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iamhereforthebooks 's review for:
Here the Whole Time
by Vitor Martins
This one had so, so much potential... Felipe is one of those precious characters you want to hug and protect from the world and keep to yourself forever. His voice was wonderful, his relationship with his mum was a delight and his interactions with Caio were precious. The story itself was the perfect balance of heartbreaking and uplifting.
Why the three stars then?? It's nothing that's in the book, it's more a case of what's not in the book. I'm always complaining about the overabundance of drama in YA and NA books, but here is the complete opposite: basically nothing happens. The author told the story he wanted to tell and I don't pretend to know better, but when I closed the book I felt it was unfinished. We are introduced to so many interesting things that I was dying to read about, but they are just mentioned and then forgotten, and honestly I felt duped. Usually YA books are way longer than they need to be, but here I could have done with an extra 100 pages.
My other problem is that once he gets together with Caio, Felipe's personality changes in a way that was too close to the "love cures anything" trope that I hate with all my heart. There are a couple of things in the book that makes me think that this was not the author's intention, but that's what I felt, and I'm sure that it's something that could have been fixed with a bit more development on their relationship.
So basically I loved most of what I read, but I am hugely disappointed by what was missing from the story
Why the three stars then?? It's nothing that's in the book, it's more a case of what's not in the book. I'm always complaining about the overabundance of drama in YA and NA books, but here is the complete opposite: basically nothing happens. The author told the story he wanted to tell and I don't pretend to know better, but when I closed the book I felt it was unfinished. We are introduced to so many interesting things that I was dying to read about, but they are just mentioned and then forgotten, and honestly I felt duped. Usually YA books are way longer than they need to be, but here I could have done with an extra 100 pages.
My other problem is that once he gets together with Caio, Felipe's personality changes in a way that was too close to the "love cures anything" trope that I hate with all my heart. There are a couple of things in the book that makes me think that this was not the author's intention, but that's what I felt, and I'm sure that it's something that could have been fixed with a bit more development on their relationship.
So basically I loved most of what I read, but I am hugely disappointed by what was missing from the story