The Day I Killed James

If a title sells a book...and a book cover is the standard by which we all judge...then The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde is gold!

You may know CRH from her previous work, Pay It Forward...a little touch of literary genius that was a One Book, One Community feature nationwide (even in Richardson, TX).
You may know some of her other works that were TAYSHAS nominated (such as The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance). And if you don't know any of these titles, that is just fine because her newest novel is a great way to introduce yourself to some great literature.

In the novel Theresa is our likable main character. She is 18, recently separated from her boyfriend, and desperate. In a bout of depressive thought, she carelessly invites her next door neighbor, James, to a party (and makes out with him rather noisily) in an effort to make her ex jealous. She knows that James likes her more than she likes him, but in the heat of the moment of revenge, she allows herself to get carried away. When Theresa and her ex decide to hook up, James leaves the party on his motorcylce (in what we can deduce is anger and hurt)...and he is never heard from again. His motorcycle is found at the bottom of a cliff on Pacific Highway 1.

CRH dissects the novel into three parts and tells the story in both journal formatting and in narrative. From the pieces, the reader understands that James is dead and that Theresa feels severe onus about it. As the novel progresses we are steeped in Theresa's guilt but still separated enough to understand that whatever happened wasn't directly her fault.

There are several secondary characters that are introduced to help Theresa on her journey. This very powerful story is an amazing blend of emotion and circumstance that combine to make a wonderful, wonderful book. The moral of the story, roughly paraphrased from Jame's mother in the story, is that we should all be careful with each other's hearts, regardless of the nature of our relationships (friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, mothers, aunts, neighbors).

I think that is a wonderful moral so I am going to state it again: Be careful with each other's hearts.