I'm fairly devastated, but I really didn't enjoy this book at all. In the end, the best part of it for me was the cover.
The premise of this one is compared to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, although it actually follows a plot more similar to Sarah Dessen's Dreamland. Our central character, Sparrow, is tickled pink when a cute boy from school takes an interest in her and asks her out. Their relationship develops quickly, but not in a good way--ending in abuse and reminding Sparrow of her childhood trauma from an abusive mother.
The timeline in this book made it difficult to connect with the characters. While we get the "meet cute" at the beginning of the book, the timeline for the romantic relationship jumps forward to abusive scenarios, and it's difficult as a reader to track why or how this girl could have fallen into this relationship so quickly. (It's not quickly for her, just for the reader.)
The connections to childhood, also, were difficult to follow. The connections between what is presently happening and what happened to Sparrow when she was younger were weak, to say the least, and left lots of questions about what had and hadn't come to light after her mother's death. The resolution, also, seemed to unfairly address these issues.
I was also not a fan of the dual perspectives, here, as half of the book is told from Sparrow's best friend who wishes they could be more. I recognize that romance is sensational, but I don't like when books combine high school affection with hard-hitting topics. Lucas' selfishness is unevenly threaded through his desires to protect Sparrow, and his whininess overall was frustrating and unappealing.
I felt like this book sensationalized what it was trying to portray. Abuse is used as a prop so many different times, for no real purpose--we aren't saying anything other than, Abuse is bad. I hardly think many people would disagree with that. This book is compared to Speak, which drives a hard and intense commentary into a high school setting. This book, in contrast, uses a severely dark topic to draw attention to a love triangle. Not cool.
Finally, the writing itself was so stilted and fake, it was very difficult to read. This is not how teenagers talk. This is not how they think. And we have come too far in YA to tolerate inauthentic voices at the expense of better, more diverse writers with stronger writing styles.
I hate being this harsh, I really do. But this book was a total flop for me.
The premise of this one is compared to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, although it actually follows a plot more similar to Sarah Dessen's Dreamland. Our central character, Sparrow, is tickled pink when a cute boy from school takes an interest in her and asks her out. Their relationship develops quickly, but not in a good way--ending in abuse and reminding Sparrow of her childhood trauma from an abusive mother.
The timeline in this book made it difficult to connect with the characters. While we get the "meet cute" at the beginning of the book, the timeline for the romantic relationship jumps forward to abusive scenarios, and it's difficult as a reader to track why or how this girl could have fallen into this relationship so quickly. (It's not quickly for her, just for the reader.)
The connections to childhood, also, were difficult to follow. The connections between what is presently happening and what happened to Sparrow when she was younger were weak, to say the least, and left lots of questions about what had and hadn't come to light after her mother's death. The resolution, also, seemed to unfairly address these issues.
I was also not a fan of the dual perspectives, here, as half of the book is told from Sparrow's best friend who wishes they could be more. I recognize that romance is sensational, but I don't like when books combine high school affection with hard-hitting topics. Lucas' selfishness is unevenly threaded through his desires to protect Sparrow, and his whininess overall was frustrating and unappealing.
I felt like this book sensationalized what it was trying to portray. Abuse is used as a prop so many different times, for no real purpose--we aren't saying anything other than, Abuse is bad. I hardly think many people would disagree with that. This book is compared to Speak, which drives a hard and intense commentary into a high school setting. This book, in contrast, uses a severely dark topic to draw attention to a love triangle. Not cool.
Finally, the writing itself was so stilted and fake, it was very difficult to read. This is not how teenagers talk. This is not how they think. And we have come too far in YA to tolerate inauthentic voices at the expense of better, more diverse writers with stronger writing styles.
I hate being this harsh, I really do. But this book was a total flop for me.