When a Story Hits Home

It is very rare that reading a book makes me cry. In fact, I do not think that I have ever before cried while reading a book. The book Dana's Valley really hit home with me and I not only cried, but left my pillow soaking wet in the process. The story was told from the perspective of a young girl, Erin, who was a middle child in her family. While I am no longer that young, I have still felt everything that comes with being a middle child and I could really identify with Erin. Not only was she a middle child like me, but her younger sibling also had the same name as mine, making the narration seem even more real.

The story was of the narrator's older sister's struggle with leukemia and the impact that it had on her and her whole family. It started me wondering about what it would be like if my own older sister became that sick and (spoiler warning) ended up dying. I think that was what initially started off my lacrimal glands (That is what they are called, isn't it?). The descriptions of how sick and weak her older sister looked towards the end of her life also brought back vivid memories of my own grandfather and his final days after his battle with cancer. That just compounded the tears and, before I knew it, I had finished the book and the clock said that it was after midnight.

Perhaps I was so emotional over this book due to the fact that I was extremely tired, but I could still identify with the story in a way that made it all the more real to me, in a way that no book before it has been. Even though I would not classify it among the works of "great literature", it is still a book that I am glad I read.