“No one is all bad. No one is all good. We live as equals in the murky gray between.”
Notes on an Execution is one of those rare, five star reads (in my personal opinion), that doesn’t come around very often but when it does it sends your mind spinning and makes you think and feel things you haven’t felt in a while.
When the book opens, Ansel Packer has twelve hours to live. He is a convicted murderer on Death Row, awaiting execution. The story is told from the point of view of several characters who have been apart of Ansel's life, Lavender, Hazel, and Saffy, and of course, Ansel himself. The story jumps back and forth, from the past to the present, and at first you might wonder how all these people are connected, but the author lays out the story beautifully.
Lavender, just seventeen when we first meet her is living in a desperate situation and does the only thing she can do at the time.
Saffy starts out in the foster care system and is heading down a bad road, until something happens that sets her on a new course.
Hazel has a twin sister, who she’s forced to watch helplessly as her choices lead her down a path they can’t come back from.
Ansel isn’t ready to die, he just wants to be understood.
“I have this idea. This theory, I guess. There is no such thing as good or evil. Instead, we have memory and choice, and we all live at various points on the spectrum between. We are created by what has happened to us, combined with who we choose to be.”
This book is obviously very heavy at times and while you may start out thinking you’ll have no sympathy for Ansel after everything he has done, there are times where you can’t help but have empathy for him and all the ways he was failed in life. The author does an amazing job of weaving this story together through the lives of the various women in Ansel’s life.
This was my first book by Danya, and I think she is an excellent storyteller. She was able to bring all the characters alive for me, to the point where I actually believed I was reading a true story instead of a work of fiction.
This book was phenomenal, and I wholeheartedly recommend it if you enjoy this genre.
As previously mentioned above, I rated this one as 5/5 Stars.
Questions of the Day:
1. What was your last five star read?
2. If you've already read this one, what were your thoughts on it?
3. What are you currently reading?
-Amy :)