjalian does a great job of capturing a teenage girl's voice in this thought-provoking story. In fact, on the audio version, his own daughter is the narrator. Emily Shepherd is a troubled teen in the best of times, but when the meltdown comes -- literally -- the nuclear reactor in her idyllic Vermont town, where both her parents are employed experiences a Chernobyl-size disaster, Emily becomes even more messed up, and grown-up simultaneously. Forced to evacuate her hometown, bused out of school to towns outside the exclusion zone, and unsure of her parents' (and beloved dog's) fate, Emily strikes out on a journey of independence. Her father was the plant's main engineer, so he is blamed for the whole thing and that keeps Emily from coming forward to try to be found or connected with anyone who can help her. She has no other viable family (elderly grandparents in nursing homes)and feels too ashamed to seek out friends. Instead she decides to survive on the streets by herself, predictably in the few ways teenage girls can. After a few months, she befriends a young boy, Cameron, and that alters her survival mode to be more maternal and wary, but when he becomes deathly ill, her whole house of cards tumbles down. The title refers to the advice given to children evacuated from the Sandy Hook school shooting as they navigated the carnage. It is equally applicable to Emily and her journey of self-discovery and survival. ( )
  CarrieWuj | Oct 24, 2020 |
Warning: A rant is coming on. Proceed at your own risk. :)

This, in my opinion, is not Chris Bohjalian's best book. Far from it. As hard as it was, I stuck with it because I wanted to comment on a growing absurdity among authors I once admired. It is not only authors. Seasoned, respected professional interviewers, excellent podcasters, and interviewees are doing it, too. I can no longer listen to Terry Gross, NPR host of Fresh Air. She should know better! I often have to delete podcasts because the person being interviewed consistently uses 'like' incorrectly. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard or having to listen to a speaker at a podium say "um" over and over or people who use the expression "you know" over and over and I want to say, "No, I don't know" over and over. There is no reason for a writer to use this word incorrectly, as a filler, or even to bring forth a characters' personality. Here's an example from the book:

Dialog:
"But he's, like, nine."
"He's not 'like' nine. He is nine."

I think the author finally got sick of writing his characters' speech and had to throw that comment in on p.216. After that the incorrect use of 'like' tapers off considerably. Thank heavens!

Here is my argument to authors: The incorrect use of the word 'like' does not tell me anything about the character. It does not denote educational level, economic status, IQ, upbringing, age, or social status. So many people today use the word incorrectly as a filler. It does not sound cool or hip, just dumb.

The other reason I stuck with this book is because I lived in Burlington, VT seven years and loved it. He gets every street, every coffee shop, every Burlington artifact exactly right. I was transported back to the Northeast Kingdom, where I owned a cabin, and to the streets of Burlington, my favorite city on earth.

This story is very sad, very gritty. I think it is a good story. The f-word is certainly over-used. Excellent writers [Karl Marlantes' Matterhorn comes to mind] don't have to over-work the foul language. Matterhorn is about our marines in Vietnam. We know marines cuss a lot. Marlantes uses the language only when necessary and obvious. Having a street person consistantly use foul language because that's what street people do (maybe?) seems to me like a cop-out, a way to avoid the work of good writing. Police are known to swear a lot too. Watch the Canadian cop show, Flash Point, and over several seasons you will never hear them swear. It's an absolutely great show, with excellent writing! End of rant. ( )
1 vote lasvegasbookie | Aug 20, 2020 |
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For Jenny Jackson
And Khatchig Mouradian:
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For Grace Experience: Voice
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I built an igloo against the cold out of black plastic bags filled with wet leaves.
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"Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom had experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened? Thousands of people are forced to flee their homes in the Kingdom; rivers and forests are destroyed; and Emily feels certain that as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following the social workers and her classmates after the meltdown, Emily takes off on her own for Burlington, where she survives by stealing, sleeping on the floor of a drug dealer's apartment, and inventing a new identity for herself -- an identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. When Emily befriends a young homeless boy named Cameron, she protects him with a ferocity she didn't know she had. But she still can't outrun her past, can't escape her grief, can't hide forever--and so she comes up with the only plan that she can" --

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Book description
Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is the story of Emily Shepard, a homeless teen living in an igloo made of ice and trash bags filled with frozen leaves. Half a year earlier, a nuclear plant in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom experienced a cataclysmic meltdown, and both of Emily's parents were killed. Devastatingly, her father was in charge of the plant, and the meltdown may have been his fault. Was he drunk when it happened? Thousands of people are forced to flee their homes in the Kingdom; rivers and forests are destroyed; and Emily feels certain that as the daughter of the most hated man in America, she is in danger. So instead of following the social workers and her classmates after the meltdown, Emily takes off on her own for Burlington where she survives by stealing, sleeping on the floor of a drug dealer's apartment, and inventing a new identity for herself-an identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. When Emily befriends a young homeless boy named Cameron, she protects him with a ferocity she didn't know she had. But she still can't outrun her past, can't escape her grief, can't hide forever-and so she comes up with the only plan that she can. A story of loss, adventure, and the search for friendship in the wake of catastrophe, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is one of Chris Bohjalian's finest novels to date-breathtaking, wise, and utterly transporting. (ARC)
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