A review by petersenftleben
See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

4.0

It's been a couple of weeks since I finished this, and while I really enjoyed it, I don't think it resonated with me the same way it did with others. I thought the writing was great, I loved the literary names, and I really liked Fern as a narrator. The beginning was kind of a slow build, but since I was much more invested in Holden and his problems, I didn't mind it. And I think the reason the tragedy didn't affect me as much was because I was so much more interested in Holden (hey, there's a personal connection, and it happens).

Spoiler

I'm not a huge fan of precocious kids to begin with, and I found Charlie more cloying than cute, so while I was shocked and saddened, I wasn't reaching for the tissues.

I also thought that the grieving process was wrapped up quickly (in comparison to getting us to the tragedy), and I'm not sure that going to the dance was as important of an event in the grand scheme of things as something else that could have lead to a resolution.

That's not to say it ruined my enjoyment of the book any, but in hindsight, it's probably just my reflective reasoning of why it didn't hit as hard. My one big issue as I was reading, though, was that Charlie always seemed to act and speak older than his age.