In 34 Pieces of You, an unexpected death forces three teenagers to reevaluate their relationships.
Carmen Rodrigues (Not Anything) alternates the points of view of Jessie, Sarah and Jake as they try to process their friend Ellie's death. None of them knows the truth, even if they thought they did. Each chapter starts with one of 34 notes left by Ellie ("When I'm around you, I don't know what I'm doing"), some more vague than others, but all tying in to the narrator for that chapter. Every moment is spent discovering what Ellie meant to them personally, and perhaps even more importantly, what she meant to the others.
While it may take a few moments for readers to begin to piece together the story, given the alternating points of view and the time shifts, Rodrigues pulls it all together in the end. Jessie's mother does the best job of describing the feelings of the teens attempting to make sense of their grief: "The world is changing. Nothing fits where it's supposed to. Even the snow is confused." The impact of Ellie's life on all three of them is clear, and and readers will stay interested as their lives intertwine in ways they never would have discovered before her death.
A realistic journey covering both before and after the death of a loved one, 34 Pieces of You will appeal to fans of serious, realistic fiction such as Cut by Patricia McCormick and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson. --Shanyn Day, blogger at Chick Loves Lit