Tour Stop: Death, Dickinson and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia

TITLE Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia
AUTHOR Jenny Torres Sanchez
PUBLICATION May 28th 2013 by Running Press Kids
READ June 03 to 04, 2013
SOURCE Running Press Kids for review

Frenchie Garcia can’t come to grips with the death of Andy Cooper. Her friends didn’t know she had a crush him. And they don’t know she was the last person with him before he committed suicide. But Frenchie’s biggest concern is how she blindly helped him die that night.

Frenchie’s already insane obsession with death and Emily Dickinson won’t help her understand the role she played during Andy’s “one night of adventure.” But when she meets Colin, she may have found the perfect opportunity to recreate that night. While exploring the emotional depth of loss and transition to adulthood, Sanchez’s sharp humor and clever observations bring forth a richly developed voice.

"I close my eyes and try to focus only on the buzz and the pain, but all I can see is Andy. Andy in his room, alone, swallowing pills, lying down and convulsing to death. Is that how it went? Did he maybe change his mind halfway through it, but it was too late? He couldn't even get up to get help? Or was every agonizing second better than what he was leaving behind?"

-Quoted from an unfinished ARC

I was nervous going into this one. Having not read anything by Emily Dickinson nor knowing much about her life I worried that I would miss out on a lot of the meaning of the story. I worried that I wouldn’t get some of the references in the text but that was completely unwarranted. While Dickinson’s work does make the odd appearance it is merely a stanza here and there or a mention of how she lived her life secluded. I was happy to see that she wasn’t a main focal point in the novel, instead her essence was merely a friend to our main character Frenchie.

Frenchie Garcia is a very dark character when we meet her. It’s clear right from the get go that she is dealing with some heavy stuff and attempting to come to terms with something very dark. I was surprised at how drab the novel felt to me in the beginning. Frenchie was depressed, she was in a bad place and began pushing everyone away from her because of it. What was beautiful in the story is how she begins to dig herself out. We get to watch her come to terms with the sudden death of Andy Cooper and we get to watch her realize that the world isn’t as bad as she may think.

The person helping her most along the way is Colin. He’s a guy who has had a crush on her in the club scene for a while and he finds himself tagging along with Frenchie on a one night adventure. I really came to like him. He saw a beauty in Frenchie and dug in deep to get to her core and open her up. Watching these two as their relationship progressed was great. In a single night they open up to one another in ways that people in long term relationships don’t even do. There was a brutal honesty to their adventure and it was funny, sweet and at times brought me to tears.

I think what worked so well for this novel is the way it was told. We are Frenchie months after Andy’s death and their one night together and we get to follow her as she recreates the night with Colin. As she visits all the sites of that night we also get interspersed chapters that tells of the original night with Andy. I loved watching the parallels between the two nights. The excitement of the night with Andy was palpable and I could really sense how it affected Frenchie deeply. Upon recreating the night I felt like I was searching along with her. I found myself dissecting absolutely everything that Andy said to try to find out why he took his life.

A rather depressing novel that does find the light in the end, Death, Dickinson and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia is one that I highly recommend. It’s full of interesting outlooks and features a wonderful budding romance. If you’re looking for a darker contemporary read that is full of honesty then this could be a good place to start.

Jenny's Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Jenny Torres Sanchez lives in Florida with her husband and children where she currently writes full time. Before her debut novel The Downside of Being Charlie she taught high school for several years, where she credits her eclectic students for inspiring her to write young adult novels.

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