Her Last Death (The end!)

Summary:
Susy's story ends the same way it started. The reader realizes that Susy does not regret her past life style, instead she acknowledges it and moves past those old ways. She went to see her mother, and was able to speak to her Penelope. She tells her that she is sorry for setting them aside and living her own life, and how she was extremely selfish. Furthermore, after the her son Daniel was born Susy truly demonstrates to the reader that she is going to fulfill her dreams in becoming a better mother than she had. Although she did accept the fact that her mother was still, in her own little way, a good mom.

Quote: "We will be laughing" (Sonnenberg, 273)

Reaction:
This quote is, in fact the LAST line of Susy autobiography. My reaction to this was not only pleasure because I enjoyed the book, but also understanding. I now come to understand why Susy had initially hesitated at the beginning of the book, when she found out her mother was dying. The book was well put, and the ending emphasized her growth, because she speaks of how her and her son will be laughing when she gets back home; she reached her goal of becoming a better mom.

Her Last Death (231)

Summary

After avoiding Wyatt Susy moves on to a guy named Jason, and is now in college. Her new roomate, Amy, builds a relationship with Susy's mom. That is because Daphne was able to use her techniques of manipulation and charm. Eventually their conversations go from the normal to the abnormal; Amy and her begin speaking of Amy's sex life, and even takes her to get birth control. One day while Amy's parents were visiting the dorm, Daphne begins speaking about Amy's sex life in front of them. Poor Susy was left extreemly speecless because Amy's parents left with her for good. Furthermore, Susy was ready to marry a man by the name of Noah. Unfortunately upon realizing that their relationship was insincere( Susy would sleep with other men as a way of getting back at him for his constant lying) she calls it quits. She then calls Wyatt to end things compleatly with him, but she is set back because he tells her that he has cancer and is dying.

Susy moves on to another realtionship that does not go well just as the other. This new one was English and is called Gordon. They were doing pretty well but things went down hill when he meets her mother. Now, Daphne is falling back into the intoxication path, and continues to use her back pain as an excuse. Although she is simply making it worsen. However as much pain as there is, Daphne still attempts to flirt with Gordon, and Gordon ends up telling Susy that he no longer has feelings for her and that he is in another relationship. Once they break up, Susy and her mom are regaining that bond they used to have. This then enables daphne to tell Susy that because she had found a painful lump on her breast, the doctor tested her for breast cancer.

The next man in Susy's life (there were way more before him)is Christopher. She ends up eloping with him and gets pregnant twice. The first time she has a miscarriage because this runs in her family she doesn't give up. Instead she gets pregnant once more, however this time she aborts because Christopher tells her that he is not ready to become a father. By the end of this chapter, he tells her he is ready, and although she is guilty for the prior abortion, she still decides to try to become the mother she wish she had.

Quote: " She lied, cheated on her boyfriends, thought only of sex, power triumph, double-timed, tripple-timed."(Sonnenberg,197)

Reaction:
In this quote Susy is confessing to Christopher who she used to be before they met. When I read this I felt proud of Susy, because it showed that she was moving past her old days. It also proved my point when I had said, while reading, that Susy was becoming more and more like her mother. sadly her mother did not change like Susy is.

Her Last Death (149)

Summary:

In this section Susy enter her new home/school; she gets accepted into boarding school. The day she moved in her mother's nineteen year old boyfriend was helping out. In fact he even had sex with Susy's mother on Susy new bed. Anyhow, Susy was lucky enough to get a room to herself, however she was not accustomed to the type of restrictions the boarding life came with. She could not roam the hallway at certain hours, she had a curfew, and unlike at her mothers house, boys were out of the picture.  However, Susy does violate that one rule. First, she had a short relationship with a senior who she kissed, and although she did not like it she enjoyed the thrill of kissing on the stairs on the way to the dorm room. Anyhow the relationship ended when Larry(the senior) broke up with her because he was not interested in having a girlfriend.  The second time was when a boy she crushed on forced her to preform oral sex on him. His name was Hammond, and he was a freshman at her school. He had pushed Susy to the ground and held her down while he...well hopefully you get the picture. As horrible as that may sound, Susy simply pushed him off and acted as though nothing had happened. Unexpectedly she told her teachers and informed Hammond that she had done so, he seemed to not have cared.

Moreover, Susy's mother was still skipping around from man to man...to even teenage boy. One of the teens was Justin, the boy Susy had been crushing on since a long time. Randall, one of her mothers men, found out about her mothers affair and he beat her. He later on went to beat up Michael too. Although Susy's mother might have ended up with horrible bruising, Susy was mainly concerned about how her sister, Penelope.  Her mother's health becomes worse and worse and Penelope is the witness. In fact, if it was not for Penelope calling the emergency on time, their mother would have dies from a horrid infection she gained from shooting up coke and tap water.

