Erin Bowman

Love and grief are companions through life, entwined as clearly as the sky is blue.

Oh, this book. Where do I even begin?

I had a feeling, about three chapters in, that this book was going to become a favorite. And at that point, I wasn’t even hooked yet. I wasn’t tied to the characters. I wasn’t dying to know what would happen. I could just feel it. It was the words, the poetry hidden among each sentence. There were nearly a half dozen times in those first three chapters alone that I read a line so beautiful I wanted to tear it from the book, frame it on my wall, and quit writing altogether because never, ever would I write something so effortlessly flawless.

Lennie is grieving. Toby can fill the void of Lennie’s sister, help her handle the sorrow. Joe can take her away from it all. This is perhaps the most convincing love triangle I have ever read. And it’s not even a love triangle, really. There is just one girl, stuck in grief, feeling terrible at the fact that she can feel joy so soon after her sister’s passing, and in the wake of all that guilt she manages to make a giant mess and confusion of her feelings.

Grief was handled phenomenally in this novel. Friendship and family and first loves, too. I can barely even write a coherent review of this, which is probably proof that I have not let the effects of this story marinate long enough before sitting down to discuss them.

I can say only this: read this book. Even if you avoid books that are sad or deal with death, read this book. Because this book is uplifting, and hopeful and simply beautiful. I was seventeen again reading this book. I was Lennie even though I have never gone through anything even remotely close to her loss. I want to read this book again and I only just finished reading it. I want to read this book as clearly as the sky is everywhere, starting at my feet and spilling up, up, up into nothing but blue.

Jandy, if you read this, thank you so much for this incredible, amazing, moved-me-to-tears story.

Originally reviewed here