On the surface, Kimberly McCreight's Reconstructing Amelia tells the story of Kate, who is trying to make sense of her daughter's sudden suicide. It begins when Kate receives a call to come down to Amelia's school, though they refuse to say why her daughter is being suspended. When Kate arrives, she finds out why Amelia is being suspended, but that's not all-- Kate has jumped off the school roof and fallen to her death. Amelia had been caught cheating and seemingly could not bear the shame of her actions. Kate receives a chilling text message from a number she doesn't recognize stating that Amelia didn't actually jump... so what happened?
Kate must wade through her dead daughter's emails, text messages, and social media accounts to figure out what really happened to her daughter. Kate's whole world is rocked, not just from grief, but for feeling like she had been so deceived about their relationship. Kate is a single mom, and she and Amelia had always depended on each other. There were no secrets between them, or so she thought. What she finds in Amelia's texts and emails reveals that she was living an entire life, full of stress and even joy, outside of her mother's knowledge.
Major themes in the book are death and grieving, as well as parent-child relationships and the coming-of-age. Being a teenager is tough for everyone, but for Amelia, with just her stressed out mom to depend on, the torments of high school became too much for her. This book prompts both parents and kids alike to question how well they know each other, and what lives our counterparts live outside of our relationships.
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