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charvi_not_just_fiction 's review for:
Amelia Unabridged
by Ashley Schumacher
3.5/5 stars
Amelia Unabridged is a beautifully written narrative about loss, grief, fear and finding your path in life. I was quite taken with the book for the first half but unfortunately, it felt a bit flat and predictable after that. We follow Amelia's journey when her best-friends Jenna dies after they had a huge fight. She receives a book which she believes was sent to her by Jenna and travels to solve the mystery, only to meet her childhood favourite author.
To go with the positive firsts, I really love the author's writing style. It's what drew me in with the way the characters are created and how beautifully their emotions are expressed. I really like the different ways in which grief, pain, sorrow and fear were written through the characters, letting us know that there's no one way to experience emotions. And of course, I fell in love with a fictional world created in this book and the overall aesthetic of the bookshops and readers, because how could I note.
Where things really started falling apart was insta-love. God, I hate this trope and especially in this narrative it just came out of nowhere. I would have gladly taken a slowly developed liking and love between the two characters but instead we got an emotionally heavy scene after which the two of them are inexplicably attracted to each other. I know that the author wrote that there are some incidents that you go through with someone after which you can't not be friends but I would disagree. Such experiences certainly shift your relationships but they don't just immediately make you fall in love. And believe me, I really wanted to root for the romance but t was too quick and imposed and dare I say cheesy. I hate that the mystery part of it dwindled after a while but it's also understandable. I found the second half to be incredibly predictable and at that point I was reading only because I liked the writing style and had grown fond of some of the characters.
But this isn't a bad book, despite all the faults I pointed out, I do like this book and if you don't mind the insta-love trope I really believe you'll end up loving this book.
Disclaimer: I received an e-arc from Netgalley but that has in no way affected my opinions on this book. Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this arc
Amelia Unabridged is a beautifully written narrative about loss, grief, fear and finding your path in life. I was quite taken with the book for the first half but unfortunately, it felt a bit flat and predictable after that. We follow Amelia's journey when her best-friends Jenna dies after they had a huge fight. She receives a book which she believes was sent to her by Jenna and travels to solve the mystery, only to meet her childhood favourite author.
To go with the positive firsts, I really love the author's writing style. It's what drew me in with the way the characters are created and how beautifully their emotions are expressed. I really like the different ways in which grief, pain, sorrow and fear were written through the characters, letting us know that there's no one way to experience emotions. And of course, I fell in love with a fictional world created in this book and the overall aesthetic of the bookshops and readers, because how could I note.
Where things really started falling apart was insta-love. God, I hate this trope and especially in this narrative it just came out of nowhere. I would have gladly taken a slowly developed liking and love between the two characters but instead we got an emotionally heavy scene after which the two of them are inexplicably attracted to each other. I know that the author wrote that there are some incidents that you go through with someone after which you can't not be friends but I would disagree. Such experiences certainly shift your relationships but they don't just immediately make you fall in love. And believe me, I really wanted to root for the romance but t was too quick and imposed and dare I say cheesy. I hate that the mystery part of it dwindled after a while but it's also understandable. I found the second half to be incredibly predictable and at that point I was reading only because I liked the writing style and had grown fond of some of the characters.
But this isn't a bad book, despite all the faults I pointed out, I do like this book and if you don't mind the insta-love trope I really believe you'll end up loving this book.
Disclaimer: I received an e-arc from Netgalley but that has in no way affected my opinions on this book. Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this arc