LitPick Review
This book is set in a very unlikely situation in which a girl’s mother is in a coma, never to wake up again, but her unborn baby brother is still alive, barely. Extreme measures are taken at the slight chance that the child will live and the mother’s organs are kept running with machines. As you might imagine, this whole premise is full with raging emotions and misplaced anger. The daughter, Emma, cannot get over that her stepfather did not regard her existence as he was deciding on her mother’s and brother’s lives. In a fog of grief, he left her alone and he made the decision to keep the mother alive. As this relationship is torn apart by horrific silence, only broken by biting words, a new relationship is brewing. Emma has met a boy from school who she has known all her life, but she has never spoken to him. Caleb Harrison is known as the resident bad apple of the school. Trouble with the law, his parents, and a tragic story of his own all resonate with Emma so she is finally able to find a person whose anger and tragedy understands her own. As this relationship grows, Emma will try to find it in her to mend her broken heart and live life again.
Opinion:
The tone of this story is very dramatic and moves quickly. It’s not meant to be a masterpiece, but it effectively completes an emotional roller coaster of a book. It starts off with a very improbable situation but makes it seem completely real to the reader. As much as you want to laugh at Emma’s actions, her feelings always come off as genuine. This was a very quick and enjoyable read that was the perfect cup of tea for a snow day. If I had been looking for a more realistic book than I may have been disappointed, as I had to chuckle at some scenes, if only for the fact that the book took itself too seriously. Somehow this all fit together into a sweet teen romance that almost found its way over to being realistic. Realism however, is not what this book was about, and it worked perfectly.
