“From the Corner of His Eye” by Dean Koontz

After starting a full-time job, I don’t have as much time for reading.  Thus I sneak in as much as I can through audio books, which allow me to read during my biking commute and on my lunch hour (so I can eat and read at the same time).  The interesting thing about audio books, I’ve found, is that there are some stories that are best heard out loud, and some you’d rather read a print version.  Dean Koontz is one such author that writes stories that are best listened to out loud.  Anyone who knows me well is aware that Dean Koontz is my go-to author when I’m stuck in a book rut, or want to listen to something entertaining that doesn’t require a lot of brain power.  Koontz is often criticized because his characters tend to be almost cartoonish–there is almost always characters that are pure, good, and almost angel-like, and they must battle against an evil man/corporation/mystical force.  For a summer, read I am fine with characters and a plot like that.

A fellow Koontz fan recommended this book to me, claiming it was one of her favorite Koontz novels.  Right away, I realized that the book description on Amazon or Goodreads is misleading.  My short synopsis: What does a little boy named Bartholomew, a young girl who delivered a baby after being raped, and a psychopath all have in common?  In this novel of good versus evil, metaphysics, and science fiction, three stories come together in a climax that makes you question the nature of the world.  If I say any more than this, I’m afraid I might give away some spoilers. Suffice to say, this book was enjoyable in that the characters were well-developed, there were a lot of twists and turns, and I thought the ending was satisfying and tied together everything well.  It is a Koontz book however, meaning that the characters are not complex (either they are good or bad people), there is a dog (Koontz loves dogs), and the romance(s) are all very innocent.

If I had to rate this book in terms of other Koontz novels, this one would be in my top ten.   What Koontz does well is creating villains.  The villain character in this book was creepy and believable.  Also, although his characters aren’t complex, they are well-developed.  Part of the pleasure of reading this book is seeing how the characters all come together and connect at the very end.  Part thriller, part family sagas, part mediation on the nature of life/death and multiple universes, this book is all around an entertaining summer read you can sink your teeth into.

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  Be sure to subscribe to get the latest updates on what I’m reading this summer.  As always, I’d love to hear from you in the comments about the books I discuss, and your recommendations.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” By Lionel Shriver

 

These past few weeks have been busy with getting settled into my new full-time position.  However, that’s not the only reason why it has taken me so long to write about “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”  This book has been haunting me since finishing it a few weeks ago. It has taken me some time to gather all my thoughts on it and articulate what I’d like to say.

I’ll start with a basic, spoiler-free, synopsis before going into my review.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” is a series of letters written by Eva to her estranged husband Franklin about their son, Kevin, who at the age of 15 went on a brutal shooting spree at his high school.  Naturally, it is a sad, heavy book that is twisted, horrifying, and will mess with your emotions.  Before you read this book, I think there are several important things to note:

1. The big climax in this book is not the fact that Kevin committed this horrible act.  From the very beginning, Eva talks about her son’s crime.
2. Although the title makes it seem that this book is all about Kevin, it is actually more about Eva, her relationship with her husband, how she went from a career woman to a mother, and a reflection on her sense of guilt in the aftermath of Kevin’s deed.
3. Shriver is an excellent writer.  However, a lot of negative reviews on this book focus on the fact that Eva writes letters to her husband that are too formal and don’t read the way you’d expect letters between two people who know each other so well.  For example, some people were annoyed that she’d write things to her husband that he already knew.  Why write in detail about their relationship when he knows what he said/did?  POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT: Well, if you think about it too much, the writing style gives away the huge plot twist. I guessed it within the first few chapters, and after having the plot twist confirmed at the end, the way Eva wrote to her husband made perfect sense.  

 

My advice to anyone starting this book, is don’t be put off by the writing style and the slow build up.  Every anecdote Eva reveals slowly leads up to the fated day of Kevin’s massacre and the aftermath.  It is worth it, trust me, to mull through the beginning and wonder where it’s going to end up, considering we already know Kevin is guilty and what he did.  I promise you though, towards the end, all the little pieces fall in place, leaving you shocked, and shocked at how shocked you are.

