Review: Ketchup Clouds - Annabel Pitcher

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 4 stars  
Cover Rating: 5 stars (It's so pretty. I'm not sure why they didn't just have her hold a fake bird though. It's not photoshopped correctly, so don't look to closely at that bit.)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: November 12, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 261 p.
Add it: Goodreads

Zoe has a secret she wants to confess, but there is no one she can trust enough to say it to. That's how she ends up writing to Texas inmate, Stuart Harris. Of course, he can't write back since she uses a fake name and address. Regardless, at night in her shed she writes to Mr. Stuart Harris and tells him her story. It seems like a simple story about how a girl fell in love with two boys—the twist is that she is responsible for the death of one of them.

This was such an interesting story. I almost wish we somehow could get a reaction to Stuart Harris reading these letters. I wonder if they ever even got to him. The one thing I wasn't too found of was the sexy-time details Zoe put into the story. I don't know that it fit with her writing to this stranger. If she was just writing letters with no intent to send them, or writing a journal there could be lots of sexy scenes, but it seemed really awkward her writing about these things and then sending them to a strange man. I guess she probably just thought of him as a sounding board, or confession. She never would get anything back from him, so it's almost like he didn't really exist for her.

I knew right off how she did it, I just couldn't figure out who she did it to. Even when I thought that I had maybe figured it out, there was no really way to be sure. I can understand her predicament with the two boys though. This doesn't seem like a tough situation to fall into. A little more communication could have made lots of things turn out differently.

The ending was bittersweet, but totally perfect. It was honest. A very honest ending that fit. As much as I wanted things to go differently, they happened for the best.

If you're looking for an interesting and honest read, check out this story. Zoe is a very really character and she just wants to confess her story and try to find some closure.

First Lines:
"Dear Mr. S. Harris,
Ignore the blob of red in the top left corner. It's jam, not blood, though I don't think I need to tell you the difference. It wasn't your wife's jam the police found on your shoe."

Favorite Lines:
"I got your contact detail off a Death Row website, and I found your website because of a nun, and that's not a sentence I ever thought I'd write, but then my life isn't exactly turning out the way I'd imagined."

"Sunshine punched me between the eyes with a bright yellow fist."