Sadly the more Susy grows up, the more she resembles her mother. Not only does she begin flirting with older men (a random 24-year-old she met in the street, and her teacher) she is now officially allowed to drink, drive, and snort cocaine along with her mother, who is encouraging her to continue going out with older men.  As a matter of fact, that same teacher she once flirted with (who rejected her once, with the excuse of being married for 12 years) became the one she lost her virginity to.  They fell in love, and had to end it when he told his wife. Susy avoided his phone calls and simply stuck to looking back on it instead of going back to it.

Quote:

"The next morning my father said that id he thought he could win, he'd sue my mother for custody of Penelope"(Sonnenberg 99)

Reaction:

When I realized that her father wanted to do so, I wondered if it would be a good idea. Say Penelope was to live with her father, who remarried, she would have to adapt to a new environment, which would probably be a difficult task for her since living wit her mother was not normal. On the bright side Penelope would not have to experience all that her sister went through while she was young. Penelope is starting to be the one who calls the hospitals and witness the affects of drugs. Also now that her sister is becoming more like her mother, it may be a good decision for her to live with her father, since Susy may not pay that much close attention as before.

Her Last Death (87)

Summary:
Apart from the fact that Susy's mother would always have a new boyfriend/husband/lover, she sometimes paid more attention to them than her own health. Suzy had to witness her mother having a seizure, clean up the blood, and make sure Penelope was not exposed to it. Her mother would have spasms, and back pains, restricting her from following her motherly duties. The back pains begun a long time ago while she was in school and a boy in her class played a prank on her, by pulling the chair from under her. When she fell  she fell on her tailbone, and injuring the disks in her tailbone. Now Susy is twelve, and her mother's open conversations of sex, drugs, and men slowly moved on to encouragement to have boyfriends, sex and take drugs. In fact, she let Susy sniff cocaine, bought her pornographic magazines, and assured Susy that what she was doing was normal, and perfectly fine.  In this section of the story Susy moved into her friends house when she was in seventh grade, while her mother and Penelope went off to New Mexico. She said she preferred to live with them because they were way more responsible, and her mothers idea of moving to Mexico did not sound as fun to her. Because Susy was accustomed to being the eight year old mother, she felt a bit of relief because all she had to do at her friends house was be a kid, follow the rules and simply wash up before dinner. However after a while she felt lonely, though she no longer wanted that weight lifted off her shoulders. Instead Susy wanted to hear the questions her mother always asked her, and she misssed her sister. For that reason she went off to New Mexico to join her sister and mother. Sadly this did not end too well; Susy and her mother are now having problems. Daphne (Susy's mom) is becoming abusive, and argumentative towards her daughter. Susy ends up going to boarding school in Connecticut.

Quote: "When my mother was born, her father was famous"(Sonnenberg 42).

Reaction: The fact that Daphne was brought up in such a Hollywood life style angers me. How could it be that even though she met famous people, had such a brilliant father, and a high class childhood she still fell into the life of drugs, sex, and alcohol? I wonder if she ever thought her daughters deserve the same treatment, especially since they behaved way better than her;she had sex with half the famous people she met. If Daphne is so good at convincing people and getting what she wants, then why does not she strive to be a good role model to her daughters, and a successful woman in general. Is it that she does not want that type of future for her kids?

Her Last Death (40)

Summary
In her biography Susanna Sonnenberg introduces her situation with a phone call from her aunt. Her aunt explains to her that her mother is currently in a coma, after being in a huge accident. Susanna, or susy, after hearing this news is in complete shock however her thoughts are not going in the "right direction." By right  direction I mean, usual. Susy reacts to this in confusion; she does not know whether she should take the next flight to Barbados to see her mother before she dies. That same mother who raised her and her younger sister Penelope around drugs, sex, and lies. That same mother who she cannot seem to keep a close relationship with, and is actually scared to even try.

Quote 
"I'm a person who isn't going to her mother's deathbed"(Sonnenberg 12)

Reaction
After reading such a quote I immediately remembered my 9th grade English teacher telling the class that we needed an attention getter for our writing. One that would make the reader want to either read more, ask questions, or dispute with the narrator/author. Although this quote was not literally at the beginning of the story, it was the attention getter  for me. After reading this I tried HARD to put my self in her position. I pictured my mother at her deathbed, a plane flight away from me, yet very close to my last nerve. I did not hesitate to jump out of that picture and say:But forget that! She's my MOM! That was when I realized that that is why the author decided to begin the book the way she did. My teacher was right, because the getter worked.

Why would she ever be confused about seeing her mother before she dies!?
What could her mother have done to her ?
Can she not set her differences and problems aside, for this moment and forgive her mother?
I want to read more...
How dare she not see her mom before she dies!
Whether she wants to or not she should go.
Susy can hold a grudge! Or is it pain... 
I have to read more...