Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.
I bought this book solely on the basis of the gorgeous cover. Okay, maybe not solely because of the cover. I mean, if I'd looked at the blurb and discovered it was about how awesome Nazism is, or that it was Jeremy Clarkson's autobiography then I'd have put it back on the shelf. The cover was what made me pick it up. The blurb and first few pages made me buy it.
I don't go for character-driven books at all. Like at all. I like casinos and car chases and high jinx and tense love affairs. But this one had me completely hooked and totally in love. I loved poor Marin and her story was absolutely heartbreaking. I loved Mabel and the back story between her and Marin. I was desperate for them to get back together. Desperate. I won't tell you if they do, but the story did have a satisfactory ending.
The plot isn't huge - Marin is staying inher dorm at college for the Christmas break because she has no one to go home to. Mabel comes to visit her after them not being in touch for a few months and tries to convince her to come back to California with her for the break. That's it. But we also get flashbacks to the previous summer, of everything that happened between Marin and Mabel and between Marin and her granddad and we learn about Marin's tragic past.
I reallyloved the writingstyle too. There's nothing flashy, but every word is carefully thought out and it's almost poetic. I usually hate poetry, but the writing here was just beautiful - it was more like art than words and gave a real sense of texture to everything that happened.
I finished this book a few days ago now and I'm still really hungover on it. Definitely worth a read.
5 stars