4A Independent Reading discussion

The conclusion of this book left me thinking about what actually happens and what is going on in Jamie's head. Jamie stopped taking his pills for various disorders like conversion, anxiety, depression. That is something that could of caused his hand to go numb so frequently. There was an arson case in town and they saw Jamie's jeep even though he denies being there. He found stuff in his car from lighting the building on fire in his car, " When I look inside, what I find is an assortment of prescription pill bottles, a handful of valuable jewelry, some work gloves, a crow bar, an empty box of M-80 firecrackers, a book of matches, and two articles of my missing clothing-- my khakis from my date with jenny and a faded Sayrebrook jazz band sweatshirt." (210) Jamie now cannot tell if he knows what he is doing or not, he hopes it wasn't him who set the fire. Cate and Jamie meet in a cave and talk about their mother's demise. Jamie had done silly stuff to deter their mother from going to work because she had 3 jobs and his mother finally slapped him for doing it, "Moments later, she(Cate) heard a gunshot from the bedroom they shared."(229) Jamie had killed his mother, burned down the barn, set the store on fire and didn't remember a bit of it. In the end, Jamie finds a picture of some lady in his pocket which was his mom, he threw it in the fire because he forgot that he strangled his sister earlier to get it. The book ends in weird fashion that made me go back to see the wordings of things to really find out that Jamie had done those horrendous crimes, and his sister took the blame for things she didn't do to save him. This turns what the book was about and the strength needed and misery gone through to help your little brother.

Wow... this is creepy. Jamie kills his mom, burns down a barn, and set a store on fire... and didn't remember anything? I've never heard of or read of a condition quite like this. It sounds like a very interesting read!