Author: wriiten

Genre: Teen Fiction

What I liked about this book:

The beginning of this book was a stark and accurate punch in the face. The opening line was killer, and the author's writing style captured what it must feel like to be in a state of wanting to live and not. The main character is so torn it drips from the pages. She wants someone to notice her pain, and at the same time doesn't, because she doesn't want to lose her nerve. Then eventually she winds up losing her nerve anyway, and her attempt looks like an accident.

The most realistic part about this is her time in the hospital and realization that she didn't actually want to die didn't fix anything. She's still fixated on her dead sister, Cara. She's still depressed and lonely. And when she returns home, everything falls apart again.

The part at the end where Michael says that becoming okay is gradual, and that it's okay for it to be, is really the point of the whole book, and it's very realistic and humbling.

My favorite part of this is that Audrey's relationship with Michael is a non-starter, right until the very end.. She's too sick to even be in a relationship with him--or with anyone--even though she clearly likes him and wants to be with him.

This was a really poignant piece, and probably the most accurate depictions of depression I've come across on here.

What I did NOT like about this book:

The pacing needs a bunch of work. I don't want to hear about a conversation Audrey and AJ had, I want to actually read the conversation. I don't want to hear about a monopoly game, I want to see it. For all the poignant prose here there is a lot missing. The book could easily gain a third to a half its length without being unweildy, and I think it needs to.

It makes no sense that AJ and Jasmine are in the hospital all the time. People with anorexia are usually in special wards, and AJ would be home most of the time in this kind of setting unless he had something like leukemia, which wouldn't allow him to chill with other kids while he gets a marrow transplant. I think it would make more sense for them to meet elsewhere, even though I can kind of forgive it because the rest of the book worked so well.

I'd also like to see more of them because I really have no attachment to them as characters, and honestly I need to for this story.

Overall:

I'd like to see this after a rewrite but I enjoyed it. It's very first drafty.

Rating:

7/10 because I know this author could do better than this.