Judge A Book By Its Cover

Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. Vintage Books. New York, New York. 1990.

As I Lay Dying is a classic story about a women fighting for her life by the National Book Award winner, William Faulkner. This book will grab the interest of older teens and adults. As I Lay Dying is an emotional horror thrill. This book won Best Story Plot Award and has sold over 50,000 copies in the last years.The experiences of the book's main character make As I Lay Dying exhilarating and intense.

The main character, Susan Boiahed, had a rough childhood growing up mostly on her own. She was raped as a young child by a family friend. She never told her parents in fear that the man would come back for her to rape her again or hurt her worse. After the rape, Susan became a mother by the age of thirteen. Everyone thought of her being a disgrace to the town because of the child --still, she kept her secret about her terrifying rape.

As years past, Susan became an adult and had a good job as a school teacher where she had a fairly good income. There was still one thing holding her back- and that was her secret. She always thought about telling someone, but was scared of what could happen or what her daughter would think of her.

Finally, Susan couldn't take it anymore and decided to share her tragic past with her closest friend. Suddenly, her secret spread through the town. The angry town begin to search for the man who had raped her. Little did she know he was already looking for her to bury her alive...

William Faulker's award winning book As I lay Dying is full of suspense and isn't appropiate for the younger readers. This book is a good eye opener and has an ending that leaves you wondering what happened and why. Readers will want to read the sequel Waiting in Fear to learn the dramatic conclusion.

4 out of 5 stars

Contributed by H. Ross
Jan. 23rd 2007