Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #920970 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780758216762
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Ford's newest is a Southern coming-of-age involving an estranged twin waking to sexuality and love. Eleven-year-old Blaze James lives in the shadow of her twin sister, Aerial, until a gas explosion leaves Aerial horribly scarred. While her sister recovers, Blaze spends a formative year in the care of a neighbor, Felicity Hardaway, an exotic (though closeted) lesbian in close-minded Shreveport, La. After years away at school, Blaze returns and begins a passionate affair with Hardaway. Despite the town's condemnation and Hardaway's insistence that she doesn't want to get serious, Blaze is determined to fight for the emotionally abusive relationship. When Hardaway disappears, Blaze turns to next-door neighbor Nate for solace—and, as it turns out, much more. Ford's Shreveport is an unforgiving place—swampy, seductive and judgmental—that's reflected in her blunt but intoxicating prose. Unfortunately, Ford's intriguing story begs for a better protagonist; Blaze is contrary, indecisive and not nearly as smart as she thinks she is, making decisions at whim. Hardaway, on the other hand, is charismatic and flawed, prideful and vulnerable; by the end, one can't help feeling they were following the wrong character. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
This latest effort from spoken-word artist Ford is a southern-set, fast-moving coming-of-age tale with the immediacy of informal storytelling and intimate conversation somewhat like Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, but in times that have changed. Ford focuses on Blaze James, identical twin and soul mate to Aerial, who is horribly burnt and scarred in a fire that kills their drunken, abusive father and destroys their shacklike home in Shreveport, Louisiana. Cared for by neighboring Miss Felicity Hardaway while Mom’s away with hospitalized Aerial, the 11-year-old Blaze observes Miss Felicity’s somewhat graphically depicted lesbian sexual activities, setting the scene for Blaze’s own early-teen gropings with an older girl. After discovery and resultant banishment to a faraway boarding school by her mom and wealthy stepfather, now located in California, beautiful Blaze emerges at 18 with marketable fashion-design skills and returns to Shreveport, where her aimless yearnings become definite designs on Miss Felicity. A riveting tale of aching love, deceit, and shifting points on the continuum of human sexuality. --Whitney Scott

Customer Reviews

I got lost in Finding Me
I just finished Darnella Ford's Finding Me and find myself struggling to grasp the words that will give this book and its author the praise they both deserve. I've said before and at this point can't imagine not saying again that Darnella Ford is one of the most gifted writers on the scene at this time. I like to call myself a writer but what she does is something on a completely higher level than most wordsmiths.

I believe that she is the first and only author I have read who truly never settles when it comes to her writing. What I mean is, Ford seems to carefully...no precisely, choose each word she laces together in order to make sure every sentence says exactly what she means. As a writer I know that is no easy thing to do. Every once in a while, most writers have to say that's close enough. I don't believe Ford has ever sold anything she's written short in that fashion.

Now the book, I found myself totally and completely and helplessly lost in Finding Me. This is possibly the 21st Century's version of Their Eyes Were Watching God, My favorite love story of all time. But to simply call it a love story falls short of doing it justice. It is about romantic love, family love and most of all the love of self. I could go on for days but time and space won't permit; so I'll simply say that any lover of books and great writing should absolutely purchase this book as soon as possible.

Amazing Blaze
Finding Me by Darnella Ford is a startling, provocative novel told through the voice of Blaze James. When we meet Blaze, she is living with her sad, overworked mother, Aliyah; her lazy, alcoholic, violent, father, Rufus; and the love of her life, her twin sister, Aeriel. Immediately the reader is caught up by the precocious voice of Blaze. She is only eleven years-old but she has a mind of her own and personality to boot. Though she and Aeriel are identical twins, they are as different as day and night in their temperament. Aerial is easy-going and accepting and Blaze is much like her name, a full-force inferno.

A tragic fire occurs that changes Blaze's life forever. Her father is killed and her sister burned. In her grief, her mother leaves her with their next door neighbor, Felicity, and Blaze's eyes are opened to the ways of the world. She has always been fascinated by Felicity, however, living with her exposes Blaze to way more than she ever could have imagined. Ms. Ford uses language that is startling, unexpected and often funny as she describes this living arrangement. She also gives us a story that makes us feel for the characters, because there is a great deal of tragedy and turmoil. In Blaze, she provides the reader with an extraordinarily, provocative main character.

I recommend Finding Me to readers who enjoy fiction with a twist and can enjoy a story that is as unexpected as it is entertaining.

Angelia Menchan
APOOO BookClub

WONDERFUL READ
I give this book two thumbs up. I finished it in two days. There were many twists and turns. Things happened that you never thought would happen. I definitely would reccommend this to all my friends.