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hearteyes's review
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
marli0707's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
lauraxbakker's review
3.0
I started this book without knowing anything about it. I only read the back which didn't give away much of what you could expect. I didn't expect that what happened would've happened but I liked that it did ;-), not giving away any spoilers. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either and I quite enjoyed reading it.
bookswritingandmore's review against another edition
I've never read a better novel depicting the tragedy of war from a woman's perspective. The heartbreak, the emotional stories, the breakage that the mind goes through, is all laid out in this book. So well written and flawlessly portrayed a true stand out in my opinion. The protagonist Lauren is the shell of the woman she used to be but still the reader falls for her. Who could not fall in love with a woman who has seen so much and has come out alive? I adored this book.
gilmoreguide's review against another edition
4.0
Even before she decides to go to Iraq Lauren Clay is fighting a war. A war created by two parents who, for different reasons, are unable to care for her and her nine-year-old brother, Daniel. Instead, Lauren is left, at age 14 to take care of herself, her brother and her father, who lies in bed and cries. Despite having a prodigious talent as a coloratura soprano and having been accepted at a major music school, when the foreclosure notices arrive on their house, Lauren gives up her hopes for her future and signs up for the Marines. Be Safe I Love You by Cara Hoffman begins when Lauren returns after her tour of duty and finds a world that is both familiar and unknown.
Hoffman does an admirable job at portraying the almost impossible transition from solider to civilian. As Lauren struggles to adapt back into her previous life there are simply too many elements that no longer add up—her father is working now and taking care of her brother, Daniel has become a normal teen attached to his phone and PC, and Shane, the love of her life, is a college student and moving in a world as foreign to her as Iraq once was. How she reconciles these changes and where she sees her place in her old world are the crux of Be Safe I Love You. If underneath the sameness of everyday life there is a much larger trauma that colors her perceptions, Lauren is determined not to show it and, indeed, she doesn’t seem to know it herself. At best,
…she now knew the difference between never and always was small. Never and always are separated by a wasp’s waist, a small sliver of glass, one bead of sweat; separated by the seven seconds it takes to exhale the air from your lungs, to make your body as still as the corpse you are about to create.
The rest of this review can be read at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2014/04/be-safe-i-love-you/
Hoffman does an admirable job at portraying the almost impossible transition from solider to civilian. As Lauren struggles to adapt back into her previous life there are simply too many elements that no longer add up—her father is working now and taking care of her brother, Daniel has become a normal teen attached to his phone and PC, and Shane, the love of her life, is a college student and moving in a world as foreign to her as Iraq once was. How she reconciles these changes and where she sees her place in her old world are the crux of Be Safe I Love You. If underneath the sameness of everyday life there is a much larger trauma that colors her perceptions, Lauren is determined not to show it and, indeed, she doesn’t seem to know it herself. At best,
…she now knew the difference between never and always was small. Never and always are separated by a wasp’s waist, a small sliver of glass, one bead of sweat; separated by the seven seconds it takes to exhale the air from your lungs, to make your body as still as the corpse you are about to create.
The rest of this review can be read at The Gilmore Guide to Books: http://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/2014/04/be-safe-i-love-you/
paigelm's review against another edition
3.0
Hoffman's second novel is a story of coming home, and what to do when home is not the safe place you thought it was going to be. Lauren returns from her tour of duty in Iraq to be on terminal leave from the military, safe, or so everyone thinks, maybe except for Lauren. In a great opening, Hoffman introduces the wonderful relationship between Lauren and her younger brother Danny, through letters that Danny writes to "Sistopher" about her great five-star vacation to an exotic resort land, always ending his heartfelt letters with, "Be Safe, I Love You."
Lauren comes from a town where fighting in the military is one of only ways to make an money and escape any kind of frustrating and seemingly endless monotony people feel in smaller, burn-out, and sad hometowns. there are flashbacks to when she is a teenager with her two best friends, the three of them dreaming of different lives, ready to explore the world. She grew up raising her little brother Danny, whom she cares the world for, and is the reason she enlists in the first place. Her sense of responsibility for him and her family lead her to take a life choice that ends up changing who she is and who she wants to be.
Through retelling Lauren's story through both past and present, dreamworld and real world, Hoffman presents a picture of someone just barely grasping reality at some moments. She presents a woman who is both undeniable strong and confident, while also terrified of her old friends, her old life. She feels trapped by her home community instead of feeling comforted. She is a hero, but her actions were far from heroic. No one will understand what she was forced to learn to do in service of her country, so she embarks upon her contingency plan.
Lauren comes from a town where fighting in the military is one of only ways to make an money and escape any kind of frustrating and seemingly endless monotony people feel in smaller, burn-out, and sad hometowns. there are flashbacks to when she is a teenager with her two best friends, the three of them dreaming of different lives, ready to explore the world. She grew up raising her little brother Danny, whom she cares the world for, and is the reason she enlists in the first place. Her sense of responsibility for him and her family lead her to take a life choice that ends up changing who she is and who she wants to be.
Through retelling Lauren's story through both past and present, dreamworld and real world, Hoffman presents a picture of someone just barely grasping reality at some moments. She presents a woman who is both undeniable strong and confident, while also terrified of her old friends, her old life. She feels trapped by her home community instead of feeling comforted. She is a hero, but her actions were far from heroic. No one will understand what she was forced to learn to do in service of her country, so she embarks upon her contingency plan.
shelleyrae's review against another edition
4.0
Be Safe I Love You is a moving story of a young female soldier's homecoming after service in Iraq. Lauren Clay enlisted in the army after her high school graduation in order to provide financial security for her younger brother and depressive father. After five years of service her commitment is finished and she has returned home to Watertown, NJ, fresh from a nine month tour in Afghanistan.
With compassion and sensitivity, Hoffman exposes the struggle many returning soldiers face in reconnecting with the people and places they left behind. Family and friends are sure Lauren just needs some time to readjust to civilian life and the inevitable changes that have happened in her absence, but it soon becomes obvious to the reader that Lauren is suffering from the more severe symptoms of PTSD as she begins to experience black outs and hallucinations.
Amongst the confusion and anger Lauren is experiencing she develops twin obsessions, to toughen up her thirteen year old brother, determined to ensure he experiences the world without the buffer of a computer screen, and to meet up with a soldier she served with and follow through on their plans to work together at the Hebron oilfields. The tension arises as Lauren struggles to keep her grip on reality, and under the guise of a visit to their mother, heads for Canada with an unsuspecting Danny in tow.
Of the entire novel what really struck me was Lauren's thoughts about her service in Iraq ..."officially women weren't in combat. They just support. It was the same f** job as every soldier she served with, but with the added downgrade in title and pay." In Be Safe I Love You, Hoffman honours the female experience of war, something rarely explored in fiction despite more women having been killed in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq than in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.
Be Safe I Love You is a thoughtful and thought provoking story, and though the conclusion is a little too neat and easy, I think it is a novel well worth your time.
renee_pompeii's review against another edition
3.0
Some really gorgeous prose at times and a heartrending tale of a female soldier returning from war. A few holes in the stories/characters knocked this down from a 4.
wordnerdy's review against another edition
4.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2014/01/2014-book-10.html
cbates's review against another edition
3.0
well written, great detail and description about the main character's interior life. But, the 'twist' was too predictable, and I felt like it was building towards something that didn't happen. Anti climactic.