Not really. It's a fine ghost story, very reminiscent of The Ring, but it's light on the scares and the carnage. The characters and their prep school drama gave me some eye-rolls, but I do think Bobbie is a genuinely likable character. Piénselo, Francisco. Y disculpe la confianza, pero después de leer estas páginas, tan duras y hermosas, es como si los conociera, a Aura y a usted, de toda la vida. Debieron quererse mucho. ¿Está seguro de que desea entregar estas páginas en el juzgado? The Urban Legend of Bloody Mary is one that I can't talk about a lot (literally) or even look into because I'm scared to type the name (it's a surprise I actually did here).

Bobbie was an okay character, although I didn’t think that Bobbie and her friends were particularly bright. Saying ‘Bloody Mary’ five times in front of the mirror is just stupid. Even if it’s not true, why tempt fate? I can't make up my mind if I like the twist at the end or not. I think I do? Right now I do. The newspaper clipping was a nice touch. Desde hace unos dias estaba buscando un libro diferente, no me apetecia leer nada de los generos que suelo leer, y Say Her Name fue justo la opcion perfecta. My first impression of this book was that it was magnificent. I could only read a tiny bit at a time because of the crushing weight of the loss that the author experienced after the untimely death of his wife. The book gets two stars for this part alone. The rest was crap.

BookBrowse Review

In the autumn of 2007, in the first months after his young wife, Aura Estrada, died, the novelist Francisco Goldman used to wander the streets of Brooklyn where they lived, restlessly retracing his private stations of the cross. "This was Aura's yoga studio; here's the spa she'd go to for a massage when she was stressed; here was her favourite clothing boutique and there, her second favourite; our fish store; this is where she bought those cool eyeglasses with the yellow-tinted lenses; our late-night burger and drinks place; our brunch place; the restaurant-we-always-fight-in…" Me llamo Francisco Goldman, norteamericano con domicilio en Nueva York, escritor y periodista, cincuenta y cinco años. I still don't know if I actually liked Eva - her character was a bit all over the place and pretty naïve (example: Her father says ""Burning that building down was no accident. Someone was cleaning house." Eva says: "Cleaning house?" What does he mean? "I'm assuming you're not talking about someone vacuuming and dusting and mopping it." Like, what? How is this in the dialogue?) And she is supposed to be a medical doctor? Would not want her to be my doctor at all. While I'm sympathetic she is grieving, and that people do make mistakes, she has a responsibility to her patients to be professional and not accidentally overdose them with medication. ALL THE STARS and MORE! Say Her Name! I wonder if many of you actually could say the name of one POC who has gone missing in your area in the last year. Just one. Say Her Name. I can name three white girls who have repeated made the new in Indianapolis over the last decade because I see their very pretty innocent faces in the news all of the time. I assume there are no POC who go missing here. Right? WRONG! They do. Everywhere. But newspapers and news stations don't show you those people unless they are part of the "rich and famous. THAT is what this book is about.

Bobbie had taken for granted were that she had time and choices. As it happened, she had neither. It felt so stupid and so, so childish – she’d almost seen herself as immortal. Quizá sobreestimamos la memoria. Quizá es mejor olvidar. Denme el Proust del olvido y lo leeré mañana. A veces, tratar de mantener todos estos recuerdos vivos es como hacer malabares con cientos de bolas de cristal. Cada vez que una de ellas cae al suelo y se pulveriza, en mi interior se abre una grieta por donde se escapa para siempre otro trozo de nosotros dos.Well.... I've been spoiled rotten by reading Mary: Summoning by Hillary Monahan because that duology was an exceptional take on the Bloody Mary story. This story, 'Say Her Name', was a good book. It was more of a slow burn though. There wasn't a lot of action. The story itself was a 3.75 star rating and I did like the ending. I may or may not have turned my bedroom mirror around to face the wall, and not brushed my teeth the night I was reading it because I was too terrified to go into the bathroom. Thanks, James Dawson. I’ll have my dentist send you a bill. Once, looking for comfort in my own blinding grief, I sought solace in the book "Grief" by C. S. Lewis. I simply couldn't find any books on the market that could reach the level of agony I was experiencing, nor could I find another human being who could relate to it. "Grief" failed to comfort me with it's intellectualizing the process of grief. Grief of losing my husband had left me crying out for understanding--for some relief from the pain. Grief is emotional and physical agony...it's not something that just dissipates as the days go by like people say it does. It's something that rewires you, shatters your whole life and changes you forever. Finally, Francisco Goldman has touched the ends of that agony and is capable of sharing it with us. There is hope for those who need that comfort now...both for women and men. Bobbie wondered if that's how long you truly live for - until the last person who remembers you, until the final bouquet on your grave.”

Aura's mother Juanita blamed Goldman for his wife's death. The memoir begins with the tone and register of a murder mystery with the author casting himself in the role of the confessional protagonist: "If I were Juanita, I know I would have wanted to put me in prison, too. Though not for the reasons she and her brother gave." Goldman was present, after all; he has no alibi. Aura's mother, Juanita, who made every sacrifice to have her only daughter, a PhD student in Spanish literature, educated in Texas and New York, spoke her final words to her ageing son-in-law over her Aura's dying body: "Esto es tu culpa" – "This is your fault." After the memorial service Goldman was ostracised, and Juanita and her brother tried to have him charged with responsibility for Aura's death. Though it sometimes toys with the tone of a statement for the defence, the book is never mea culpa, however, except to the extent that Goldman cannot help but see himself as in some way an accessory to the accident, an unplumbed well of "if onlys". It is always, rather, mi amor. Eva knew her biological dad and sister for like a hot minute and she’s already showing up at their places in crisis.I've always found the myth of Bloody Mary (and anything to do with bloodthirsty ghosts in mirrors) to be quite unnerving - I was terrified of going into my bathroom alone when I was in P4 (age 7-8) after a girl in my class told me about Candyman, and even as an adult I won't say 'Bloody Mary' however many times into a mirror. I mean look at this book - people who don't believe it say it and it happens!