A review by typesetjez
A Certain October by Angela Johnson

3.0

Johnson does it again! Her exact prose provides a wide variety of problems (and solutions) in a very short amount of pages. This doesn't quite live up to [b:The First Part Last|148769|The First Part Last (Heaven, #2)|Angela Johnson|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388305354s/148769.jpg|143581] because even though there is a tragic event in this one as well, there's not as much of an emotional punch. Additionally, having recently read [b:See You at Harry's|12384984|See You at Harry's|Jo Knowles|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1333579098s/12384984.jpg|17365805], which tackles a very similar situation (a younger brother being involved in an accident), this book fell a little flat for me compared to the far more emotional Knowles novel. That said, there's a positive to this: it's a very optimistic novel, which may be a comfort to families who are in this situation who do not need to grieve or to teens who simply are tired of dark, depressing books (of which there are many in YA). There's a certain lightness to Scotty's world which feels almost reminiscent of books like [b:Weetzie Bat|44353|Weetzie Bat (Weetzie Bat, #1)|Francesca Lia Block|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1392416825s/44353.jpg|946181] (though I'm not sure any book can match that kind of enthusiasm and optimism). The storytelling can be a little disjointed and moves back and forth in time, which may frustrate or confuse some readers. However, this uncertainty is also taken advantage of in order to pack a big punch in the middle of the book that completely took me off guard (I reread the whole chapter just to be sure I understood it right).

I give this 3 stars, but it could very well be 4 if I had read it at a different time in my life (even a week beforehand) and did not have as many external issues to distract me.