Everything Must Go

By Elizabeth Flock

Can one terrible moment change your life forever?

“The days and weeks that followed were snapshots in his mind. Cluttered night tables, filled with pill bottles on his mother’s side…” To those on the outside, the Powells are a happy family, but then a devastating accident destroys their fragile façade. When seven year-old Henry is blamed for the tragedy, he tries desperately to make his parents happy again.

As Henry grows up, he is full of potential – a talented sportsman with an academic mind and a thirst for adventure – but soon he questions if the guilt his parents have burdened him with has left him unable to escape his anguished family or their painful past…

With a delicate touch and masterful attention to detail, New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Flock invites us to meet a man both ordinary and extraordinary, and to experience a life that has yet to be lived.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Aug 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781408951286

Elizabeth Flock

Elizabeth Flock is a former journalist who reported for Time and People magazines and worked as an on-air correspondent for CBS before becoming a full-time writer. The New York Times bestselling author of But Inside I’m Screaming, Everything Must Go and Me & Emma—a Book Sense Notable Title and Highlight Pick of the Year—lives in New York City. You can contact Elizabeth through her Web site at www.ElizabethFlock.com.

Reviews for Everything Must Go

[drpeff · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

pretty good.

[cobygirl517 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

"Me & Emma" is my favorite book of all time, so I had high expectations for this book. Sadly, Elizabeth Flock did not deliver this time. This book is so sad and depressing...if not for the introduction of Celeste, I would rate this zero stars. She is the only redeeming quality in this tragedy. I feel so bad for the main character, Henry, that I wanted to cry through the whole book. Then I got to the last page, and I was like, "what? this is it?"... I am currently 3/4 of the way through "Sleepwalking in Daylight" (also by Elizabeth Flock), and I'm enjoying it so far, so if this is the only book you have read by this author, and you are very disappointed, I strongly encourage you to check out her other works.

[angelalam-300700 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Another well-written, although boring, book.

Can anyone recommend a well-written, face-paced book with a plot?

[moonshineandrosefire · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

To everyone on the outside, the Powells are a happy family, but then a devastating accident destroys their fragile facade. When seven-year-old Henry is blamed for the tragedy, he tries desperately to make his parents happy again. As Henry grows up, he is full of potential - a talented sportsman with an academic mind and a thirst for adventure. However, Henry soon begins to question if the guilt his parents have burdened him with since childhood has left him ultimately unable to escape his anguished family and their painful past. Most people might not enjoy reading books with depressing plots, but I am not one of them. I enjoyed this book very much and found it to be very well written. It was perhaps a little slower to get into than I would have liked, however in my opinion, the plot picked up appreciably about halfway through. I will say that I felt intensely sorry for Henry and all that he went through in his life. I give Everything Must Go by Elizabeth Flock an A! and will certainly be on the lookout for more books by this author to read.

[pdebolt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Henry Powell, the middle child of a family with three sons, is destined to lead a sad and meaningless life when he is responsible for the death of his younger brother when he is very young. His father is ultimately a failure as a businessman, a father and husband. Henry's mother is an alcoholic whose aspirations to becoming part of a "higher" social status fail and her life spins out of control following the death of her youngest child. Henry shows early promise as a high school athlete, but his athletic scholarship to a noted university is thwarted when he is needed at home to care for his mother, and ultimately becomes her primary caretaker. He settles permanently into what was a part-time job at a men's clothing store while he was in high school and remains there until he is middle-aged and the store closes. Henry is constantly astounded by the rapid passage of time as he reconnects with former classmates who have succeeded in life. This is a tragic story of a life never fully lived with the recurrent theme of what might have been for Henry.

[alera_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sometimes life isn't what you dreamed it would be. This is the harsh reality that Henry Powell is slowly being forced to accept in Everything Must Go. At the age of 18 he had been on top of the world, everything made sense, and he was going to be a star. He was going to live a life people wrote novels about. But a tragedy from his youth came back to haunt him and dragged him home, a place he never found the strength to leave again. This novel is a sad look at a person desperately clinging to what he once had, struggling to find a new place to fit but no longer sure how. And the ending is ambiguous, fitting for the story and the character, but I like to believe it's hopeful as well.

[dbartlett_32 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Henry Powell, living in a suburb outside of New York City, sees the years go by as he gives up his dream of college to care for his valium-addicted mother, works in a men's clothing store, and obsesses over a girl who rejects him. He reflects on his estrangement from his older brother, his role in the accidental drowning of his younger brother, and his prickly relationship with his aloof father. He sees his former high school football buddies moving on with their lives while he seems stuck in a rut which grows deeper with every passing year. While it may be a tad overlong, the book is very well-written. Henry is a likable character who seems never to be able to make a life for himself. Worth reading.