When I'm Gone by Emily Bleeker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
After the funeral for his wife, widower Luke Richardson begins to get letters that she wrote him in the year before her death. At first the letters feel like a comfort, but then they begin to bring up questions about his deceased wife and secrets that she kept from him. Luke struggles with the challenges of being a single father, dealing with the grief and all the feelings that entails, and then he has to deal with the mystery that his wife left behind. The story was well written, but I was frustrated by the ending. The end of the story felt both rushed and unfinished.
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Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had been looking forward to John Green's new book and was excited when a friend loaned me a copy. It was a quick read. The story is engaging and moves along at a good pace. The central character of the story is Aza, a young woman who struggles with obsessive thoughts and bizarre compulsive behaviors. Aza struggles to function in the world despite these obsessive 'thought spirals' as she describes them. Aza has a caring mother and a wildly improbable best friend named Daisy. Aza and Daisy decide to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a local millionaire, who just happens to be the father of a boy Aza met at a children's grief camp. With Daisy's encouragement, Aza rekindles a friendship with Davis and finds herself having strong feelings for him, but her strange thoughts and behaviors keep getting in the way. Davis and his brother are struggling to deal with their father's disappearance, and despite her own issues, Aza feels compelled to help them. The author does a great job of exploring the chaotic world of mental illness by giving it a real face and a name, and he shows how devastating mental illness can be to live with. Once again John Green delivers a story of teen angst that feels much deeper and richer than the average young adult novel, and he leaves the reader with difficult questions to sort out on their own. I found the ending to be somewhat jarring and unfinished, but overall I enjoyed this book.
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The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I was lucky enough to win an advanced copy of Kristin Hannah’s new novel, The Great Alone. This novel is a lengthy read at 438 pages, but this story holds the readers attention from page one through the end.
The Great Alone is the story of Leni, a young woman who moves up to the wilds of Alaska with her mother and father in search of a new life. Leni faces not only the dangers of life in the Alaskan wilderness, but also the dangers within her own family dealing with her father’s unpredictable angry outbursts. Leni’s father was a P.O.W in the Vietnam war and he faces inner demons that often erupt into violence. Leni’s mother is unable to protect herself or Leni from his anger.
Leni begins to find herself as she learns to deal with the harsh Alaska climate. One of the bright spots of the story are the odd characters that live alongside Leni and her family in her small Alaskan town. Together with her Alaskan neighbors, Leni begins to thrive and find her place, until tragedy pulls her family apart and changes everything.
I really enjoyed The Great Alone. It was a challenging read at times, causing feelings of anger and frustration at the struggles that Leni is forced to deal with, but this captivating story will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
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