My Life Next Door- Summer Reading Review

                   Over the summer, I read an amazingly written novel by Huntley Fitzpatrick, called My Life Next Door. It was such a spectacular book because the main character, Samantha Reid, goes through some of the most treacherous problems that people face today, and that includes love, crime, secrets, and choices. All these concepts in life are connected in some situations, as they are in the novel. Samantha falls in love with a boy from a family next door that her mother dislikes, and his name is Jase Garrett. He is a part of a huge family including his mother, father, the oldest brother Joel, his sister Alice, then there's Duff, Harry, and the two little one's named George and Patsy. As Senator of Stony Bay, Connecticut, Samantha's mother is very neat and orderly, which makes her very uneasy about the Garrett's messy house, and unkempt children. Samantha keeps their love a secret for awhile, and finds herself in a deeper problem than she intended on. First in the novel comes the love and secrets, with Samantha keeping her love life a secret to the world, which results in Jase feeling insecure about their relationship.  This then leads to crime and choices, and the crime is when Samantha's mother is driving with her boyfriend and government advisor, Clay, and Samantha in the back seat. The two of them had a few glasses of wine before driving, and before anyone knew what happened, they had committed a hit and run. The next day, Samantha heard some terrible news from the Garrett family, their father had been hit by a car late last at night. It took Samantha awhile to figure it out, but she soon realized her mother had done this to their family. Samantha was faced with the hardest choice ever, to tell the Garrett's and be relieved of the secret, or not tell them to save her mother's job as Senator. I will not tell you what she does, but it will definitely surprise you!


                     My favorite quote from this novel is when Samantha stands up to her mother about her and Jase dating, Samantha says "I'm not going to apologize as though she's right and I've done something unforgiveable. That would make what I said to Jase a lie. I'm not lying to him anymore, even by not telling the whole truth. Instead I stride to the fridge and pull out the lemonade" (Fitzpatrick, 223). I love this quote so much because Huntley Fitzpatrick hid a secret message behind it. Do you know what it is? She is conveying a symbol with the lemonade, and that symbol can be described in one word, rebellion. Samantha is rebelling against her mother's rules about dating a Garrett, and in this quote, it says that she goes to the fridge to get the lemonade, instead of saying sorry to her mother. Samantha has a choice here as well, and that is to trust her mom, or to be with Jase. The lemonade describes how she went the harder route, to the kitchen, to get the lemonade, which would be the rebellious choice. Samantha's true personality shines through her at this part of the book, which is why this quote is so important.


                    The ending of My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, is bitter sweet in so many ways. First off, it ends with Samantha Reid's life being completely switched around by the hit and run that her mother committed. Her mother ends up retiring from being Senator, and is no longer with Clay. As for Samantha and Jase, they are implied as being in the "friend zone" for now, since Samantha and her mother are moving to start a new fresh life. I believe that the ending was perfect for the theme of the story, or what the author wanted me to take away from the reading. The theme of my novel is that love, crime, secrets, and choices can be repaired, but only by the right hands. This means that you can turn your life upside down very easily being around the wrong people, or hands, such as Samantha's mother and Clay, but you can also change is with the right hands, and this was the Garrett family. Samantha knew the choices she had to make, they were just hard to make because people around her were telling her no. But Samantha knew in her heart what she had to do.

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