There was no lead up and I really knew nothing about Daisy. I wasn’t really moved by Duncan and Daisy’s romance either. Maybe if his part in the tragedy was revealed earlier, I could’ve understood him and his motivations a little better This might have been purposeful because the main focus of the story was Tim and Vanessa, but I think I would’ve enjoyed this more if Duncan was more fleshed out. I felt a distance with Duncan and couldn’t really get a read on him. The situation was bittersweet, and open ended.Īpart from Tim’s bit, the rest of the story is told in the third person and I’m not sure that worked entirely well. I’m sure she knew how much she affected Tim. I didn’t have the same connection to Vanessa, and I while I was thrilled that she treated him as a human being and more, I wanted to shake her at times. I yearned for him to make friends so that Vanessa wasn’t his only focus, though. Just the way he described reactions from people and dealing with being in public hurt my heart. I can’t imagine always feeling like everyone sees you as a freak. I felt his loneliness and self-consciousness profoundly throughout the story and was happy that Vanessa latched onto him. I think this was partly due to the fact that his tale was in the first person, as he was telling his story to Duncan. I have to say I felt more of a connection to Tim than anyone else. We also get a secondary romance of Duncan and Daisy.

The story slowly unfolds as flashbacks through Tim and Duncan’s recall, and through that, we get the bittersweet tale of how Tim and Vanessa formed an unlikely bond. Then we have the story of Tim and Vanessa recounted by Tim through his CD’s.

First we have Duncan the senior who feels guilty about what happened to Tim and Vanessa, although, we have no idea why. This was an unusual tale, really two stories wrapped up in one. But soon the lure of finding out exactly what happened proves too hard to resist and he’s listening, riveted by the story. At first Duncan doesn’t want to listen, he just wants to get back to normal school life, and the pursuit of a girl he hopes didn’t get away. But he’s put smack into the middle of it when he discovers his “treasure” left in his dorm room are audio CD’s made by Tim, recounting the tragedy and the months leading up to it. He’s trying to forget an event from the last year, which he had a part in. I guess this is to be expected when this tale revolves around the re-telling of a tragic event involving two students, Tim an albino and social outsider and Vanessa, the popular and pretty girl.ĭuncan is entering into his senior year at The Irving, a boarding school in New York. I was affected by this story, but in a mixed way.

The Tragedy Paper is not my usual type of read but something about the synopsis drew me in.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan