Showing posts with label Gayle Forman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gayle Forman. Show all posts

September 10, 2022

We Are Inevitable by Gayle Forman

Synopsis

'I got this whole-body feeling... it was like a message from future me to present me, telling me that in some way we weren’t just bound to happen, that we had, in some sense, already happened. It felt... inevitable.'

So far, the inevitable hasn’t worked out so well for Aaron Stein.

While his friends have gone to college and moved on with their lives, Aaron’s been left behind in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, running a failing bookshop with his dad, Ira. What he needs is a lucky break, the good kind of inevitable.

And then he meets Hannah. Incredible Hannah – magical, musical, brave and clever. Could she be the answer? And could they – their relationship, their meeting – possibly be the inevitable Aaron’s been waiting for?


When I ordered this book, I was really excited to read it. Then, as many books do, it got lost in my TBR pile and sat around for a little over a year before I finally picked it up to dive in. It was one of those situations where I felt silly for putting it off so long once I finally started because it was a quick read and it gripped me from the beginning. But, maybe right now was just the time that I was meant to read it. 

The book follows the main character, Aaron, through many mental and emotional turmoils. It deals with topics of loss, love, addiction, disability, and even more. But, it tackles them gracefully and really comes off as being a light read despite the important and heavy topics. 

The thing I had to keep reminding myself is that Aaron is only 18 years old, and he's already been through a lot in his life. And I had to keep reminding myself of this because basically in every chapter, I wanted to dive through the pages into this fictional world and smack him on the head with a book. He was beyond frustrating. And then it sort of breaks the fourth wall when Hannah calls him an unreliable narrator - spot on. 

But even with the frustrations, We Are Inevitable is really a love note about books. Maybe not even just books - but about words. How words can reach deep inside of you and touch you in prolific ways. They may be written down in a novel or they may be playing through a speaker as a vinyl record spins. Words are important. Words can change your life. Words will always be with you when you feel the most alone. 

Book lovers could definitely find bits of themselves in these pages. Be warned - you'll also want to smack Aaron from time to time. 

I was really hoping there would be a more profound character arc for him, but I think everyone around Aaron grew more than he did. That left me a bit bummed out when I turned the final page. I was happy for the rest of them though. Ira, Chad, Hannah, the Lumberjacks . . . they all had their quirks. But they were all really likable. 

Whereas Aaron just . . . wasn't. But I'm not sure he was supposed to be. 

3/5 Stars. The book really was a nice journey, but the endless frustration knocked my rating down 2 stars. 

Memorable Quote: "Twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks and you have infinite words in infinite worlds.”



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September 16, 2014

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Synopsis:
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.
I am not sure what I was really expecting out of this book, but it did not live up to my expectations.
Most of the book was spent living in the past telling the story of Mia’s life through flashbacks. This helped to show the relationships between her and the people in her life, but it got dragged out and boring at times.

The characters were pretty well written. I felt like I knew them all pretty well by the time I was done. The dialogue flowed really well between them as well. Character development was the best part of the book.

The story itself is interesting before you get into it. The execution comes up a bit short. I felt that there should have been more about the accident and maybe her condition instead of all of the flashbacks. A good majority of them served a purpose, but a few could have been left out for a more relevant story-line.

I thought there would be more drama surrounding her decision. I didn’t feel emotionally tied to it or her character at all. Maybe that is why I wasn’t as into it as the next reader.

That said, I want to read the sequel.

4/5 stars. I did really enjoy it, I was just expecting more.

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