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abbyreads2's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 STARS!!!!
Intense is what comes to my mind when i think of words to explain this book. Their love story. I would've loved to know more of what happened to the mother or even with her friend. That part disappointed me. I was really looking forward to a chapter showing their love story down the road and explaining what possibly happened to her mother. I guess the future is unknown and technically it's up to me and my imagination. At times, I wanted to slap some sense into her for all her dumb decisions. I didn't though. I'm glad she learned to move forward in the end and to be happy.
Intense is what comes to my mind when i think of words to explain this book. Their love story. I would've loved to know more of what happened to the mother or even with her friend. That part disappointed me. I was really looking forward to a chapter showing their love story down the road and explaining what possibly happened to her mother. I guess the future is unknown and technically it's up to me and my imagination. At times, I wanted to slap some sense into her for all her dumb decisions. I didn't though. I'm glad she learned to move forward in the end and to be happy.
sienaro's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't love everything about this book. Its somewhat misleading when it claims it is about friendship because it is definitely about not-so-platonic relationships.
Despite the characters being lackluster and quite honestly flat, the writing of this book is really fun and pleasant to read. The whole style of writing draws readers in even if they aren't interested in the plot or characters. Some of the characters had very little role in the story and were unnecessary. Meanwhile, the characters that actually had a point were less developed themselves and really only served as pawns to Harper (the MC) and her disaster of a life. A few of the many subplots were initially good ideas but weren't played out to their full potential of making the reader get emotional.
Even though there were many flaws in this book, it was a fast summer read and I do not regret reading it.
Despite the characters being lackluster and quite honestly flat, the writing of this book is really fun and pleasant to read. The whole style of writing draws readers in even if they aren't interested in the plot or characters. Some of the characters had very little role in the story and were unnecessary. Meanwhile, the characters that actually had a point were less developed themselves and really only served as pawns to Harper (the MC) and her disaster of a life. A few of the many subplots were initially good ideas but weren't played out to their full potential of making the reader get emotional.
Even though there were many flaws in this book, it was a fast summer read and I do not regret reading it.
elishaffer29's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This book had 314 pages and it took them to the last two pages to make up. Really hard to get into this book. It was painful to turn the page for the first 100-150ish pages, was good for about 100 pages, then i wanted to throw the book across the room after that. it had a good plot but could have been varied out better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer and Alcohol
christiana's review against another edition
2.0
This book made me pretty annoyed by the end. I never connected fully with the characters and believed them as real people. While I do appreciate the anti-slut shaming message (and wokeness regarding slut shaming in general), the relationship between Harper and Declan felt bordering on abusive near the end. And you never even get any answers about how things wind up! Given the build up, I don't have a feel that everything worked itself out the way you hope it will.
Spoiler
like, perhaps Harper's mom beats the cancer, but Declan and Harper trying it long distance again with any kind of luck after the tumultuous summer? And how broken Harper seems? Unlikely. Although maybe that's how it should end up so Harper can work on herself without bringing anyone else into itnicolemhewitt's review against another edition
5.0
This review and many more can be found on my blog: Feed Your Fiction Addiction
The Year We Fell Apart was an incredibly poignant look at the ways we try to escape the painful moments in our lives and the many mistakes that we often make along the way. This book doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the teen years, but it does paint a realistic one.
What Fed My Addiction:
Dealing with serious illness and death.
I appreciated the way that this book dealt with terminal (or at least possibly terminal) illness and death. It showed the pain and confusion that goes along with losing a parent (in Declan’s case) or having a parent with a serious illness (in Harper’s case). Harper had so much fear and pain when it came to her mother’s cancer and she felt like her family was “pretending” everything was okay – this just made her more anxious and more frustrated. But the book showed how people deal with illness in different ways – Harper’s mom wasn’t pretending, she was just trying to keep a positive outlook so that she had the strength to keep going. Studies have shown that that’s actually a really healthy response and that patients who can keep themselves from giving up have a much higher survival rate. Still, Harper’s feelings were valid too – she didn’t want to go through her life like everything was fine when things were definitely not fine.
Painful truths and character growth.
Harper did not deal well with adversity. Let’s just put that out there. It wasn’t just her mother’s cancer either – anytime something started to go wrong or feel bad in Harper’s life she turned to alcohol, partying and boys to try to make herself feel better. And even when the results were devastating, she kept falling back into her old patterns. In fact, once she started to lose self esteem because of the bad things that came of her drinking, she spiraled downward even further, so it was a vicious cycle. Harper would feel low, so she would make bad choices, which would then make her feel worse about herself, so she would make more bad choices to try and block out that new pain. BUT, we did see Harper start to turn over a new leaf by the end of the book. She was trying harder to be in control of her actions and to take responsibility for them. She also stopped just letting things “happen” to her and made some attempts at taking back her dignity.
Declan.
Declan was an incredibly sweet, but also realistic teenage guy. He didn’t sit by idly and watch Harper self-destruct. But when things went really bad, he also didn’t unrealistically support Harper – he was real and he showed his fears and his frustrations, which I thought made a lot of sense. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a loving and solid presence in Harper’s life – he was just what she needed. I felt like the conflicts and misunderstandings between Declan and Harper all felt incredibly true-to-life, and I was so hoping they could get past them and make it as a couple. (But this is the type of book where you don’t exactly know how it’s all going to play out – maybe Declan and Harper would be better off as friends?)
What Left Me Wanting More:
More resolution.
I wish we had gotten just a little more resolution at the end of the book – it felt a little too sudden. I would have liked to have seen Harper actually come to terms with the way that she handles her pain and address it. (Even at the end of the book, I had this niggling voice at the back of my head that said, But what happens the next time something goes really wrong with Harper’s life? Will she turn back to alcohol and her other bad habits if her self-esteem is low again?) I also would have liked to have seen her ditch her “friend” Sadie – or at least vow to make some changes with her. I guess I felt like, while there was definitely resolution to the book and Harper grew a lot, I wanted to see more of the results of that growth – or at least her seriously thinking about it.
Sometimes painful to watch Harper’s self-destruction.
While I applauded this book’s truthful handling of Harper’s issues, there were times when I wanted to just shake the girl for making the same choices over and over again! Be warned that it’s not pretty!
So, while this book was sometimes painful and maddening (I shed some tears, but I’m the kind of person who LOVES that in a book), it was also a realistically painful look at the mistakes we make and how hard it can sometimes be to come back from them. I give this book 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: I received this book from Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
The Year We Fell Apart was an incredibly poignant look at the ways we try to escape the painful moments in our lives and the many mistakes that we often make along the way. This book doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the teen years, but it does paint a realistic one.
What Fed My Addiction:
Dealing with serious illness and death.
I appreciated the way that this book dealt with terminal (or at least possibly terminal) illness and death. It showed the pain and confusion that goes along with losing a parent (in Declan’s case) or having a parent with a serious illness (in Harper’s case). Harper had so much fear and pain when it came to her mother’s cancer and she felt like her family was “pretending” everything was okay – this just made her more anxious and more frustrated. But the book showed how people deal with illness in different ways – Harper’s mom wasn’t pretending, she was just trying to keep a positive outlook so that she had the strength to keep going. Studies have shown that that’s actually a really healthy response and that patients who can keep themselves from giving up have a much higher survival rate. Still, Harper’s feelings were valid too – she didn’t want to go through her life like everything was fine when things were definitely not fine.
Painful truths and character growth.
Harper did not deal well with adversity. Let’s just put that out there. It wasn’t just her mother’s cancer either – anytime something started to go wrong or feel bad in Harper’s life she turned to alcohol, partying and boys to try to make herself feel better. And even when the results were devastating, she kept falling back into her old patterns. In fact, once she started to lose self esteem because of the bad things that came of her drinking, she spiraled downward even further, so it was a vicious cycle. Harper would feel low, so she would make bad choices, which would then make her feel worse about herself, so she would make more bad choices to try and block out that new pain. BUT, we did see Harper start to turn over a new leaf by the end of the book. She was trying harder to be in control of her actions and to take responsibility for them. She also stopped just letting things “happen” to her and made some attempts at taking back her dignity.
Declan.
Declan was an incredibly sweet, but also realistic teenage guy. He didn’t sit by idly and watch Harper self-destruct. But when things went really bad, he also didn’t unrealistically support Harper – he was real and he showed his fears and his frustrations, which I thought made a lot of sense. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a loving and solid presence in Harper’s life – he was just what she needed. I felt like the conflicts and misunderstandings between Declan and Harper all felt incredibly true-to-life, and I was so hoping they could get past them and make it as a couple. (But this is the type of book where you don’t exactly know how it’s all going to play out – maybe Declan and Harper would be better off as friends?)
What Left Me Wanting More:
More resolution.
I wish we had gotten just a little more resolution at the end of the book – it felt a little too sudden. I would have liked to have seen Harper actually come to terms with the way that she handles her pain and address it. (Even at the end of the book, I had this niggling voice at the back of my head that said, But what happens the next time something goes really wrong with Harper’s life? Will she turn back to alcohol and her other bad habits if her self-esteem is low again?) I also would have liked to have seen her ditch her “friend” Sadie – or at least vow to make some changes with her. I guess I felt like, while there was definitely resolution to the book and Harper grew a lot, I wanted to see more of the results of that growth – or at least her seriously thinking about it.
Sometimes painful to watch Harper’s self-destruction.
While I applauded this book’s truthful handling of Harper’s issues, there were times when I wanted to just shake the girl for making the same choices over and over again! Be warned that it’s not pretty!
