I'm finally reviewing my first 2020 read which means I'm under six months behind, so I'm catching up! However, it was not a good start to the year in terms of how much I enjoyed it. I really thought I'd love it - YA where the main character loves Wuthering Heights, with a beautiful cover to boot, but it just didn't hit the spot for me.
Lennie Walker loves her sister more than anything. When she passes away, Lennie's left completely adrift, not knowing what to do or even how to begin coping. A band geek who's book obsessed, the one way Lennie begins to understand her grief at all is through writing poetry. Poems are interspersed between the main text of the book, and all have grief as their central theme. When Lennie starts to fall in love however she questions how she could possibly feel joy or contentment when her sister doesn't get the opportunity to.
I really wanted to love this. The poetry seemed like such a great idea (and probably was my favourite part of the book in the end) and I went in fully prepared to cry. But it just didn't make me feel anything that intensely. I think the main issue is that it really was bordering on teen fiction rather than being true YA, so I'm not the target market for this kind of book.
However, I had two other major issues with it: one was Lennie continuously making out with her dead sister's boyfriend???? Which made me question whether the author had a sister at all because I just can't imagine a world in which that would have ever happened, even if they were 'bound together by their shared grief'. And the second is that the mystery around their missing mum never reaches a conclusion. Again, I think that's more of an issue coming from me as a reader being someone who always wants things wrapped up neatly.
I read this several years ago, but I tried not to judge the character too harshly, because they were drowning in their grief. Though, let me be clear, I was Joelirious and Team Joel all the way
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