Synopsis:After the death of Lex’s brother, Ty, by suicide she’s left with no choice but deal with its repercussions: her mother’s retreat from life, her pumped up loathe against their father, her untimely breakup with her boyfriend, and carrying on her shoulders the weight of the fact that she could’ve stopped Ty’s demise.
My rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5)
How convenient would it be if there is nothing beyond our control? Oh, what we’d all do for that gift, right? But it’s impossible. A sentiment proved by Lex as she wasn’t capable of stopping her father from leaving home for another woman, of not letting it hurt their family too much, of stopping Ty from doing what he did, and of things just really heading south.
As time does its job of unraveling, Lex’s wounds don’t seem to heal even with the help of her therapist and her reunion with a childhood friend. She even got into MIT which is a news she expected she’d break at dinner with the whole family. Life had been giving her reasons to cheer up but you can’t blame her for having difficulty in allowing herself to do so – not with her mom being out of herself and the haunting text from Ty that she failed to attend to the night he died.
A nicely written prose by Cynthia Hand. It tackles about how a text or chat from someone might mean something.
That text message was this book’s hook. It will reel you through its simple narrative with some corny and unnecessary parts. Although when you make it to the end it will surprise you with how what happened wasn’t that hard to guess and still, you would fail.
We’re given reasons why Ty did what he did but not in a way that is as detailed as Thirteen Reasons Why‘s Hannah Baker. But Ty was just a quarter of the story, and so was Lex. It’s mostly about coming to terms with that non-exclusive experience of losing a loved one, and death itself. As Lex just keeps moving forward, without her full knowledge, her situation was like a grassland that had been soaked for a long time. And finally showered by sunlight helping it dry up and continue its growth. That’s the feeling it plants to its readers – the certainty of pain’s end because (to quote from the book) there’s got to be some bullshit overall rule of the universe that no matter what happens, no matter how bad it gets, everything will be alright in the end. And I believe that and it’s just a bullshit overall rule.
If you’re someone who’s starting to love reading books, I recommend this. This book’s a melancholic experience, but it could work.
—
Note:
Hi guys! This is a guest review made by my best friend. He read the book a few weeks ago and told me that he’s willing to contribute a review of this on my blog. This is written in his own perspective so yeah, this has a different voice compared to what you usually read here.
