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Swallowing Stones by Joyce McDonald
Swallowing Stones by Joyce McDonald is a suspenseful book about a tragic accident that set off a chain of events that would change the small town of Briarwood forever. Michael Mackenzie fired off his Winchester Rifle on July 4th, showing it off to his best friends. Little did he know that he had taken the life of a man, and this act would create horrible repercussions.
There are 2 main characters within this book; Michael Mackenzie, the accidental killer and Jenna Ward, the daughter of the deceased father. After Michael finds out about the event, his best friend Joe, tells him to keep it covert because he could be imprisoned for it. But throughout the book Michael is plagued by guilt from his conscience as more and more people are becoming involved and getting hurt. During the course of the book Michael is going through a lot of emotional struggle, and is thinking on deeper and entirely new levels.
Meanwhile Jenna is just beleaguered with thoughts of “what if” she had done something different he wouldn't have been killed, and dealing with the “innocent's guilt”. At first she had wanted revenge for whoever did this, so she could fill the emptiness inside her, but later realized that she just wanted it to end. Jenna realized she had to come to terms with herself before she could truly accept her father's death.
The death of her father mixes with her personal life when she begins to have panic attacks around her boyfriend. Michael's personal life becomes complicated as he can not see a definite right or wrong answer, for the word is not black and white, it is gray. Both Jenna and Michael's private lives turn in to turmoil with misunderstanding, break ups, new friends and broken trust. All of this mixed in with the normal anxiety of a teenager.
A truly great book filled with power, and an emotional thriller .This is a must read for all genres of readers, for it is filled with suspense, fast paced , and an intricate plot terrifyingly truthful of how one event can change a life, or the lives of many in one foul stroke.
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This article has 98 comments.
lol yall need to stop
swallowing stones is a book about these two boys name joe and michael.Michael shot a gun and killed a man named Charlie Ward.Jenna is Charlie's daughter. And jenna has a hard time about her farther's death.
The book was good ,but the ending was stupid. Michael was weak if i was him i would have let joe take the rap for it lol,but for real.Or Michael should have just let the cops get him.
Swallowing stones is about a boy named Michael and this girl named Jenna . it was Michael birthday and he was having a party at his house and and his grandfather gave him his riffle for his birthday and he shot the gun and the bullet hit Jenna dad his name was Charlie ward
Swallowing stones is and good book it don’t think it’s very good but it’s ok. Because the ending is bad I think it needed a better ending that tells you what really happen and not he was just waiting for Jenna to wake in the ghost tree. I think the beginning is good but the ending makes me mad I wish it can be a better ending
