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A review by undervmountain
Juniper Lemon's Happiness Index by Julie Israel
emotional
sad
medium-paced
3.0
The main character really pulled this story along for me, her struggles with grief and guilt made her a compelling character that I wanted to stick around for. Which is good, because looking back the rest of the story was very messy.
Juniper has been keeping an index of happy/sad moments since her sister died, and after one of the cards goes missing, finds herself desperately spending every day literally digging through the school trash to try and find it again.
The side characters had me utterly confused, as they acted like Juniper had betrayed them in some way in the way she decided to become friends with them, which I didn't see as that bad. But then, two of them revealed that they had been lying to her all along too?
Nate and Brand were interesting, Nate being the new guy and Brand being the bad boy archetype, and I was never sure if it was supposed to be an almost love triangle or not because Nate and Juniper seemed to be just friends, however I'm simply not used to seeing this in YA stories.
I did feel the ending left us with questions, and storylines were wrapped up a little too easily, to the main of characters making unrealistic decisions. However on the subject of grief, this story knocks it out of the park.
Juniper has been keeping an index of happy/sad moments since her sister died, and after one of the cards goes missing, finds herself desperately spending every day literally digging through the school trash to try and find it again.
The side characters had me utterly confused, as they acted like Juniper had betrayed them in some way in the way she decided to become friends with them, which I didn't see as that bad. But then, two of them revealed that they had been lying to her all along too?
Nate and Brand were interesting, Nate being the new guy and Brand being the bad boy archetype, and I was never sure if it was supposed to be an almost love triangle or not because Nate and Juniper seemed to be just friends, however I'm simply not used to seeing this in YA stories.
I did feel the ending left us with questions, and storylines were wrapped up a little too easily, to the main of characters making unrealistic decisions. However on the subject of grief, this story knocks it out of the park.