About this title: In this brilliant debut, Jones tells the story of a boy who refuses to accept the polite lies of a tightly knit community that rejects love in favor of appearances. Written with nail-biting suspense, "The Outcast" is an emotionally powerful testament to the powers of love and understanding.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780061374043ISBN:0061374040
Description: Acceptable. A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes-in pen or highlighter-but the notes cannot obscure the text. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 0061374032 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0061374032 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 2009-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Acceptable. 2009-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Fine. 0061374040 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Like New. 2009-Paperback-May contain minor shelf-wear. Otherwise, volume un-read and in "As-New" condition. -Used-Like New-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: New. 0061374032 THIS IS A HARDCOVER BOOK IN DUST JACKET. THE BOOK AND DUST JACKET ARE IN FINE/FINE CONDITION, NEW, NO DEFECTS INSIDE OR OUT. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780061374036ISBN:0061374032
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 347 p. Audience: General/trade. Ships from US-Midwest. Support Independent Booksellers! Omahabooks offers same or next day shipping-satisfaction guaranteed. read more
"This was a good story. The characters were all well developed and the story line was interesting. In the story, the main character becomes estranged from the people in his town due to the stigma of his mother's death. It's an interesting read as the author explores how something like the death of someone near you can somehow taint you in others' eyes, despite its irrationality. It's also interesting in how you can become the thing that others treat as, even if you were nothing like that to begin with -- the self-fulfilling prophecy.
I often have to force myself to finish a book, even books I like. But this book I never had to force myself to come back to."
"This story could be summarised as the account of a young boy coping with the ongoing emotional effects resulting from witnessing a family tragedy, but it is more than that, it is the tale of the 'demons' in the relationships of those around him as well. The main character Lewis was not the only Outcast in this book.
Having just recently been watching 'Mad Men' on television, I could understand the 50's backdrop (I'm a child of the 70's). All the characters were fighting against stereotypes. Dick, the strong, confident business man with a violent streak; the 'holly home maker' wife Alice who was inexperienced in parenting and turned to alcohol; Gilbert, trying to be a father to a son who grew up while he was at War. Everyone in the story knew their role, but as in real life, there is more to us than what meets the eye. Outward appearances are not always the reality.
As I read the book, I could feel Sadie Jone's experience as a scriptwriter. I kept wanting to know more about all the characters - their backgrounds, why they are who they are. I wanted more detail, the descriptions that are possible in a book but not always in a 'hallmark channel movie'.
Having said that though I could not put this book down. I just wanted to give the boy a hug and tell him everything would be ok.
What can we learn from this book? Have we gone too far the other direction today and are too reliant on counsellors and psychiatrists to help us through difficult times? Do we have too many opinions on other people's parenting skills or not enough? How many times do we look the other way rather than get involved?
"I can see now why the little blurbs on the front of my copy that say things like "Riveting", "Addictive" and "Mesmerizing" were put there. Out of the list of words I would choose to describe this book, those three are at the very top.
The story is heart-wrenching. As a child, Lewis Alderidge suffers through one of the most traumatic things a child can ever go through. A full out witnessing of his mother's death by drowning. It affects him on so many multiple levels, psychologically and later, through self-harm, physically.
The book starts out with him returning from jail where he'd been sent for two years. The mood is immensely awkward at the beginning and there are moments where the writing feels just like that. But it is, I feel, completely a thematic device. We are brought back to his early childhood so we can get to know the events that got Lewis to this moment. And then once we've learned that we return to this newly free, yet never healed young man.
My heart goes out to him as a character. He was utterly broken and it didn't seem like anyone was ever going to be able to fix him.
I adored this story. It kept my attention throughout and I highly recommend it to anyone else. You really get inside the characters' heads. All of them. Congrats to Sadie Jones because this was truly, truly a gem of a novel."
"I read this book literally in three sittings. I read over half of it in the first sitting. Reading about "the outcast" was like watching an artist paint an interesting scene, slowly but with a good pace. This scene was post-WW2 era England where families with plenty of money and a lack of feeling for their children create plenty of melodrama just below the surface. A surface, for all intents and purposes, which should not be disturbed.
Fortunately for the reader, the outcast is adept at disturbing the surface and appears to the other characters in the novel as nothing more than a troublemaking enigma. However, the reader is privvy to what makes him tick. His mother's tragic death, for example, wasn't the first defining moment in his life - the stage for his inner turmoil had been set with his father's interaction to him in the early pages of chapter one.
I like the way the story came together, and I didn't want it to end. I didn't give it 5 stars, though, because while I enjoyed the story, there was more I wanted to know. The ending leaves room, in my opinion, for a potential sequel.
I believe this is Sadie Jones' first novel. I will put her name on my "search" list in hopes she writes again."
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