Rowan skips school on the day that a young father jumps off a bridge holding his baby and kills them both. Rowan's father is a police officer who was first on the scene, since he had to pick up Rowan and bring her home when she got caught skipping.
This day changes Rowan's life.
There's a bit of a love interest named Eli. He has had a difficult life too, and the fact that he was on the bridge walking his dog during the incident complicates it even further. Rowan and Eli have a bond because of what happened, and soon a touching romance begins. I did enjoy this relationship, and I really loved the dog and the role she played in the story.
Most of Me Since You is about Rowan and her family's grief. Wiess has done an excellent job depicting how grief tears people apart, and different people grieve differently. But really, this goes on for pages and pages and I found it very repetitive. And I did find the behavior of at least one person to be unrealistic. Having dealt with the death of a family member before, I found this book really depressing. The end is very abrupt, just beginning to reveal meager signs of hope.
Wiess writes great characters, and the situations she puts them in are realistic and difficult. The middle of Me Since You just gets bogged down in the endless symptoms of grief. I will recommend Me Since You to my teens with the caveat that it's really a downer.
Published by MTV Books, February 18, 2014
eBook obtained from Edelweiss
368 pages
Rating: 3/5
Every review of this book I've read has me simultaneously interested in reading it and dreading how sad and grim it's going to be. I think I'll have to wait until I'm in the mood for this kind of emotional story. Lovely review!
ReplyDelete