As heavy as this book is, there are many important themes weaved throughout.  Of course, the main question in the book is of nature versus nurture: Was Kevin born evil or did the fact that Eva was (as shown many times throughout the book) a bad mom reason for him snapping?  You will find yourself on an emotional rollercoaster in this book.  Sometimes you are on Eva’s side and are terrified of things Kevin (allegedly) does.  But then, you wonder if he ever really did anything bad, or is Eva remembering innocuous incidences and trying to find some sort of warning for what her son ended up doing?  Growing up, Kevin never actually does (or is caught) doing anything bad.  Maybe Eva’s skewed perception of him makes him look guilty.  Then you think that Eva might be a terrible mom because she never bonded with Kevin, yells at him, and denies him a normal mother’s love.  But Eva clearly had post-pardem depression so how much blame can you really put on her?  My feelings towards all the characters was complicated and mercurial.

Another theme is of motherhood and feminism.  Eva really did not want a child, but felt pressured by her husband to have one.  She gave up her career, her opportunities to travel, and some of her husband’s love for Kevin.  And she is expected to feel nothing but love and sacrifice for him. However, Eva never warms to her son and feels like a failure of a mother for that.  I’ve never had children so I would really be interested to hear the perspective of a mother on this book and Eva’s relationship with Kevin.

Lastly, this book is about violence in schools, and societies’ twisted obsession with covering people who commit violent crimes.  A quote from the book summarizes Eva’s views on this: “In a country that doesn’t discriminate between fame and infamy, the latter presents itself as plainly more achievable.”  Written in 2003, this book has a lot of eerie predictions about the world we live in now, where school shootings are a common occurrence for troubled people to get their minutes of TV fame before going out in a violent last hurrah.

Why should you read this book?  Looking back on how I described it, why would anyone want to subject themselves to somethings that seems really depressing?  Do it for the last few pages.  With all the disturbing content in this book, the ending is so heartbreakingly human and raw.  I listened to this book on my phone (which by the way–if you read this book I highly recommend listening to it versus reading it in print) while riding my bike and had to pull over at the end to let myself have a good cry.  It wasn’t a sad cry, just an overwhelmed-with-emotions cry.  I also think you should read this book because it opens your mind up to important questions about the themes I mentioned above.

After you read this, you’ll want to give your mom a hug.  And seriously question if you ever want to be a parent.

“The Circle” By Dave Eggers

“SECRETS ARE LIES

SHARING IS CARING

PRIVACY IS THEFT”-pp. 305

 

Technology can make our lives seemingly more simple while at the same time complicating them in unforeseeable ways.  The Circle by Dave Eggers is best summarized by the age old question popular in science/technology based dystopias: “How far is too far?”  Unlike other dystopian novels however, that question is never answered explicitly, and is ultimately up to the reader to decide.

Let me take a step back:

The Circle chronicles the evolution of Mae Holland, a 20-something post-grad that is stuck in an all-too-familiar-to-millenials rut.  She is working a crappy job, has student loan officers harassing her daily, and is living with her parents.

Her life suddenly changes when her best friend from college, Annie, helps her secure a job at “The Circle,” a fancy new tech company that is eerily reminiscent of Epic Systems (a software company in Madison, WI. The author also happens to be from Chicago, so I’m further convinced this place might have inspired him).  Compared to her previous job, The Circle is a utopia.  She has a living wage and supervisors who support her.  There are fancy themed department buildings, cafeterias where famous chefs offer succulent dishes, parties on campus at night, sports facilities, and even dormitories where you can sleep if you work late.  She can’t believe her fortune to work for a company like this.

While Mae finds herself more drawn in to life in The Circle, she finds life outside to be less exciting and grim.  What starts as a blissful fairy tale of a promising career starts to take a darker turn as The Circle expands its influence and power.  Suddenly people who openly express worry that The Circle is becoming a monopoly start to have their metaphorical dirty laundry once protected online exposed to the media.  Workers at The Circle develop technology that raises questions of what should be considered private versus publicly accessed information.

A lot of reviews of this book equate The Circle to 1984.  While I would agree that both illustrate a dystopia (one in development in The Circle) that rests on the value that personal privacy is a threat to national security, this book is much more complicated than that.  This novel is timely in that a lot of the young characters grew up hearing about terrorist attacks, school shootings, and corrupt politicians.  Not only that, their desire to be connected to others and validated on social media contributes to the paranoia and anxiety that fuels The Circle’s  power.  The Circle’s mantra quoted above expresses the shared values of these young characters who want to hold people accountable for atrocious actions and share their lives and find instant (yet ironically meaningful) connections on social media.

