Warnings for a suicide attempt, suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, brief mention of cheating (not main character), manipulation, past amputation. This book deals with very serious topics in not the most healthy manner but what human deals with serious things in the best way, anyway?
West Finch, Maine is on the brink of falling into the ocean and Harlow is determined that it won’t happen. She’s obsessed with measuring sand erosion and the upcoming hurricane season. Unfortunately, nature has other plans when a pair of near threatened piping plovers decides to build a nest on the coast, delaying the demolition of the jetty. Though obsessed with saving the town, she’s even more obsessed with saving Tommy, who took a swim in the ocean with no intention of returning. Harlow has a contentious relationship with Tommy, who resents her for taking away his brother, Ellis. When Harlow met Ellis, they became friends right away, pushing Tommy out of the picture even though he and Ellis are twins. But when Tommy is rescued from the ocean, Harlow is determined to keep him from falling into his depression again.
This book is told in alternating first person chapters between Harlow, Ellis, and Tommy, giving me a really good look inside each of their heads. Which is great because, wow, there’s a lot going on here. Revealed secrets and small town drama and inner neuroses and depression and anxiety. No one is neurotypical, that’s for sure. I was utterly drawn in by the writing style, so descriptive of both surroundings and feelings. The description of depression, as told from any of their points of view but especially Tommy’s, is so realistic and gut wrenching at times.
There are so many overlapping stories within this one book. There’s doom hanging over West Finch because it’s probably going to get washed into the ocean sometime soon. There’s Tommy’s suicide attempt and depression. There’s Harlow’s mysterious guilt regarding something she did to Ellis that he doesn’t know about. There’s Ellis’s guilt for not paying more attention to Tommy. And the Plan that Harlow and Ellis dreamed up, the plan to go to college together based on whatever colleges Ellis gets into with a track scholarship, quickly go up in flames when, A, she bombs her SATs, and, B, he injures himself while running, thus ruining his chances at varsity. And yet all these plot lines, along with a couple romances, are woven together so expertly, intertwining and weaving in and out of one another. They aren’t separate because of course they’re not; they wouldn’t be in real life, after all. Even when trying to wrap up these storylines, the characters and who they are are not lost in the process.
Harlow annoys me the most; she seems very manipulative from the start, so sure of what she wants, that she will lie to get it. Her hatred of Tommy bothers me so much in the start that I can’t quite believe in their budding relationship. She doesn’t really think about how real or not real her feelings are for Tommy aside from a small internal question that is never really answered. Tommy is the character I align with most. He’s an artist, his urge to make art lost to depression and antidepressants. He doesn’t really want to get better but uses his dog’s, Goose’s, cancer as a crutch, working and raising money for her treatment and avoiding thinking about really getting better. Ellis is a terrible friend, but then again, so is Harlow. Still, I find Ellis the more tolerable of the two and enjoy reading his chapters second to Tommy’s. All three of them are complicated and pretty unlikable, to be honest, but I actually liked that. Hartt’s writing just drew me in so effectively
West Finch is a delightful small town and I’d’ve loved to read more about its residents. There are a lot of names to get used to at the start but the unimportant ones fall away quickly as the story focuses on the main characters. The weather and the imminent doom of the oncoming hurricane season added to the sense of gloom as relationships start to change and fall apart. There are also several secrets among the trio that aren’t fully revealed, instead vaguely alluded to over the course of the book. I would have liked a little more clarity and a more definite ending, whether good or bad.
I recommend this book for fans of I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. While the topics dealt with are quite heavy, the prose and characters are so compelling, I could hardly put the book down.
West Finch, Maine is on the brink of falling into the ocean and Harlow is determined that it won’t happen. She’s obsessed with measuring sand erosion and the upcoming hurricane season. Unfortunately, nature has other plans when a pair of near threatened piping plovers decides to build a nest on the coast, delaying the demolition of the jetty. Though obsessed with saving the town, she’s even more obsessed with saving Tommy, who took a swim in the ocean with no intention of returning. Harlow has a contentious relationship with Tommy, who resents her for taking away his brother, Ellis. When Harlow met Ellis, they became friends right away, pushing Tommy out of the picture even though he and Ellis are twins. But when Tommy is rescued from the ocean, Harlow is determined to keep him from falling into his depression again.
This book is told in alternating first person chapters between Harlow, Ellis, and Tommy, giving me a really good look inside each of their heads. Which is great because, wow, there’s a lot going on here. Revealed secrets and small town drama and inner neuroses and depression and anxiety. No one is neurotypical, that’s for sure. I was utterly drawn in by the writing style, so descriptive of both surroundings and feelings. The description of depression, as told from any of their points of view but especially Tommy’s, is so realistic and gut wrenching at times.
There are so many overlapping stories within this one book. There’s doom hanging over West Finch because it’s probably going to get washed into the ocean sometime soon. There’s Tommy’s suicide attempt and depression. There’s Harlow’s mysterious guilt regarding something she did to Ellis that he doesn’t know about. There’s Ellis’s guilt for not paying more attention to Tommy. And the Plan that Harlow and Ellis dreamed up, the plan to go to college together based on whatever colleges Ellis gets into with a track scholarship, quickly go up in flames when, A, she bombs her SATs, and, B, he injures himself while running, thus ruining his chances at varsity. And yet all these plot lines, along with a couple romances, are woven together so expertly, intertwining and weaving in and out of one another. They aren’t separate because of course they’re not; they wouldn’t be in real life, after all. Even when trying to wrap up these storylines, the characters and who they are are not lost in the process.
Harlow annoys me the most; she seems very manipulative from the start, so sure of what she wants, that she will lie to get it. Her hatred of Tommy bothers me so much in the start that I can’t quite believe in their budding relationship. She doesn’t really think about how real or not real her feelings are for Tommy aside from a small internal question that is never really answered. Tommy is the character I align with most. He’s an artist, his urge to make art lost to depression and antidepressants. He doesn’t really want to get better but uses his dog’s, Goose’s, cancer as a crutch, working and raising money for her treatment and avoiding thinking about really getting better. Ellis is a terrible friend, but then again, so is Harlow. Still, I find Ellis the more tolerable of the two and enjoy reading his chapters second to Tommy’s. All three of them are complicated and pretty unlikable, to be honest, but I actually liked that. Hartt’s writing just drew me in so effectively
West Finch is a delightful small town and I’d’ve loved to read more about its residents. There are a lot of names to get used to at the start but the unimportant ones fall away quickly as the story focuses on the main characters. The weather and the imminent doom of the oncoming hurricane season added to the sense of gloom as relationships start to change and fall apart. There are also several secrets among the trio that aren’t fully revealed, instead vaguely alluded to over the course of the book. I would have liked a little more clarity and a more definite ending, whether good or bad.
I recommend this book for fans of I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. While the topics dealt with are quite heavy, the prose and characters are so compelling, I could hardly put the book down.