Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy

Die 13jährige Cookie ist völlig fertig: Ihre geliebte und bewunderte große Schwester flippte am Heiligen Abend völlig aus und wurde kurz darauf in die Psychiatrie eingewiesen. Cookie ist hin- und hergerissen zwischen der Ohnmacht, ihrer Schwester nicht helfen zu können, der Angst vielleicht selbst durchzudrehen und dem Versuch, einfach alles zu ignorieren. All diese zum Teil auch widersprüchlichen Empfindungen hält sie in meist kurzen, aber dennoch sehr aussagekräftigen Gedichten fest.
Wobei Gedicht hier weniger mit Reim oder metrischer Struktur zu tun hat, als mehr mit der speziellen Anordnung der Worte. Geht man darüber hinweg, lassen sich die Sätze wie poetische Prosa lesen. Sonya Sones schildert die Qual der kleinen Cookie show more ebenso überzeugend, wie sie durch deren Augen das Leid der großen Schwester beschreibt. Vermutlich weil sie selbst Ähnliches erlebt hat.
Ein kleines, sehr gefühlvolles Buch ohne Kitsch über ein Thema, dass sich nur selten zwischen zwei Buchdeckeln wiederfindet. (Und nicht nur für Jugendliche geeignet!) show less

Sonya Sones grew to be one of my (recent) favorite authors after I read What My Mother Doesn’t Know, and soon after, What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know. I went out and bought all her books after I read those two. But what I didn’t expect is that Stop Pretending, Sones’ first book, is an even better book than those that came after it.

Sones’ free-verse novel, Stop Pretending, does two amazing things that I haven’t witnessed in other free-verse novels so far. A majority of this book’s poems can be read separately from the others. They stand alone as very powerful works of poetry and don’t need the support of the “larger story.” At the same time, they all mesh together into that “larger story” that is hard to step away show more from, even with it being an emotional read. It’s the combination of these two effects that makes Sones such a great novelist and poet, all in the same work.

Being that this is strongly influenced by the author’s life growing up, I feel that it helped her create the very real main character. The poems bring the reader deep into the mind of this teenager who doesn’t know how to deal with her sister’s hospitalization. This can only come from someone who’s dealt with similar issues in real life. It also allows a reader, and even society in general, to consider all sides of the situation. It’s not just the patient who needs therapy, or just someone to talk to in general. It’s all members of a family, no matter how much they try to hide it.

Sonya Sones’ first book is by far my favorite of hers so far. It’s no wonder her books have gotten the attention they have. show less

I have never read about mental illness written in such a beautiful way. Sonya Sones' falling rhythm poems tell the story of when her eldest sister (by seven years) had a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized. These short and powerful, easy-to-read and even easier to understand poems explicitly detail the author's feelings towards her situation, her sister, her mother, her father, her friends, herself. Devoured in a quick sitting, the impact of these poems are lasting. A beautiful way to deal with mental illness.

Cookie relates the experiences of her sister who’s gone crazy and is staying in a hospital and how it’s affecting the family. Cookie worries what her friends will think, that she herself will go crazy and mostly mourns her sister, missing who she was before. Eventually she comes to grips with it, with the help of being in love, learning to appreciate her sister’s lucid moments and recognizing that things will be OK.

I loved this poetry book. I found it to be a very interesting way of documenting the authors feelings. It chronicles the months of Cookies life after her big sister has a mental breakdown and is institutionalized. It is full of emotion and demonstrates the grieving process that she goes through as she loses her sister, her family, and some friends. It describes the events that she is going through as well as wonderful memories that she has of her sister. The emotions described vary from grief, to anger, to guilt, and acceptance. They are extremely realistic and well documented. I wish this book had been out when I was growing up as it hit really close to home. I feel that it would be beneficial to read for anyone who may be going show more through a similar experience. The effect it has on a family is heartbreaking and a book such as this one could really help children. It is very memorable and well written. The poems often stand alone but put together tell a story. I highly recommend it. show less

The subtitle of Stop Pretending says it all: "What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy." In a sequence of short, intense poems based on the author's own experiences, a 13-year-old girl suffers through her shifting feelings about her sibling's mental illness. She recalls the terror of the Christmas Eve when Sister was suddenly transformed into a stranger; the horror of visiting Sister in the hospital and finding her rocking on all fours; the fear that her friends will find out; her own worry that she, too, may lose her mind; and her wistful memories of Sister as she was before. More complex emotions are also explored, such as her irrational suspicion that Sister may be deliberately acting crazy, as poignantly expressed in the title show more poem: "Stop pretending./ Right this minute./ Don't you tell me/ you don't know me./ Stop this crazy act/ and show me/ that you haven't changed./ Stop pretending/ you're deranged." Gradually, as Sister begins to recover, the girl is able to find hope and again take pleasure in her own life. Blank verse is perfect for a story with such heightened emotion, and is a format that has been used with great success in other fine novels for teens, notably the Newbery-award winning Out of the Dust, by Karen Hesse, and Robert Cormier's boyhood memoir, Frenchtown Summer. Teen readers may even be so inspired as to try their own hand at this challenging but satisfying form. (Patty Campbell, Amazon, no date) show less

A series of free verse poems about when the author's older sister had a mental breakdown and was committed to an institution, this short book flew by as I read it. The author explores all of her emotions dealing with her sister's mental illness and her parents' inability to deal with it - anger, fear, sadness, and disbelief. Recommended.