A Review of ONE OF THOSE HIDEOUS BOOKS WHERE THE MOTHER DIES by Sonya Sones

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sones, Sonya. 2004. one of those hideous books where the mother dies. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689858205.

PLOT SUMMARY

Forced to relocate from Boston to Los Angeles following her mother’s death, 15-year-old Ruby Milliken faces her famous father for the first time. Adjusting to life in “Lalaland” proves difficult, especially when paired with the loss of a parent. Now Ruby must do so without the support of her best friend, first real boyfriend, or her beloved aunt. She strikes up a friendship with her father’s assistant, Max, and eventually finds her way around her new world.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Based on the title alone, this is one of those books my mother would have hated to see me read as a teen. “How can you read something so depressing?” I can hear her complain. But I can see my young self smiling, then diving right back in, thinking, “If you only knew what you were missing.” Ruby’s mom, a librarian, probably would have asked to borrow it when Ruby finished. Ruby’s mother is deceased when the book opens, so we have to rely on Ruby’s image of her mother to make that assumption, but Sones has given Ruby a strong voice to describe her mother and her life, so it seems like a safe one.

Sones alternates between Ruby’s poems, and e-mails to her best friend, boyfriend and dead mother, using these venues to share Ruby’s search for love and friendship in her new hometown. Ruby resists, but eventually realizes that she needs her newly-found father. Sones strikes just the right balance of laughter and pathos to keep the reader engaged in Ruby’s plight. While the opening poems certainly illustrate Ruby’s depressing outlook toward her current state, it only takes a few pages for her dry wit to shine through. As she jets across the country to her new home she sarcastically re-writes the flight attendants’ “fasten your seat belts” speech in “Turbulence,” “Ladies and gentlemen/the captain has turned on/the seat belt sign. Please return to your seats/and fish your barf bags out/of the seat pockets in front of you/while we prepare/to slam through some/real nasty storm clouds.”

By the end of Ruby’s story, even rays of hope are visible, when “At Sunset” Ruby says:

Its funny.
I can remember hating palm trees.
I can remember hating Coolifornia.
I just can’t remember

why.

AWARDS & REVIEW EXCERPTS

From School Library Journal - In one- to two-page breezy poetic prose-style entries, 15-year-old Ruby Milliken describes her flight from Boston to California and her gradual adjustment to life with her estranged movie-star father following her mother's death.

Starred Review From Booklist - Sones' novel is an unusual combination of over-the-top Hollywood fairy tale and sharp, honest story about overcoming grief.

CONNECTIONS

Sones references several novels and authors through-out the book. Read one and think about why Ruby would have liked it.
Truman, Terry. 2000. Stuck in Neutral. New York. HarperCollins. ISBN 0064472132.
“…every word Richard Peck ever wrote.”