Book Blurb:
There is a girl, and her name is Sam. She adores her father, though he isn’t around much. Her mother, Courtney, struggles to make ends meet, and never fails to remind her daughter that her life should be different. Sam doesn’t fit in at school, where the other girls have the right shade of blue jeans and don’t question the rules. Sam doesn’t care about jeans or rules. She just loves to climb–trees, fences, walls, the side of a building. When she’s climbing, she discovers a place she belongs: she can turn off her brain, pain has a purpose, and it’s okay if you want to win.
As Sam grows into her teens, she grapples with self-doubt and insecurity. She yearns for her climbing coach to notice her, but his attention crosses boundaries she doesn’t know how to resist. She wishes her father would leave for good, instead of always coming and going, but once he’s gone, she realizes how much she’s lost. She rages against her mother’s constant pressure to plan for a more secure future. Wrestling with who she wants to be in the face of what she’s expected to do, Sam comes to understand that she alone can make her dreams come true.
My Review: 3.5 stars
Sam by Allegra Goodman was a quiet but moving coming of age story. Every book by Goodman has been starkly different which I whole heartedly appreciate.
At the start of the book, Sam is all light and sunshine, but as her single mom struggles with multiple jobs and her half-brother’s behavioral issues increase, Sam becomes stunted at home.
Her release come in the form of climbing. She is strong and wants to the be the best. Climbing becomes her safe space.
The friends she meets through climbing teach her much about life. For example, she had never seen parents that live together, let alone talk and laugh. Through these friends she realizes more of what she wants, and to do what makes her happy, rather than her please her mother. This book delves into divorce, risk, grief, coming of age, romance, and education.
Quotes I liked:
Some people tell lies about the past. Her dad tells lies about the future. He is always telling a new story.”
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