Amanda Davis (1) (1971–2003)

This is a book I almost stopped reading because the beginning was very dark and just seemed to be getting darker and weirder but decided to hang in there keep reading and I am so glad I did. Faith Duckle is fat, really fat, with a food nag for a mother. Faith's father passed away when she was younger, and she is an only child, so there is no buffer between her and her mother. Like any teenager, Faith just wants to be liked, to belong. During Homecoming when she is 15, Faith is manipulated and fooled by some of the boys at her school with tragic consequences for Faith and which sends her into a downward spiral. After a stay in a mental institution, Faith is now very thin but still mentally on the edge, and the "fat girl" is with her all the time telling her what to do and who to trust and who not to trust. Eventually, the "fat girl" acts out on Faith's anger in a horrific way, and this sends Faith on the run looking for Charles, the brother of her friend from the mental institution. Charles had saved his own sister numerous times, and so Faith thought maybe he could save her. This search for Charles leads Faith to join the circus, change her name to Annabelle, and get beyond the "fat girl" and find the real Faith. What follows is healing and growth in a coming-of-age story like no other I've ever read. This unique character and original story will stay with me for a long time.… (plus d'informations)

Wonder When You'll Miss Me has to be one of the most heartbreaking books I've ever read. Not only because of the plot itself, but because the author of this marvelous book passed away in a plane crash while promoting it, not long after it was published. This book (and Davis' collection of short stories) remains all that is left of Amanda Davis for us readers.

Wonder When You'll Miss me is an engaging read. It's sort of a trainwreck read where you know something bad is going to happen, yet you can't really pull yourself away. Written with wonderful prose, we readers, get catapulted into Faith's world. Faith's a girl that any teenager could identify with due to her lack of self-esteem that is originally stemmed by her weight is worsened by a brutal attack inflicted upon her by some boys from her school. Once Faith reaches the point of no return, she runs away and joins the circus.

Ahhh, the circus! Everytime I read any book that has a circus in it as a major part of the setting, I get this overwhelming need to actually go to a circus (I haven't been to one in years). I get this sense of nostalgia and have memories flooding back to me of being a kid sitting on those bleachers, entranced by the elephants and terrified of the clowns. The circus in Wonder When You'll Miss Me is less glamorous than one would hope life in a circus would be. But it is still full of wonder. You would think hearing about the same tasks that Faith performs for the circus over and over again would become tedious, but they do not. If anything, those were the parts I enjoyed the most because let's face it: every kid dreams of running away to the circus at least once during their childhood. There's just this sense of magic in the circus that no one wants to escape. A pull to something more innocent. We readers can see why Faith would be drawn to such a world.

Wonder When You'll Miss Me was a tremendous novel. You have a heroine who just breaks your heart and who you root for, regardless of the terrible thing she did. While the comic moments are few and far between, they're still there and some of them help to lighten the mood a bit. Wonder When You'll Miss Me is a book about trying to let go of your past while being confronted with it at every turn. It's a book about keeping your faith regardless.

Wonder When You'll Miss Me is a bittersweet book because it is so amazing. However, it's terrible because it is the last work we'll ever have from Amanda Davis, who you could just tell from reading this book, had tremendous talent and would've gone on to write tons of other amazing books. Never again will we be able to read her beautiful prose or have one of her amazingly developed heroines capture our hearts completely the way that Faith did. Amanda Davis' death is a tragedy not only for those who knew her, but for us as readers, and for the literary world as a whole.… (plus d'informations)