The problem I had was that I could totally see how this book could have been great. I could see what the author was trying to do. She just didn't do it that well.
It was painfully obvious that Will had only half-arsed feelings for Eva. They weren't even ambiguous. They were tepid feelings. He might as well have walked up to her with a big sandwich board over his shoulders with 'I only have tepid feelings for you' written in green neon. Only I bet she still would have thought he was in love with her.
The baddie aunt was comically bad and thoughtless and controlling. It was like someone had done a flip chart - based focus group on What Teenagers Don't Like and came up with:
- Adults who talk about sex
- Adults who try to boss them about
(Which is interesting, actually, because as a Brit with an interest in U.S. current affairs, it seems to me that What Teenagers Don't Like at the moment is politicians who are funded by the NRA)
It needed more humour in it (and yeah, I know it's a book about grief, but it is possible to mesh humour and grief). It needed something to lift the atmosphere, to provide a bit of spark. As it was, the writing style was like taking a walk through warm, humid air.
This really wasn't one for me. I'm currently in a huge slump and I don't know if it's because work is going crazy, or because I'm not sleeping properly or because I just keep picking dull books, but this book didn't really help.
2 stars (maybe 2.5)