To be honest, I was not expecting this book to be good and I was thinking it as another pretentious young adult book but after reading it, I ended up recommending it to every favorite person of my life. It was my final exam week and I really do not want to get into another book. Anyways, I always carry e-books in my cell-phone so when I was struck in CNG I started reading the book. I totally love the book and I can totally relate with Laurel.
Like her, I have an elder sister whom I love so much and she is everything I ever want to be. So I can totally empathize with her, how is it like when you lost someone like that. I loved all the memories she recalled while writing to the deads. Those who are looking for a romantic story will surely be disappointed because it is not about any high school romance.
It is about family, friendship and overall, knowing yourself. I have friends like Laurel have in the book. So how much it means to have true friends by your side had been portrayed really well in this book. It is really hard for anyone who does not share a very special relationship with siblings or has true friends or has mastered the art of losing to grasp the beauty of this book. It may seem to you that this is too much drama but no it is not. I have been there and survived through all the feelings.
“And maybe what growing up really means is knowing that you don’t have to be just a character, going whichever way the story says. It’s knowing you could be the author instead.”
I know this as absolute truth but still, I could not be an author of my life. When my Papa passed away, my perfect little family got somewhat broken. After one year, when my sister got married it was too tough for me to cope up without her I was too much dependent on her. Before that I knew when I could not understand what to do, I can just go to my sister and cry to my heart’s content hugging her and she had the magic of solving every single problem of life. I finally realized at that time, my childhood is officially over. I thank Ava for not making the male protagonist Sky a life-changing angel rather a realistic real-life guy with his own problem to deal with. I always want to be a great coder but I don’t try that much. I know the reason why but I never can put it into words but Ava did. “I think a lot of people want to be someone, but we are scared that if we try, we won’t be as good as everyone imagined we could be.” The last letter to May was the best. I love all the poetries and there are so many lines in this book which I can so relate. I always love poetry but never can explain why but now I got the perfect reply which is “There are a lot of human experiences that challenge the limits of our language,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons that we have poetry.” I will reread the book again slowly. Like Tristen has said rightly about saving others;
“What I told you about saving people isn’t true. You might think it is because you might want someone else to save you, or you might want to save someone so badly. But no one else can save you, not really. Not from yourself. You fall asleep in the foothills, and the wolf comes down from the mountains. And you hope someone will wake you up. Or chase it off. Or shoot it dead. But when you realize that the wolf is inside you, that’s when you know. You can’t run from it. And no one who loves you can kill the wolf because it’s part of you. They see your face on it. And they won’t fire the shot.”
People have a misconception about love that love means safety and security but I think Ava got it right “When we are in love, we are both completely in danger and completely saved.” So here is this line from the book I want to tell my Papa “Nirvana means freedom. Freedom from suffering. I guess some people would say that death is just that. So, congratulations on being free, I guess. The rest of us are still here, grappling with all that’s been torn up.”. Your feelings may differ from me but this is a book for all those who lost dear ones and still believe they are with us.
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