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introvertinterrupted's Reviews (1.08k)
I gave this book 4.5 stars.
I see-sawed between giving it 3,4, & 5 stars and landed somewhere in between a 4&5. I loved that the books ending withheld going down a cliched role of perfectly tied up ends and that reality did "come a knocking." However, I didn't absolutely love the way the dual narratives was executed by Buzo. She tended to let one character talk for several chapters then come back and start the other character's narration back where character 1's began. This was frustrating because the time span of each characters' narrative lasted for about 3-4 months.
Other than that, I felt that this story was extremely realistic. Amelia's character was drawn up perfectly as an angsty teenager who has a crush on an older guy. While Chris was the perfect representation of a young adult who's set adrift at the time in life where most people expect you to have everything together (I.e., college graduation). I loved the literary and social conversations between these two. Amelia perfected the tone of a passionate teen who is convinced that she knows it all. She frequently almost came to near blows with Chris over biting topics like, Gatsby's predicament of loving a factionalized version of Daisy, feminism, and unrequited love, In this way, Amelia held her own with her senior contemporary. For his part, Chris conceded that he didn't have all the answers, but wasn't afraid to discuss hard topics either.
My favorite part of this book had to be Chris's constant educating of Amelia. I loved how he'd make a reference to something and then, she'd go and search for its meaning on her own. This constant search in her for knowledge was refreshing. I felt that Amelia was more relatable than most YA leads in this way because she wasn't made into a know it all character who could "fix" everything by the book's end. Likewise, Chris's constant ruminating on where his life went wrong/ why couldn't it be easier was extremely satisfying. Buzo made sure she didn't lessen the glare of restlessness that comes from the teenage and young adult years by making her characters into perfect beings.
Yet, the pace of this story almost had me downgrading this book to 3 stars. As I mentioned before, the way the narrative is structured causes the book to stall in some places. When things get good, it's hard to be pushed back to beginning and see things thru the other characters pov four months beforehand. This is one of the only things I would change about this book.
I seriously hope that Buzo decides to write a sequel to this story. I woukd love to know what happens in Amelia and Chris in the future. I'd definitely recommend it to others and will be rereading it in the future.
I see-sawed between giving it 3,4, & 5 stars and landed somewhere in between a 4&5. I loved that the books ending withheld going down a cliched role of perfectly tied up ends and that reality did "come a knocking." However, I didn't absolutely love the way the dual narratives was executed by Buzo. She tended to let one character talk for several chapters then come back and start the other character's narration back where character 1's began. This was frustrating because the time span of each characters' narrative lasted for about 3-4 months.
Other than that, I felt that this story was extremely realistic. Amelia's character was drawn up perfectly as an angsty teenager who has a crush on an older guy. While Chris was the perfect representation of a young adult who's set adrift at the time in life where most people expect you to have everything together (I.e., college graduation). I loved the literary and social conversations between these two. Amelia perfected the tone of a passionate teen who is convinced that she knows it all. She frequently almost came to near blows with Chris over biting topics like, Gatsby's predicament of loving a factionalized version of Daisy, feminism, and unrequited love, In this way, Amelia held her own with her senior contemporary. For his part, Chris conceded that he didn't have all the answers, but wasn't afraid to discuss hard topics either.
My favorite part of this book had to be Chris's constant educating of Amelia. I loved how he'd make a reference to something and then, she'd go and search for its meaning on her own. This constant search in her for knowledge was refreshing. I felt that Amelia was more relatable than most YA leads in this way because she wasn't made into a know it all character who could "fix" everything by the book's end. Likewise, Chris's constant ruminating on where his life went wrong/ why couldn't it be easier was extremely satisfying. Buzo made sure she didn't lessen the glare of restlessness that comes from the teenage and young adult years by making her characters into perfect beings.
Yet, the pace of this story almost had me downgrading this book to 3 stars. As I mentioned before, the way the narrative is structured causes the book to stall in some places. When things get good, it's hard to be pushed back to beginning and see things thru the other characters pov four months beforehand. This is one of the only things I would change about this book.
I seriously hope that Buzo decides to write a sequel to this story. I woukd love to know what happens in Amelia and Chris in the future. I'd definitely recommend it to others and will be rereading it in the future.