Eggers manages to handle these modern issues, questions, and controversies without lecturing the reader.  Unlike 1984, most characters in The Circle eagerly give up their rights to privacy for the sake of professional transparency and security (all for different reasons that are explored in the book).  What’s chilling is that in this novel, it doesn’t take government force to make people give up their rights; it’s the pressure to follow the example of their peers and “get with the times.” Concerns expressed by people who are wary of The Circle are dismissed by Mae and her colleagues with a pitying and condescending eye-roll.  They are, after all, pioneers of the new wave of technology. Resistance is futile…in fact resistance is blasé and a sign of moral flaws. 

Overall, The Circle isn’t solely a dire warning or a lecture on the potential harms of unchecked technological advancement.  Its power lies in its ability to creep into your subconscious and find yourself pondering “What if..?” when you next find yourself at a social gathering surrounding by peers tapping away at their I-phones.  Without giving away the ending, I’ll just say that the last lines of the book sent a shiver down my spine and have since made me contemplate the roles social media and technology play in our lives, as well as the effects lack of privacy and unrestricted access to information can have on society and the human psyche.  Another question The Circle raises is: Do we really want to know everything about ourselves, our friends, our family, or our history? 

The other big theme in this book was about human connection, which I would struggle to discuss without revealing major spoiler alerts.  In a nutshell, I would agree with the author’s suggestion that technology has, and will continue, to change how humans interact and relate to each other on personal and professional levels. Suffice to say that this book will make you think about a lot of aspects of human society and struggle with questions that don’t have an easy or apparent answer.

As I read over what I’ve typed so far, I realize that this book is very intricate in its layers of meaning.  There are many themes that I could have discussed here, but I chose to focus on the ones that resonated the most with me.

A final note on Eggers as a writer: this is the first book I’ve read by him and I was very impressed.  Part of what makes this novel so effective is his writing style, especially his insertion of metaphorical scenes that give you goosebumps without really knowing why at first.  I still shudder when I think about the symbolic scene with the company shark, who greedily eats every other sea creature in its tank.  Such visceral moments as these add to the foreboding undertone lurking parallel to the dialogue.

Have any of you read The Circle?  Let me know what you thought in the comments!

 

“The Perfect Girl” by Gilly Macmillan

Summer is perfect to not only catch up on your reading list, but give yourself time to stumble upon something unexpected.  My favorite part about this time of year is going to the down-town Madison Public Library (MPL) and leisurely browsing their “Too Good to Miss” section.  From best-sellers, to adaptations, to obscure picks, the dear MPL librarians never fail to maintain a revolving collection of books that includes something that will appeal to any literary appetite.  The reason why I seem to always leave the library with more books than I came to return is because the “Too Good to Miss” section lives up to its namesake.

It was at this section where I stumbled upon The Perfect Girl.  As someone who likes to brag that I read Gone Girl and Girl on the Train (by the way, what is it with thrillers using the word “girl” in their titles?) before they became super ultra best-sellers, I am always hunting for the newest thriller sensation.  My guilty pleasure are books that include: mystery, unreliable characters, murder, messed up families with secrets, and plot twists.  This title initially caught my eye with it’s dark cover and that at first glance I thought the author was Gillian Flynn (which begs the question: When will she bless us with another book?).  Then I read the back and saw it was about: mystery, unreliable characters, murder, messed up families with secrets, and plot twists.  Say no more.

With the sudden surge of books like Gone Girl, I can imagine that before long this sort of genre will become cliche and tired.  For now though, I am one of many who are hooked on this type of novel.  However, it presents a challenge to authors: it’s hard to take a troupe that sells but avoid your book being lost in the noise.  The Perfect Girl didn’t seem to get great reviews on Goodreads, but I think it is the perfect summer book.

Very short summary: Music prodigy Zoe was involved in an unfortunate accident a year ago that broke her family and sent her to juvenile detention.  Tonight she’s performing a concert with her new brother in law to try to get her life back on track.  Little does she know by the end of the night, her mother will be dead.

Dum dum dum!!

