What Happened to Lani Garver

by Carol Plum-Ucci

Book Overview

The close-knit residents of Hackett Island have never seen anyone quite like Lani Garver. Everything about this new kid is a mystery: Where does Lani come from? How old is Lani? And most disturbing of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0152050884
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.9" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Do angels really walk among us?

First of all, this is a GREAT book that is hard to put down once you start reading it. You'll wonder, do angels really exist? Lani (pronounced Lonnie) seems feminine and masculine at the same time. With his girlish features, he becomes the outcast at the high school....and it doesn't help that he's new to town either. Luckily, he finds a friend in Claire, who is in remission from leukemia and whose friends are too creeped out about her courageous battle with cancer to talk about it with her. Lani, as Claire finds out, is a good listener and also gives good advice. But when the other people in town accuse Lani of being gay and propositioning one of the town drunks, things go a little haywire. Should Claire stick with the friends she's known for years or this he-she, Lani, who has only been around a few days? Is she seeing things conveniently or is what she sees the truth? This book, once I opened it, was a hard one to put down and it kept me going right up until the ending. If you're looking for a book that will hold your attention and keep you on the edge of your seat, this book is definitely for you.

Do angels really walk the earth?

Carol Plum-Ucci's novel, WHAT HAPPENED TO LANI GARVER, is so unbelievably remarkable that words cannot fully express its greatness. It takes place in locations I know and the story's protagonist, Claire, is nothing short of amazing. This novel is thought-provoking. It compelled me to ask questions I'd never asked myself. And, to my surprise, it even made me cry. Usually, books do not move me all that much - this book was an exception.You will come to know and love Claire, a member of her high school elite on Hackett Island, close to Philadelphia. As I mentioned, this novel talks of many places I know, such as South Street, a whimsical place where, in real life, you can find "preps," people with countless piercings, tattoos, and hair hues, goths, rockers, etc. But WHAT HAPPENED TO... strays from labels.Enter Lani Garver. Is Lani a he or a she? Well, although it never really is determined, we suspect Lani to be a boy. It's a difficult thing to confirm because he has the long lashes and red lips of a girl. He's tall and broad-shouldered like a boy. His hair is longer than the average boy's but his hands are a bit more on the masculine side. And he hates labels. Here, he refers to them as "boxes." "Gay" is a box. "Straight" and "bi" are boxes. As are "boy" and "girl." Upon first seeing him in the cafeteria, Claire is intrigued and says she'll be his friend, much to her best friend Macy's dismay.Claire is a leukemia survivor who missed out on the junior high experience. Macy, kind and less judgemental than the other girls of her group, befriended Claire when she returned to school after being taught at home. Since their time spent together, they've collected many fond memories, many of them frozen in photographs. Macy deems Lani to be an odd character and is less drawn to him than Claire. Clearly, she gets jealous as a friendship quickly evolves between Lani and Claire.Claire incessantly worries over relapsing back into her leukemia and is always looking for symptoms - bruises darker than average blemishes and orange-tinged blood. At The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, (BEEN THERE!!!) Claire meets a doctor named Marcus, who explains to her the theory of floating angels. At first, she thinks he must be joking and laughs, despite the fact he's totally serious. Marcus explains how angels are sexless beings, that you cannot tell whether they are male or female. Immediately, Claire thinks of Lani. Oddly enough, Marcus knows him, as does the rest of the hospital staff.As their friendship grows stronger, Lani teaches Claire things she could have never possibly learned from her regular crew of school friends. Lani judges no one. He labels no one and has acceptance for everyone. Besides that, he's mind-blowingly intelligent and introduces Claire to new friends, people she immediately clicks with. But everyone on Hackett assumes Lani is gay, a box he does not want to be in, and they taunt him to no end. Claire's friends are ge

Amazing

This is a wonderful book, even better than The body of christopher creed" also by this author. Lani Garver is intelligent beyond his years and such a incredibly kind person. But because he is different and refuses to let himself be categorised by anyone, he is picked on and treated cruelly.Both Lani and Claire, the protagonist, are very likeable characters. Claire has a very endearing naivety and it is easy to relate to her feelings about her family, friends and Lani.I would say this is a great book for anyone homophobic to read as it really makes you question your assumptions. Lani is a very enigmatic character, just like Christopher was. If there was one thing I didnt like about the book, it was the give-away first chapter which kind of summed up the story. Even so, it still manages to keep you in suspense. The book made a very large impact on me and I think it will teach us not to marginalize people.It will also leave you wondering, "What happened to Lani Garver?"

Richie's Picks: WHAT HAPPENED TO LANI GARVER

... Claire, who tells us the story of WHAT HAPPENED TO LANI GARVER. It is a horror story about a person--well, let's say, a being--who arrives with his mother on Hackett Island, where Claire is a native. Sporting an unusual hairstyle and graced with delicate features, it is unclear whether LANI (pronounced "Lonny") is a boy or a girl. ...Claire is a native. Her boyfriend is a member of the fish frat--"that's the sons of Hackett's commercial fishermen, who are sometimes lifeguards and usually very hunky." Her friends think she should be happy, set in her position among the high school elite, healthy after missing most of junior high due to treatments for acute juvenile leukemia. But Claire, who still has her share of problems, sees the neatly folded boxes of her life crumble when she becomes friends with Lani. And what happens as a result is a tense tale that won't let you go. "We don't talk about the drowning around the island. We don't really talk about what led up to it, either. If I hear Lani's name, it's usually in mentions of him having gone to our high school for only two days, and isn't that weird, as if the greater mysteries never existed. Maybe that's the way people need to remember it." While reading WHAT HAPPENED TO LANI GARVER, my stomach all knotted up, I kept asking myself, "Could a whole group of kids really be this horrible?" ... Richie ...

Anatomy of a Hate Crime

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is all that I have been talking about since the moment I finished it.At first glance, one might think Claire has it all. This high school cheerleader has a devoted best friend, a sought-after boyfriend and a group of elite buddies. But if you look closer, you'll see not everything is as it seems. Claire's parents are divorced, her mother slowly turns to alcohol more and more, and Claire is in remission from leukemia, which took her out of school for a year.Enter Lani Garver, the new kid at school. He is a few years older and quite a bit wiser than his small-town peers. At first, his long hair, slight build and tendency to giggle make his classmates think that he is a girl. He sets them straight but is still regarded as a freak by most. Claire's path crosses with Lani's a few times in as many days. A whirlwind friendship begins that defies the teenage laws of who you hang out with. With Claire as the protagonist, it becomes not just Lani's story but hers as well: her eyes being to open, and she learns - at times, the hard way - how the world works, how cruel some people can be, how kind others are.This book is an amazing piece of work. It is a realistic anatomy of a hate crime that will make you think and leave you wondering about the state of the world. It is an emotional experience. I would not doubt that "What Happened to Lani Garver" will catch the attention of critics and book awards alike. This is the very definition of a must-read.