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St. Michael's Scales by Michael Connelly
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Michael Connelly is a Pulitzer Prize nominated crime reporter turned Edgar Award winning and bestselling crime fiction author.
St. Michael's Scales by Michael Connelly is available. Click for more info or to buy it now.
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St. Michael's Scales by Michael Connelly
Features
Hardcover:
309 pages
; Dimensions (in inches): 1.08 x 8.52 x 5.80
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine; 1st edition (April 2002)
ISBN:
0439194458
Amazon.com
No matter how hard he tries, Keegan Flannery just can't forgive himself. With no close friends to confide in and only a silent, broken father at home, Keegan torments himself daily with the belief that he is to blame for the dissipation of his once vibrant family. As the only person with his mother when she suffered a mental collapse, Keegan feels responsible for her decline, as well as the infant death of his twin, Michael. In a dark vision of his own beginning, he imagines choosing his life over Michael's, "Even when my hands pulled on his shoulders and pushed him down, away; even when I stood on his body and shoved myself up to be born, my brother never fought." Now Keegan, a devout Catholic, has decided that his short life is worth very little when weighed on the spectral scales of St. Michael the Archangel, his twin's patron saint. So instead of a party, he begins to plan a suicide for his 16th birthday. Only a curmudgeonly coach, a wild card wrestler named Nicky, and an acknowledged place on the school's underdog wrestling team stand between Keegan and all eternity. But will they be enough to encourage an underweight, overwrought wrestler who's lost his will to fight? A deep, dense book full of contrasts between light and dark, and rich in religious and mythological symbol, St. Michael's Scales is not for the casual teen browser. But for those dedicated readers who champion Keegan through the bleak days before his birthday, the literary rewards are greatly satisfying. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
Reader Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A book for everyone. Great first novel by Neil Connelly, June 27, 2002
Reviewer:
Richard J Jennings
from Allentown, PA United States
A great story of a troubled teen. Neil Connelly does a great job of drawing the reader into his world at OLPH. I got so drawn in, it is as if I lived some of that life with Keegan. So much can be taken from this book at many different levels. I would recommend this book for high school students and parents of high school students. The book can be used as a tool teach, among many things, the value of communication. I also recommend this book for anyone who is just looking for a fun read. It is a story with which we can learn and a story in which we can just have fun with. I look forward to his next novel.
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