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A review by jackleopards
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
4.0
“Life is paper-thin and fragile. Any sudden change could rip it wide-open.” I never knew a book about mental health with lgbtq+ rep is what I needed right now. I picked this book up in a daze without knowing much about it, and “We Are Okay” is more than okay. It is a cold novel (literally and methaporically) about dealing with grief of losing a loved one and learning to move on by opening up the dreadful past. As I followed Marin’s (MC) journey in a series of flashbacks and present events —and references of Jane Eyre and 100 Years of Solitude — she mirrored every teenager who are pensive, vulnerable, doubtful, lost, in denial, and longing to be loved. In the backdrop between summer in San Franscisco and winter in New York, Nina Lacour’s subtly lyrical writing made it easy for me to paint a picture of what she wanted her readers to think about.
Although I wished that this book had more depth to its story, I think the author’s intention is to make a reader feel sadness and loneliness even just for a short while, and that was enough to make this book memorable.
“It’s a dark place, not knowing. It’s difficult to surrender to. But I guess it’s where we live most of the time. I guess it’s where we all live, so maybe it doesn’t have to be so lonely. Maybe I can settle into it, cozy up to it, make a home inside uncertainty.”
Although I wished that this book had more depth to its story, I think the author’s intention is to make a reader feel sadness and loneliness even just for a short while, and that was enough to make this book memorable.