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A review by samileighh
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
2.0
On a positive note, I enjoyed that this book was written in letter from. The short vignette chapters made it easy to get through. As the story went along, I was shown more things than simply told and that did build some semblance of connection.
HOWEVER, the one relationship this story counted on, the one we needed to be invested in for the point of the book to make sense, Lucy and Gabe, was glossed over. If we excuse Lucy’s poor decisions, lack of communication and blame of everyone else, and look to the relationship at the root of her problems, I simply did not care about it. Lucy stated over and over again how she loved Gabe, how he made her feel like no one else had, but we never were really shown their relationship. 10% of the way in, Gabe had left and we were being shown Lucy and Darren’s love story. Was Darren perfect? No. But then again, neither was Lucy. And the more she told me she loved Gabe the more I disliked her. I wasn’t connected to her love story with Gabe. I didn’t care about them ending up together. And yet, she threw away her life for this man. The structure of this story really ruined it for me.
HOWEVER, the one relationship this story counted on, the one we needed to be invested in for the point of the book to make sense, Lucy and Gabe, was glossed over. If we excuse Lucy’s poor decisions, lack of communication and blame of everyone else, and look to the relationship at the root of her problems, I simply did not care about it. Lucy stated over and over again how she loved Gabe, how he made her feel like no one else had, but we never were really shown their relationship. 10% of the way in, Gabe had left and we were being shown Lucy and Darren’s love story. Was Darren perfect? No. But then again, neither was Lucy. And the more she told me she loved Gabe the more I disliked her. I wasn’t connected to her love story with Gabe. I didn’t care about them ending up together. And yet, she threw away her life for this man. The structure of this story really ruined it for me.