I felt the writing style was good and I enjoyed the book however I was a bit disappointed in the ending. I felt bad for Sam throughout the whole story; he has so much trauma, clearly low self-esteem, and had to watch his best friend with the girl he loved. Marx’s death, while beautifully written, was a convenient plot twist to get him out of the picture. It felt like the story was setting up for Sam and Sadie to finally be together, and I must admit, I was disappointed when that never came to be. The character that annoyed me the most was Sadie. She was so mean to Sam: always angry at him, unempathetic, and ignoring him when he tried to reach out. Her way of “redeeming” herself by coming to his grandfather’s funeral was literally the bare minimum of friendship.
Books
This is the most heartbreaking book, but one of the best I've read in many years. One of those books I wish I hadn't read yet, so that I could go back and read it again.
Sirius dies?! Thanks for the spoiler!
I don't like much YA, but that one was a good read.
Now, I got it in exchange for a review, and gave it to the library I work for. It's been sitting on the shelf for several months now, literally zero people read it. It's frustrating...
I don't know why but I couldn't finish this book. I was looking forward to it as it seemed like my kind of book, but couldn't read past the first 3 or so chapters.
The writing felt awful - does anyone know what style it is specifically? I can't recall if it was a third person/first person thing, or something to do with it being too "young"/"hipster" or whether it was something else. But something really irked me about it.
I finished it but it was meh to me. Her writing was super pretentious IMO. I've never had to look up so many words while reading. It's like yes, we get it, you went to Harvard. 🙄
Just finished the audiobook today. It was the only section narrated by a man, and I was more locked into listening to that than I’ve been with any audiobook pretty much ever.
I liked the book overall, but I would’ve probably thought it was just alright if not for that and the Friendship section soon after. Pretty good (and heartbreaking) stuff!
Agreed! That section is definitely a turning point where we get to see the massive rift between the characters and all the growth they had to go through to close it.
I was actually thinking of Serious Black. I cried.
That death was the marker for how emotional I find all book deaths!
:)