Mystery/thriller lovers will see that this book takes a lot of strategies from Gone Girl.  It is told in multiple perspectives, you aren’t sure who is a reliable character or not, there are a lot of family secrets, and everything is revealed in spurts.  The paperback version is about 430 pages, but it took me only 3 days to read.  It’s fast paced and has decent character development.  My only critiques would be that the ending is somewhat predictable, and the character Sam (a police officer) didn’t really seem necessary to the overall plot.

While we wait for Gillian Flynn (hint hint Gillian!) to crank out her new book (right now would be great!), The Perfect Girl is a satisfactory thriller that will provide you with a few days of literary entertainment.  Take it with you on a trip this summer, or as you sit by the pool.

What books are you reading this summer?  Let me know in the comments!

 

“The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” By Carson McCullers

“Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.”

I was pulled out of my “book rut” when I opened a copy of this novel.  By book rut, I meant that it’s been (in my opinion) too long since I read a book that grabbed my attention, transported me, and left me breathless and overwhelmed with emotion.  Being in a book rut is quite disappointing for bookworms such as myself. I thus scoured the Internet looking for ideas of well-written books that would captivate me.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter came up on a few lists so I took that as a sign.

It’s funny how loved, popular, and timeless the book To Kill a Mockingbird is, yet I’ve never heard of  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter before.  In many ways, they are very similar.  Both take place in the Southern US, both have a tomboy as a main character, both tackle issues of racism and growing up.  I was actually astounded at the similarities.  However, while To Kill a Mockingbird is centered around white people and the experiences of blacks through a white lens, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter has prominent black characters that are richly developed, and complex.

This book was written in the 1940s by a 23-year-old white woman, yet had I not known that before reading this book, I would never have guessed that.  What makes this book so brilliant is the fact that a young Southern and white woman could write about complex issues of racism, grief, and sexuality with empathy and a deep insight that is beyond her years.

The cast of characters is a rag tag melee of misfits in the South who are united by their friendship with a mute named John Singer.  There’s Biff, a recently widowed store owner who is exploring his gender identity; Dr. Copeland, a black man who is frustrated with the plight of African Americans in the US; Jake Blount, an alcoholic who is obsessed with leading a revolution; and Mick, a young teen girl whose high hopes for life are slowly crushed by her family’s descent into poverty.  Singer has his own issues: his best friend/ soul mate (probably lover) is in a mental institution and so he has no one to lay his own burdens and love onto.

The most interesting part about this book was the deep biblical undertones.  Singer is like Jesus: the main characters are constantly coming to talk to him and tell him about their life, their burdens, their hopes and their fears.  Being a mute symbolizes that while people pray to Jesus or God, they don’t get a direct answer.  His character also represents how humans project their own ideas of who God should be.  For Singer, he means something different to each of the characters.  A significant moment in the novel is when all the main characters are together in the same room, and no one can talk to each other.  They all want to talk to the mute instead.  This scene is one example of how brilliant, metaphorical, and powerful this book is.

I could go on and on about the symbolism and meanings in this book, but I don’t want to spoil anything.  Do yourself a literary favor, and read this book. Be warned though: there are a lot of emotional parts.

Have you read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter? If so, I’d love to hear what you thought about it.  Let me know in the comments your opinions!

 

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson

Where do I even begin?

I’ve read my fair share of books that scared me, scarred me, haunted me.

But until now, I had never encountered a book that managed to do all of that while also being mesmerizing and surprisingly readable.

This book is a young woman’s (Maya) confession in a police station.  All we know at the beginning is that she and many other girls were kidnapped and endured unspeakable horrors at the hands of a man referred to as “The Gardener.”  Though reluctant at first to open up to the cops, Maya slowly shares her heartbreaking account of her childhood and life as a prisoner with the other women.

Soon we learn that the gardener tattoos each woman with large butterfly wings (each woman’s unique) on their backs and refers to them as his “butterflies.”  As Maya confesses to the cops, the reader is taken with her on the same twisted, terrifying path of discovery as to what being a “butterfly” for the Gardener entails.

We know from the beginning that Maya and other women ultimately escape.  The purpose of the story and the impending climax is how Maya eventually became free and why she seems to hesitate at incriminating her captor.  As the novel builds up to this, the author develops through Maya’s account the characters of the butterflies and the gardener, giving them a raw humanity that sparks conflicting emotions.  It’s not a victim versus villain scenario.  It’s a complicated exploration of the dichotomy of the human condition.

