In my opinion, this is the kind of book you would pick up if
you wanted an easy read with no expectations to be completely engrossed.
Overall, I thought that the book itself was well written and the characters
were unique and interesting, but not much really happens. Far from action-packed, it just seemed that it
was just a series of “things the main character does after tragedy hits”. The
book has a slow pace and as I look back on it, there aren’t really any big
“stand out” moments past the first few chapters. Regardless, there are some
touching moments however this isn’t a very deep novel that will get you
thinking when you close it. If you’re looking for a simple read to get you by
(something to read on the beach or by the pool maybe?) this could be a good
choice.
The book is about a 17 year old girl named Harper who’s life
is completely shattered when her parents and younger brother are killed in a
car accident. She finds herself trying to cope and figure out her life without
them, dealing with having a best friend, love interests and college
applications while trying to process her grief. She also finds herself
inexplicably connected with David Kaufman, her “bad boy” neighbor who’s father
was driving the car that killed Laurels family and David’s mother as well.
Laurel and David, who were friends as young children and parted ways as they
grew up, begin to realize that this tragedy is something they now have in
common, and maybe they do need each other.
SPOILERS:// The main thing that frustrated me about this
book is that Castle crafted such interesting, unique characters, but they felt
so absent in comparison to the recounting of Laurels mundane day-to-day life.
David was such a great character, but he was missing for the majority of the
book. To me, their love story kind of fell flat because he was just never
around. You never really got to see them get to know each other, get
comfortable, fall in love… It was mostly just two separate grieving people who
eventually realize that they might need each other and then suddenly they’re in
love?
I also think there should have been some more internal
dialogue incorporated. An important aspect of a book about grieving and what
makes them so good is being able to follow their healing process. We see Laurel
acting out in anger or sadness but we don’t get much of an internal view of her
emotions. They’re there occasionally and it adds so much to the character but
its not nearly enough to only see an occasional glimpse of her thought process.
The girl just lost her entire family; there’s so much potential depth and
emotion to be explored with this, but sadly this book fell flat in that
department.
I was also disappointed with the ending. Yes, the readers
got everything they wanted but I disliked that this entire neat little wrapped
up ending was condensed to a short epilogue. As if we were left hanging with
all these questions after an actual, meaningful event in the story and then the
epilogue was just a “oh yeah, so all this happened and everything is perfect
and great now”.
I feel as though some of the slow, mundane pages within the
400 or so could have been spared and a good, longer wrap up could have taken
its place. //: SPOILERS
Overall, I think that the story is a sweet one, but it isn’t
one that will keep you at the edge of your seat, or get you thinking about life
and loss once you’ve put it down.
6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment