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plnjane's review against another edition
2.0
i have an incredible tolerance for annoying characters but whoa
nereabg's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
rkmurp03's review against another edition
4.0
tl;dr - Unpacks the pain the closeted LBGT+ youth deal with as well as the death of a loved one. Relatable characters. Some background romance but the focus is on coming out and the grieving process. Drags a bit in the middle with a very strong ending. 4/5 stars.
Who I Was With Her follows Corrine as she copes with the sudden death of her girlfriend, Maggie. At the time of Maggie's death, neither girl has come out to anyone other than each other. Thus, Corrine feels she has to keep her grief a secret, until Maggie's brother introduces her to Maggie's ex.
Corrine's struggle is understanding how to move on when she can't express her grief to anyone because she is to afraid to come out as bisexual. The story speaks to closeted LGBT+ youth who can't share many of their struggles with their friends and family because they might be shunned for who they are. However, there are a few moments where this narrative becomes frustrating, as Corrine will note when she has a good opportunity to tell someone about what's going on in her life. This happens several times with her best friend.
The story was a tad slow in the middle, but ultimately kept me invested the entire time. The ending was very well done and yielded a satisfying conclusion to the story as well as some more background information on Corrine and Maggie that makes some of Corrine's behaviors throughout the book make more sense. The characters were well written and realistic.
This book did not emotionally hit me as hard as I was expecting. I struggled to really connect with Corrine until the second half of the book, when the book really started to pick up for me. I never felt it was progressing too slowly, though. The writing style Tyndall employs for this story is not overly simplistic, but it's ultimately a very quick read and not overly dense.
Who I Was With Her follows Corrine as she copes with the sudden death of her girlfriend, Maggie. At the time of Maggie's death, neither girl has come out to anyone other than each other. Thus, Corrine feels she has to keep her grief a secret, until Maggie's brother introduces her to Maggie's ex.
Corrine's struggle is understanding how to move on when she can't express her grief to anyone because she is to afraid to come out as bisexual. The story speaks to closeted LGBT+ youth who can't share many of their struggles with their friends and family because they might be shunned for who they are. However, there are a few moments where this narrative becomes frustrating, as Corrine will note when she has a good opportunity to tell someone about what's going on in her life. This happens several times with her best friend.
The story was a tad slow in the middle, but ultimately kept me invested the entire time. The ending was very well done and yielded a satisfying conclusion to the story as well as some more background information on Corrine and Maggie that makes some of Corrine's behaviors throughout the book make more sense. The characters were well written and realistic.
This book did not emotionally hit me as hard as I was expecting. I struggled to really connect with Corrine until the second half of the book, when the book really started to pick up for me. I never felt it was progressing too slowly, though. The writing style Tyndall employs for this story is not overly simplistic, but it's ultimately a very quick read and not overly dense.
cobaltbookshelf's review against another edition
4.0
This was amazing portrayal of grief in silence. Everything in this book felt real, bisexual and asexual representation, imperfect characters.
I even liked non-linear storytelling and usually don't,
pressure of coming out was hard to read because you can she is struggling with that, and that is what ultimately makes her relationship with Maggie more heartbreaking.
This book is definitely worth a read and I will read more books by Nita Tyndall in future.
I even liked non-linear storytelling and usually don't,
pressure of coming out was hard to read because you can she is struggling with that, and that is what ultimately makes her relationship with Maggie more heartbreaking.
This book is definitely worth a read and I will read more books by Nita Tyndall in future.
thepetitepunk's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Corinne Parker, a runner hoping to earn a scholarship for college so that she can escape her small town, has some secrets. Specifically--she's bisexual, and she is in love with Maggie Bailey, another runner from a rival high school. Except Maggie is dead now and Corinne must grieve alone while her secrets still sleep deep inside of her. With her girlfriend gone and senior year coming to an end, Corinne has quite a bit to sort out, including her split-up parents, college, Maggie's ex-girlfriend, and the emotions that come with both sexuality and grief.
Who I Was With Her is a quiet story with many delicate layers wrapped around its core theme of grief. Nita Tyndall does a beautifully heart-wrenching job of depicting the experience of grieving a loved one and of having to hide one's true self out of fear. At some points Corinne is careful and contained and other times she's inconsiderate and messy; the unpredictable range of emotional responses that grief brings was thoughtfully done. There's such a careful blend of confusion and pain regarding both Maggie's death and Corrine's sexuality. Your heart will be aching right along with Corrine's.
I also appreciated Tyndall's interpretation of Corrine being bisexual in a small, traditional town. There's just enough bitter homophobic reality mixed with hope, which is such an important part of reality that is just not represented enough in LGBT+ fiction. Furthermore, I thought the asexual side character was also well-written. Both bisexuality and asexuality were directly discussed multiple times (with those exact labels being used), which I thought was extremely important.
If you don't like relatively sad or slow stories, perhaps this one is not for you. But if you enjoy character-based stories that focus on emotions and self-acceptance, you're bound to fall in love with Nita Tyndall's writing.
Content warnings: grieving the death of a loved one, external biphobia, internal biphobia, slut shaming, alcoholism, underage drinking
Corinne Parker, a runner hoping to earn a scholarship for college so that she can escape her small town, has some secrets. Specifically--she's bisexual, and she is in love with Maggie Bailey, another runner from a rival high school. Except Maggie is dead now and Corinne must grieve alone while her secrets still sleep deep inside of her. With her girlfriend gone and senior year coming to an end, Corinne has quite a bit to sort out, including her split-up parents, college, Maggie's ex-girlfriend, and the emotions that come with both sexuality and grief.
Who I Was With Her is a quiet story with many delicate layers wrapped around its core theme of grief. Nita Tyndall does a beautifully heart-wrenching job of depicting the experience of grieving a loved one and of having to hide one's true self out of fear. At some points Corinne is careful and contained and other times she's inconsiderate and messy; the unpredictable range of emotional responses that grief brings was thoughtfully done. There's such a careful blend of confusion and pain regarding both Maggie's death and Corrine's sexuality. Your heart will be aching right along with Corrine's.
I also appreciated Tyndall's interpretation of Corrine being bisexual in a small, traditional town. There's just enough bitter homophobic reality mixed with hope, which is such an important part of reality that is just not represented enough in LGBT+ fiction. Furthermore, I thought the asexual side character was also well-written. Both bisexuality and asexuality were directly discussed multiple times (with those exact labels being used), which I thought was extremely important.
If you don't like relatively sad or slow stories, perhaps this one is not for you. But if you enjoy character-based stories that focus on emotions and self-acceptance, you're bound to fall in love with Nita Tyndall's writing.
Content warnings: grieving the death of a loved one, external biphobia, internal biphobia, slut shaming, alcoholism, underage drinking
galacticallz's review against another edition
4.0
Rating: 8/10
Another book I had to put down to not get tear stains on the pages. The first half was slow and it took me a while to read but then I got attached to Corinne and couldn’t stop reading. Her struggles with coming out felt so real, between the pressures from those around her and the overall fear of it all. I didn’t really like that the description of the book made it sound like a romance between Elissa and Corinne when that wasn’t really it. They were cute but not at the right time.
Another book I had to put down to not get tear stains on the pages. The first half was slow and it took me a while to read but then I got attached to Corinne and couldn’t stop reading. Her struggles with coming out felt so real, between the pressures from those around her and the overall fear of it all. I didn’t really like that the description of the book made it sound like a romance between Elissa and Corinne when that wasn’t really it. They were cute but not at the right time.
dobrusia13's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
eggbois_gf's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
adrianavc32's review against another edition
5.0
Cada vez que pienso en este libro me gusta más, a pesar de que tengo mis problemas con él. Empezando con la protagonista que me parece que en ocasiones puede ser bastante egoísta con los sentimientos de los demás, pero creo que es parte del punto del libro y al mismo tiempo me agrada, no te tiene que caer bien, solo es una persona de 17 años que está pasando por muchísimas cosas, incluyendo el duelo de alguien a quien amaba pero no puede externarlo de ninguna manera. Eso más aparte el resto de cosas que ocurren en su vida que tampoco son sencillas como el divorcio de sus papás, el alcoholismo de su mamá, escoger universidad, etc, etc, etc.
Por esta parte creo que es muy entendible como actúa y los errores que comete, y me agrada que no se busca romantizar esos errores y al final las cosas terminan como deben de serlo. No es una historia de amor, de superación o cualquier cosa que se te pueda ocurrir. Creo que es un libro que define muy bien el duelo que lleva una persona cuando alguien fallece, desde lo más puro de su corazón. No digo que sea una guía o algo para superar estos procesos, pero es la historia personal de alguien más y creo que está narrada muy muy bien
Por esta parte creo que es muy entendible como actúa y los errores que comete, y me agrada que no se busca romantizar esos errores y al final las cosas terminan como deben de serlo. No es una historia de amor, de superación o cualquier cosa que se te pueda ocurrir. Creo que es un libro que define muy bien el duelo que lleva una persona cuando alguien fallece, desde lo más puro de su corazón. No digo que sea una guía o algo para superar estos procesos, pero es la historia personal de alguien más y creo que está narrada muy muy bien
maiiiphobic's review against another edition
3.0
3,5
I listened to the audiobook version and the voice actress was so good, she made me feel all the emotions Cori was going through and honestly even made me cry at some points. As for the plot I just think that the whole Cori - Elissa thing was a bit pointless and unnecessary, like the story would have been perfectly fine without it, in my personal opinion I even found Elissa to be a very toxic character and even manipulative at some points. Other than that the story was really good, grief is portrayed in a very realistic and respectful way, showing that grief comes and goes, that is not just one linear thing. Overall my only problem was the romance plot line and maybe some of the characters including Cori (the protagonist) being really annoying at times
I listened to the audiobook version and the voice actress was so good, she made me feel all the emotions Cori was going through and honestly even made me cry at some points. As for the plot I just think that the whole Cori - Elissa thing was a bit pointless and unnecessary, like the story would have been perfectly fine without it, in my personal opinion I even found Elissa to be a very toxic character and even manipulative at some points. Other than that the story was really good, grief is portrayed in a very realistic and respectful way, showing that grief comes and goes, that is not just one linear thing. Overall my only problem was the romance plot line and maybe some of the characters including Cori (the protagonist) being really annoying at times