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4.09 AVERAGE
4.09 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I gave it 5 stars because it hit particularly home for me as someone whose artist guncle was their best friend and contributed a lot to their personhood. I really enjoyed the complexity surrounding June’s feelings. She really is just a kid figuring out what love means, and this story is about the different types of love that form you as a person. I loved it
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
In 1987 there was a lot of misinformation about AIDS, but something that was interesting to me in this novel, about a teenage girl who befriends her late uncle's bereaved boyfriend, was the lack of homophobia. The girl's family has violently negative feelings about the boyfriend (whom they contend gave the uncle - the girl's mother's brother - AIDS and consider a murderer) but not because he's gay. Anyway, this is a powerful family drama surrounding the girl's friendship with her uncle's lover, who is also dying of AIDS.
toby deserved so much better. also i cried at the end. I don't really know how to feel about this book overall. there were some icky things that were pretty uncomfortable to read.
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have such a love/hate relationships with books that make me confront the complexity of familial relationships and grief
Brunt takes the readers back to the mid 1980s when people were struggling with how to respond to the AIDS epidemic, and they were doing so primarily through fear, bigotry and urban myth. It is within this environment that 14-year-old June must learn how to embrace her uncle as he dies from AIDS and then mourn him actively when many around her either want to forget him or malign him. And then everything is complicated when she forms an uneasy friendship with her uncle's lover. And adolescence is a difficult challenge for anyone without all these extra complications.
Oh, this was a weirdly timed book for me. My beloved uncle passed away on Saturday, February 2nd, and on Sunday February 3rd I plucked this book off the "new releases" shelf at my local library because I'd seen it on several "best fiction of 2012" lists. It didn't really hit me that this was about a girl trying to process her uncle's death until I was 75 pages in--even though this is stated clearly on the book jacket, which I read. I chose it because it was well received.
From the cover art and the book jacket, I thought this novel would be edgey, hip, dark and twisted. But it's not. It reveals the heart of a young woman doing the best she can to forge a path for herself. June is sweet, earnest, complex, intelligent, awkward, solitary, quirky, and idealistic. I found myself cheering for her and aching for her as she does her best to negotiate through thorny family dynamics in her attempts to mourn her uncle. But the book doesn't paint June's family members as fiends. As the novel progresses, everyone's layers get peeled back until you see from all characters' points of view, making everyone a lot more sympathetic than at first blush.
Oh, why are relationships so difficult?! But there are moments of real intimacy and joy along the way, too--giving us all a little hope that we can rise above our mortal flaws and work together to transcend our limits.
And I am shocked that NONE of my friends have read this novel. C'mon people. What's the matter with us? Let's give this debut novelist a bit of our time. I read it over 2.5 days. I even dreamed about it the night before I finished. I tried staying up, but my heavy eyelids betrayed me. But it was so engaging, that I dreamed of several possible denouements before dawn came and I grabbed the book off my nightstand and finished it before putting my feet on the floor.
Oh, this was a weirdly timed book for me. My beloved uncle passed away on Saturday, February 2nd, and on Sunday February 3rd I plucked this book off the "new releases" shelf at my local library because I'd seen it on several "best fiction of 2012" lists. It didn't really hit me that this was about a girl trying to process her uncle's death until I was 75 pages in--even though this is stated clearly on the book jacket, which I read. I chose it because it was well received.
From the cover art and the book jacket, I thought this novel would be edgey, hip, dark and twisted. But it's not. It reveals the heart of a young woman doing the best she can to forge a path for herself. June is sweet, earnest, complex, intelligent, awkward, solitary, quirky, and idealistic. I found myself cheering for her and aching for her as she does her best to negotiate through thorny family dynamics in her attempts to mourn her uncle. But the book doesn't paint June's family members as fiends. As the novel progresses, everyone's layers get peeled back until you see from all characters' points of view, making everyone a lot more sympathetic than at first blush.
Oh, why are relationships so difficult?! But there are moments of real intimacy and joy along the way, too--giving us all a little hope that we can rise above our mortal flaws and work together to transcend our limits.
And I am shocked that NONE of my friends have read this novel. C'mon people. What's the matter with us? Let's give this debut novelist a bit of our time. I read it over 2.5 days. I even dreamed about it the night before I finished. I tried staying up, but my heavy eyelids betrayed me. But it was so engaging, that I dreamed of several possible denouements before dawn came and I grabbed the book off my nightstand and finished it before putting my feet on the floor.
I don't know why I didn't like this more! I really wanted to. What I'll remember: those woods who reminded me of the ones behind my house on the UVic campus, the complicated waters of siblingship, the friendship between June & Toby.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Young teen June has just lost the one person who really got her. It’s 1987, and June‘s beloved Uncle Finn—a much beloved artist—has died. As loneliness and grief threaten to swallow her whole, June encounters the mysterious Toby, a sensitive and lovable person who is also reeling with loss. This book is pure magic.