Say the Word

by Jeannine Garsee

Overview

Everyone in Shawna Gallagher's life expects perfection and Shawna does her best to oblige. She gets good grades, dates the right boys, and is tirelessly polite. But when her estranged mother dies suddenly, Shawna's not sure how to have the "perfect" reaction. She's still angry that her mother left ten years ago and embarrassed that she started a new family with another woman. Shawna's grief is further clouded by the step-brothers who knew her mother better than she did-this was her mother, not theirs.
But when Shawna's controlling father gets involved, Shawna realizes she may not know the whole truth about the past. As the family secrets continue to unravel, perfection becomes more and more difficult to achieve.
Jeannine Garsee has delivered a compulsively readable novel, from the dramatic story full of family secrets, to the very real, honest narrator who feels both recognizable and relatable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599906744
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Jeannine (Jen) Garsee is a nurse in inner city Cleveland, Ohio. She is also the author of Before, After and Somebody In Between. She lives with her family in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
www.jeanninegarsee.com
Jeannine Garsee grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, which is also the setting for Say the Word and Before, After, and Somebody in Between. She began telling stories through pictures as soon as she learned to draw; then, when she grew older, she added captions to the pictures, till the captions grew long enough to knock the pictures off the page. As the author of three "practice" novels before she was out of high school, she never wanted to be anything except a writer-but she fell under a strange, insidious spell and found herself in the nursing profession instead. Jeannine now works as a psychiatric nurse in an inner-city hospital and lives with her family in a southwest suburb of Cleveland. www.jeanninegarsee.com

Editorial Reviews

Garsee's (Before, After, and Somebody in Between) second novel hits the ground running and doesn't let up. Shawna Gallagher, a high school senior trying to live up to her domineering father's expectations, is awakened one night by a phone call: her estranged mother, who left Shawna and her father years earlier for a woman, Fran, has had a stroke. Following her mother's death, Shawna must confront her feelings about her mother and her own prejudices (she has particular issues with gay people, which are further complicated when her best friend comes out). Shawna's father, learning that one of Fran's sons is in fact his child by Shawna's mother, fights for (and gains) custody of the boy-finally spurring Shawna to defy him. The novel overflows with story lines and plot twists-Shawna's romance with her stepbrother (and her father's with her former babysitter), her ailing grandfather and the ridicule she faces in school. Nevertheless, Garsee presents a compelling portrait of a young woman growing up and coping with an overwhelming array of problems. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)

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Publishers Weekly

Gr 8 Up

Seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher is the poised daughter of a high-powered physician and a mother who abandoned the family 10 years earlier. Raised to be a fine hostess, excellent student, and future doctor, Shawna finds her "perfect" world unraveling when she gets a fateful phone call from her mother's Jewish lesbian partner, Fran. Shawna's mother has had a stroke and is near death. The teen is thrown into a tumultuous period during which everything she has believed-about herself, her demanding father, her "crazy" mother, her mother's partner, and their family-is open to question. Drawn reluctantly into Fran's family story, Shawna finds herself torn between her father, who is always right and always in control, and these strange people whom she does not want to know, but who somehow speak to her sense of fairness and, even more strangely, family. Shawna's actions seem to bear out her own "split personality," as the consequences of her forbidden involvement with Fran reverberate throughout their lives. Garsee has created an intense, frank novel with fragile, resilient, believable characters. Some relationships almost border on the contrived, but, overall, this is a mature and gripping coming-of-age story.-Roxanne Myers Spencer, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green

School Library Journal

Perfectionist Shawna hasn't seen her mother, Penny, in years, not since Penny left their Ohio home to live with another woman in New York. When she dies suddenly of a stroke, Shawna gets to know Penny's partner, Fran, and her two sons. Their relationship goes from accepting to awkward after Shawna learns that one of Fran's sons might be her blood brother. The custody battle that ensues puts Shawna in the position of go-between, in which she gets caught between her love for her brother and her father's use of the law to do the legal, yet unkind, thing. During this time of upheaval, Shawna also learns that her best friend is a lesbian. Garsee manages to give every character depth and dimension without falling into the trap of making the children too perfect and angelic and the adults imperfect to the point where the reader loses sympathy for them, save for Shawna's father. The details of Shawna's daily life sometimes slow down the plot, but it is because of these details that readers will believe Shawna's final transition from doormat to independent thinker. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews

Ten years ago, Shawna's mom Penny came out, moved out, and never looked back. For 10 years Shawna aspired to be everything her protective, perfectionist father Jack wanted her to be, distancing herself as much as possible from the shame that Penny's abandonment caused her. But at 17, her mom's death pulls Shawna into contact with Penny's partner Fran, and their sons, Arye, 17, and Schmule, 10. Jack, who legally remains Penny's next-of-kin, financially ruins Fran's family, and then goes after Schmule, who is revealed to be Penny and Jack's biological child. Shawna finds herself questioning her allegiances, but is powerless in the shadow of her domineering father. The more Shawna tries to connect with Schmule and to make amends with Fran and Arye, the more vicious Jack becomes, leaving Shawna alone to deal with the dawning realization that Schmule is a great danger to himself. There are many issues at play in this powerful and compelling novel—gay rights, acceptance, shame, first love, domestic violence, harassment, depression—all swirling around Shawna, whose thoughts and emotions are not always politically correct, but are always genuine. This sensitive and heart-wrenching story slowly unfolds into a gripping read featuring realistically flawed characters who undergo genuine growth. ” —Booklist, starred review

“Seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher is the poised daughter of a high-powered physician and a mother who abandoned the family 10 years earlier. Raised to be a fine hostess, excellent student, and future doctor, Shawna finds her "perfect" world unraveling when she gets a fateful phone call from her mother's Jewish lesbian partner, Fran. Shawna's mother has had a stroke and is near death. The teen is thrown into a tumultuous period during which everything she has believed–about herself, her demanding father, her "crazy" mother, her mother's partner, and their family–is open to question. Drawn reluctantly into Fran's family story, Shawna finds herself torn between her father, who is always right and always in control, and these strange people whom she does not want to know, but who somehow speak to her sense of fairness and, even more strangely, family. Shawna's actions seem to bear out her own "split personality," as the consequences of her forbidden involvement with Fran reverberate throughout their lives. Garsee has created an intense, frank novel with fragile, resilient, believable characters. Some relationships almost border on the contrived, but, overall, this is a mature and gripping coming-of-age story.” —School Library Journal

“Perfectionist Shawna hasn't seen her mother, Penny, in years, not since Penny left their Ohio home to live with another woman in New York. When she dies suddenly of a stroke, Shawna gets to know Penny's partner, Fran, and her two sons. Their relationship goes from accepting to awkward after Shawna learns that one of Fran's sons might be her blood brother. The custody battle that ensues puts Shawna in the position of go-between, in which she gets caught between her love for her brother and her father's use of the law to do the legal, yet unkind, thing. During this time of upheaval, Shawna also learns that her best friend is a lesbian. Garsee manages to give every character depth and dimension without falling into the trap of making the children too perfect and angelic and the adults imperfect to the point where the reader loses sympathy for them, save for Shawna's father. The details of Shawna's daily life sometimes slow down the plot, but it is because of these details that readers will believe Shawna's final transition from doormat to independent thinker.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Garsee's second novel hits the ground running and doesn't let up. Shawna Gallagher, a high school senior trying to live up to her domineering father's expectations, is awakened one night by a phone call: her estranged mother, who left Shawna and her father years earlier for a woman, Fran, has had a stroke. Following her mother's death, Shawna must confront her feelings about her mother and her own prejudices (she has particular issues with gay people, which are further complicated when her best friend comes out). Shawna's father, learning that one of Fran's sons is in fact his child by Shawna's mother, fights for (and gains) custody of the boy—finally spurring Shawna to defy him. The novel overflows with story lines and plot twists—Shawna's romance with her stepbrother (and her father's with her former babysitter), her ailing grandfather and the ridicule she faces in school. Nevertheless, Garsee presents a compelling portrait of a young woman growing up and coping with an overwhelming array of problems.” —Publishers Weekly

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