When She Was Good

January 3, 2000
After years of abuse from her mentally ill older sister, a girl gingerly takes her first steps toward liberation when her tormentor dies. PW's starred review called the novel "heart-wrenching." Ages 12-up. (Jan.) n

December 1, 1997
Gr 8 Up-A taut, introspective narrative in which Em is worn down by years of physical and emotional abuse from her sister. Hope comes with the teen's eventual realization that she will emerge intact. (Sept.)

Starred review from September 1, 1997
Gr. 10^-12. Although 17-year-old Em knows she has been liberated by her sister's unexpected death, the idea of facing life alone is terrifying. How can she survive without Pamela telling her how to think and feel and act? With Pamela's booming voice echoing in her head, Em sifts through her mixed feelings about her foulmouthed sister, who both protected and abused her, and tries to figure out what happened and who to blame. This isn't the first time Mazer has dealt with relationships between sisters in their teens and twenties: her YA novel "Three Sisters" (1986) is still in print in paperback. But this compelling private dialogue is more intricately structured and has greater emotional depth. Using language at once fierce and unpretentious, Mazer captures with nearly perfect pitch not only Em's vulnerability and inner struggle but also Pam's quirky madness. The moody jacket seems young, but the novel's haunting themes--family relationships, self-esteem, loneliness--speak strongly to older teens, and the book can easily be used as a springboard to adult novels such as Kaye Gibbons' poignant "Ellen Foster" (1987), in which a young girl fights to maintain her self-esteem in the face of abuse, and Janine Boissard's books about the normal ups and downs of sisters. Em's ultimate discovery that she possesses the strength to overcome her past is a believably rendered testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. It is also a fine counterpoint to the grim, hopeless worlds evoked in so many recent novels for older YAs. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)