So, while this book was sometimes painful and maddening (I shed some tears, but I’m the kind of person who LOVES that in a book), it was also a realistically painful look at the mistakes we make and how hard it can sometimes be to come back from them. I give this book 4/5 stars.
***Disclosure: I received this book from Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
taylor1388's review against another edition
2.0
Omg the miscommunication in this book is palpable i just want to gorge my eyes out, and about what Declan said to her at the end?! HOW DARE HE?!?! Slut shaming is a big no-no no matter their lifestyle. I hope Declan screws his head on properly, because their relationship will not last with that toxicity in the air.
I also wish we had some closure on Jenny, Sadie and the mum. What happened to them?
2.4
I also wish we had some closure on Jenny, Sadie and the mum. What happened to them?
2.4
shelbyday's review against another edition
2.0
I was torn between a 2 and a 3 rating. This book had so much potential, but the main conflict came down to terrible communication and after a while I wanted to scream at the characters and tell them to get it together. The character of Sadie was completely out of place. I felt the author could have led Harper down questionable paths without Sadie's character. The back story of the moms is bittersweet, the slut shaming culture of today's teenagers was very realistic, but the rest fell short of the target.
amym84's review against another edition
4.0
This is probably closer to a 3.5 for me.
I typically love these types of stories. Friends who become more than friends yet some circumstance pulls them apart, then other circumstances bring them together again, but can they get back to where they once were? Can even their friendship be salvaged or has too much between them to repair what was broken?
The Year We Fell Apart does all of this really well. It was just difficult to read about all the mistakes Harper continued to make. Her downward spiral if you will. I understand that she was going through something and she's only 17 years old, but I just wanted her to wake up and notice the path she was on sooner. The things she needed to change were so apparent to me - the wrong people she was hanging out with and the bad decisions she was making - that I would get irritated when Harper doesn't recognize it too. When she does make a conscious decision to turn things around I liked her a whole lot better, but it takes a lot of work for her.
I loved Harper and Declan together. I loved their tentative steps towards friendship again and seeing them being ok around one another. I wanted more time with Declan and Harper's more positive influence friends: Cory, Mackenzie, and Gwen. There were a lot of great secondary characters. But like I said before, the "bad guys" were so obvious in their manipulations that I wanted Harper to see it sooner too.
Emily Martin did a great job of not making anything seem too predisposed to happen. A lot of things are left up in the air until the end. Will they, or won't they?
I think this is a very worthy debut novel. I look forward to reading more from Emily Martin in the future.
*Copy provided by publishers in exchange for an honest review.
I typically love these types of stories. Friends who become more than friends yet some circumstance pulls them apart, then other circumstances bring them together again, but can they get back to where they once were? Can even their friendship be salvaged or has too much between them to repair what was broken?
The Year We Fell Apart does all of this really well. It was just difficult to read about all the mistakes Harper continued to make. Her downward spiral if you will. I understand that she was going through something and she's only 17 years old, but I just wanted her to wake up and notice the path she was on sooner. The things she needed to change were so apparent to me - the wrong people she was hanging out with and the bad decisions she was making - that I would get irritated when Harper doesn't recognize it too. When she does make a conscious decision to turn things around I liked her a whole lot better, but it takes a lot of work for her.
I loved Harper and Declan together. I loved their tentative steps towards friendship again and seeing them being ok around one another. I wanted more time with Declan and Harper's more positive influence friends: Cory, Mackenzie, and Gwen. There were a lot of great secondary characters. But like I said before, the "bad guys" were so obvious in their manipulations that I wanted Harper to see it sooner too.
Emily Martin did a great job of not making anything seem too predisposed to happen. A lot of things are left up in the air until the end. Will they, or won't they?
I think this is a very worthy debut novel. I look forward to reading more from Emily Martin in the future.
*Copy provided by publishers in exchange for an honest review.
literarylover37's review against another edition
1.0
I received an ARC of this book from Simon and Schuster via Netgalley in exhange for a review.
The blurb for this book says, in the tradition of Sarah Dessen, which is what sold me. I enjoy Dessen's books as they are thoughtful explorations of being young and dealing with difficult situations. This was yet another case though of the comparison being an issue. I didn't feel any of Dessen's hopefulness in this book. I wasn't a fan of Harper and her selfish and self-destructive behavior were a big problem for me as I felt like they were not warranted. I don't think I'd recommend this one to my middle schoolers and it certainly didn't hit any high notes for me either.
The blurb for this book says, in the tradition of Sarah Dessen, which is what sold me. I enjoy Dessen's books as they are thoughtful explorations of being young and dealing with difficult situations. This was yet another case though of the comparison being an issue. I didn't feel any of Dessen's hopefulness in this book. I wasn't a fan of Harper and her selfish and self-destructive behavior were a big problem for me as I felt like they were not warranted. I don't think I'd recommend this one to my middle schoolers and it certainly didn't hit any high notes for me either.