This book with scare you, scar you, haunt you.  Its superior writing and storytelling are worth every emotion.

Have you read this book?  Let me know in the comments what you thought!

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

‘Had I but known, Tam-Lin, she said
What defeat this night I’d see
I’d’ve stolen both thine eyes
and changed thee fast into a tree.

‘Had I but known, Tam-lin, she said
before we left this night to roam,
I’d’ve et thy heart of flesh
and left thee with a heart of stone!’ -Tam Lin

 

Tam-Lin is a beautiful ballad that describes a teenage girl facing off against the Queen of the Faeries as she claims her inheritance of Cartenhaugh manor and her love for captive Tam-Lin.  I still have a beautiful picture book version of this tale that I would bring out each year on Halloween, aka the night that the Fairy Court allegedly rides out into the human world.

Anyone who knows me even the slightest is aware that my favorite Disney movie and fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast.  Stockholm Syndrome be damned, I think it is a lovely tale of learning to accept others for who they are, being ok with who you are, and that beauty is only skin deep.

This all ties into A Court of Thorns and Roses because the book is essentially a reimaginig of Beauty and the Beast with overtones of Tam-Lin.  In this case, the protagonist Feyre is held captive in the fairy world by a High Fae Lord named Tamlin after she unknowingly kills his friend while hunting.  Feyre, like Belle, is an outcast in her village.  Her family is impoverished, her mother had long ago passed away, and she is responsible for supporting her family.  Tamlin appears as a beast, but later transforms into a man, but with a mask that he cannot take off.  In fact, everyone in his court is stuck wearing masks, because of a blight that was cast long ago.

I bet you can imagine where this is going.  Feyre hates Tamlin at first for taking her away from her family and everything she has known, but as they become acquainted, save each others lives on several occasions, and Tamlin offers her an art gallery (unlike Belle, she’s an artist not a reader), their relationship gets steamy.  As a side note, I could not believe this book is considered “teen” fiction but perhaps I am becoming more sensitive in my (26 years) old age.  Anyways, this book is full of romance, adventure, fairies, an evil Queen, and pretty much everything fans of the fantasy genre will love.  While there are a lot of familiar elements in this book, it manages to be unique enough to create an engaging tale.  It’s passionate, it’s fast-paced, it’s the perfect summer escapist book.  If you haven’t read the ballad of Tam-Lin, I recommend doing so before starting this novel.

If I haven’t convinced you enough how enjoyable this book is, I just found out it’s a series and as much as I hate getting roped into them, I have to find out what happens next!

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

 

“he knows that it’s impossible to tell a wolf
from a man if
he keeps his chin up
and his teeth clean.”-Sharp Teeth

What drew me to this book?  Was it the short and snappy title?  The stark cover?  Is it simply impossible for me to want to read anything but horror this summer?

No matter the reason, I found myself picking up a copy of Sharp Teeth and was subsequently sucked into an alternative reality of Los Angeles: a place spread out over the desert where wild dogs fight for power, money, and love.  Written in free verse, it reads like an epic poem; a classic tale of a hero on a journey fighting an enemy and winning the love of a fair lady.

In short, the novel centers around Anthony, a dog catcher who falls in love with an unnamed werewolf who just left her pack.  Their romance buds in the midst of a gritty and apocalyptic LA, where werewolves slip between their human and dog forms as their competition builds up to an inevitable war.  The plot is reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, or West Side Story.  There’s impending chaos, but the beauty of the story is how love endures within the storm.

The most striking thing about the book is the metaphor of what the werewolves symbolize.  It’s not just a story about werewolves engaged in gang wars, but how we all have a little dog inside us; a wildness that we can learn to control, but not always.

Most of the time, the werewolves can turn into humans or into a dog whenever they wish.  When they are about to fight or kill, most often they revert to their wild side and become a dog.  However, they prefer to make love in human form.  The process of the characters changing into dogs represents their resignation to their basic, barbaric side.  As dogs, they can fight and kill with no remorse.  As humans, they are held to the same societal norms as everyone else.

