Introduction

The screech of tires brought Hannah Scott’s world as she knew it to a devastating end. A year after she signed the papers to donate her daughter’s organs, Hannah is still reeling with grief when she unexpectedly stumbles into the life of the Bell family, whose fifteen-year-old daughter, Maddie, survived only because Hannah’s daughter had died. Mesmerized by this fragile connection to her own daughter and afraid to reveal who she actually is, Hannah develops a surprising friendship with Maddie’s mother, Olivia.

The Bells, however, have problems of their own. Once on the verge of leaving her wealthy but abusive husband, Olivia now finds herself bound to him in the wake of the transplant that saved their daughter’s life. Meanwhile, Maddie, tired of the limits her poor health puts upon her and fearful of her father’s increasing rage, regularly escapes into the one place where she can be anyone she wants: the Internet. But when she is finally healthy enough to return to school, the real world proves to be just as complicated as the isolated bubble she had been so eager to escape.

A masterful narrative shaped by nuanced characters whose delicate bonds are on a collision course with the truth, Safe with Me is a riveting triumph.

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Excerpt

Hannah

The first thing Hannah hears is Emily’s soul-piercing scream. Next, the grinding screech of brakes and the sharp crunch as metals collide. The sounds twirl toward her in slow-motion—still-frame, auditory blips. But then, in an instant, they stitch together into an image. Into a truth that steals her breath. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Olivia is trapped in a verbally and physically abusive marriage to a very wealthy man who supports her and her daughter fully. She feels helpless and stays with him for fear that he will take her daughter away from her. Do you think this is a common scenario for battered women, particularly those who are mothers?

2. Maddie struggles to adjust to high school culture and life as a 15 year old girl after receiving her transplant so she turns to the internet to cope by creating a fake Facebook profile and winds up getting emotionally involved with an older guy. Do you think many teens turn to the internet to escape real life? What about adults?

3.Secrets are a central theme in SAFE WITH ME. What is the significance of secrets for each of the main characters?
Quote from the Book - "Hannah wondered if, after her daughter was gone, she could still call herself a mother. It struck her that when a spouse died, a person became a widow or widower and when a child’s parent died, he or she became an orphan, but there was no word to describe a parent who loses a child. Perhaps the pain of the experience was too vast to be captured, too gruesome to be wrapped up in one tidy little term."

Weblinks

»	Author Amy Hatvany's web site
»	Publisher's Book Info

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