Shades of Simon Gray

by Joyce McDonald

Book Overview

Simon Gray is the ideal teenager -- smart, reliable, hardworking, trustworthy. Or is he? After Simon crashes his car into The Liberty Tree, another portrait starts to emerge. Soon an investigation has... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385326599
• ISBN13: 9780385326599
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

It asks you to think...

I love this story. I've read it 3 times. It's about choices (good and bad) and the prices we're willing to pay to get what we want. It doesn't offer any easy answers. It asks you to think about the choices made by these characters and the ones you yourself make. The fantasy/horror elements just make the story more enjoyable for me.

SHADES OF SIMON GRAY is brilliant.

The peepers are everywhere, little frogs descending on Bellehaven by the thousands like some early sign of the Apocalypse. As Simon Gray drives home one blisteringly hot night, he squashes millions of them, their blood making the road slick and dangerous. Of course he has an accident --- someone was bound to have one sooner or later. As Simon lies in the hospital in a coma, secrets begin to unfold. Simon was the brain behind a computer hacking operation that enabled Devin, Kyle and Danny to get advance copies of their tests. Before the accident, Simon had done and said things that disturbed his best friend, Liz. Those who didn't know Simon Gray thought he was perfect. SHADES OF SIMON GRAY is a brilliant combination of mystery, fantasy, history and gritty realism. This is a book that doesn't let up for a minute, pulling the reader in with a fast-paced blend of past and present. Love mysteries? Hate mysteries? It doesn't matter. Simon Gray will intrigue everyone and keep the reader guessing as to what will happen next. There's even an element of the supernatural, with Simon leaving his comatose body to walk through the town, discovering the truth behind a centuries-old murder. Why are the police involved with Simon's accident? What do the strange weather and the sudden appearance of crows have to do with him? None of the pieces add up...or do they? --- Reviewed by Carlie Kraft

Eerie and Touching

West Nile Virus, plagues of frogs and crows and horrid heat, and a secret cheating ring, all in a quiet little town called Bellehaven, where, 200 years ago, an innocent man named Jessup Wildemere was hanged without a trial.At the center of all this is Simon Gray, for whom the book is named. At the beginning of the book, Simon crashes his car into the Liberty Tree, where Jessup Wildemere was hung. Was it an accident caused by the frogs all over the road, or a suicide attempt? No one believes it was a suicide attempt, after all, Simon is a "good boy".Either way, Simon lies in a coma, and his family and the cheating ring to which he, as the hacker, is key, nervously watch as Simon clings to life. His family includes his sister and his father. His mother died a while back---since then, his sister has begun smoking marijuana to ease the pain, while Simon has kept it all inside, though he sometimes thinks he sees her ghost. The cheating ring is composed of 3 other people, including Devin, a girl Simon's secretly in love with, and the reason he even decided to help them get test answers off the school database. Unfortunately, Devin is the girlfriend of another one of the people in the cheating ring.The cheating ring is under suspicion, and police come to Simon's house and take away his computer for investigation.Meanwhile, Simon, in a coma, experiences an out-of-body experience, during which he talks with Jessup Wildermere. Simon finds out that Jessup is not unlike him, in love with someone who doesn't love him back. Simon finds out what truly happened to Jessup, and is shocked by what he finds.This book was very touching, a little spooky, and a great peek into the mind of a troubled social outcast and goody-goody. It also really made me think about how often we get the facts wrong, and what permanent effects that can have on people's lives.

Complete truth is never black or white, but shades of gray

Bellehaven. A sleepy little town with a secret that is two hundred years old. In 1798, a young man, Jessup Wildemere, was hanged without a trial for a crime he didn't commit. Now, in the present, 16-year-old Simon Gray has crashed his car into the very same tree that that Jessup was hung on. He is alive, but in a coma, taking with him a secret of his own. He had been bullied into hacking into the school's computer system to procure tests for three older kids. Now the three kids are worried that their secret will be revealed as cops swarm the school, investigating a hacking incident. While this is going on, Simon, trapped inside his own world, communicates with the long-dead Jessup, and discovers that the man was innocent... And makes some discoveries for himself.

A Great Juggling Act

I just finished Shade of Simon Gray and what a juggling act the author is doing in this one! She's got more balls in the air than you can imagine, with a coma, a crime, a ghost, out of body experiences, guilt, love, and friendship! And she manages to keep all of these balls up and spinning at a dizzying height, so that I was constantly turning the pages for more. When it comes to fiction for teens, J, McDonald nails both the teenage head and heart.If you need to borrow money from someone in the future you should try to get to know J. McDonald because I think she will be sitting pretty when they make this one into a movie. In the meantime enjoy the great read!