Lark, a former alpha werewolf from one of the packs, is the character that stands apart because for him, turning into a dog is an escape from human responsibilities.  As a dog, he prefers to enjoy the freedom and simplicity that comes with being an animal by being with his “owner.”

Supporting the romance, action, and metaphor of this book is how the book is structured.  The free verse strategy makes you slow down and savor the words.  Otherwise, with the intense action the reader would easily slide through the story without taking time to appreciate some beautiful anecdotes.  I’ll end this review with one such example:

“Everyone is always looking in the wrong direction,
we worry about our lovers while losing our jobs
we stress out about cancer while our children run away
we ponder the stars while burning the earth.
Lark used to say the bullet we’re running from
is almost never the one that hits us.”

 

Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Summer is in full swing and for a few months I am not a student who is also working two part time jobs. That means that my schedule is full of opportunities to read, and reading I have been doing. Guilty pleasure reading that is. My plan to tackle the behemoth that is Infinite Jest was put on the back burner when I stumbled across the horror novel Let Me In by the Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. An anti-Twilight vampire romance/horror novel? My curiosity thus piqued, I began the ultimate descent into a Swedish vampire nightmare.

The book begins with introducing a young boy Oskar, who is a loner and frequently bullied at his school. One day he meets a young girl, Eli, at his apartment whom he befriends and falls in love with; even as he becomes more aware of her increasingly bizarre habits and behaviors. Peppered in with the central story are other characters within the town. There’s a group of poor alcoholic peers dealing with their own issues and the mysterious murder of one of their friends, the bully’s point of view, and a teenage boy living in Oskar’s apartment complex. Eli’s “father” is given his own storyline as well. I am still deciding whether or not I like this tactic. On one hand, using multiple characters and perspectives, Lindqvist transforms the novel from a simple bloody horror fest to a sort of social commentary on the poor and overlooked population in Sweden. However, I found myself caring more about Oskar and Eli and wished their relationship and plot line had been more flushed out.

This is a heavy, dark book, and not just because of the vampire aspect. Pedophilia, genital mutilation, violence, alcoholism, poverty, and loneliness are all equally prominent themes which together create a sense of pure dread. I took longer to read this book than I expected because I needed to take frequent breaks and watch something funny on Netflix to mitigate the effects this story had on me.

On the other hand, this book is very well written and fans of the horror genre will not be disappointed. It’s creepy in a way that it sneaks up on you, making you feel like you’re walking down a dark street and are positive someone is following you, even though you keep turning around and see nothing.

As people have said before, this is the ultimate anti-Twilight book. It’s a vampire love story, but it’s not sparkly skin and Robert Pattinson’s pouty expression. It takes the erotic themes associated with vampires and twists them in a way that is satisfyingly disturbing to a horror fan like me.

Curl up in a blanket, and invite this book in.

“Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes

Relationships can be wonderful, but they can also be crippling. We’ve all been there. At least I know I’m not the only one who has been in a relationship that has held me back from reaching my full potential as a human being. It’s easy to fall into a routine because it’s comfortable, even when it is detrimental to your well-being. That is the case in “Me Before You,” an unconventional love story between a young woman named Lou and a man named Will. Lou has worked at a coffee shop for years. One day, her boss informs her that he is closing shop. Out of a job and desperate for money to support her family, Lou takes on a position as a caretaker for a quadriplegic, Will Traynor. Unlike Lou, Will has lived his life to the fullest: skiing, sky diving, traveling. He lived a large life and is in a deep depression since his world became confined to a chair.

As the novel progresses, the two become close. I won’t give away too much of the plot line, but they both start to become better people as their relationship deepens. For anyone who has been in a dead end job, relationship, or has felt stuck in life, you will relate to Lou and her struggle to try to find the courage to break away from old habits/negative people and do something meaningful with her life. This book is both heart breaking yet uplifting. It took me less than 48 hours to finish, even with my Fulbright obligations. It was such a good book, I took it with me everywhere and read as much as I could whenever I had a few free minutes. I also sacrificed a good nights sleep to read as much as I could. I haven’t read a book in a long time that has captivated me the way MBY has. Anyone looking for a book that is a quick read that pulls at your heart strings will enjoy MBY.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars because of how unique the plot is. Also I am not a huge fan of romance novels so the fact that this book made me believe in true love again speaks to how worth reading it is.