A review by yliana
Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really loved this book. the concept of getting to know someone by spending literally all of your weekend with them but only every two weeks is so interesting. I loved getting to know jolene and Adam and I also liked how their lives were kind of on two sides of the same coin. it was heartbreaking seeing how little jo thought of herself and watching her backtrack when Adam tried to tell her how much he loved her.
I think the way that Jo's grooming was so well written. I was screaming at her to see the red flags from the very beginning but as I read her reasons for interacting with guy, I could understand where she was coming from. I think it's really important to understand a person's reasons for being blind to red flags, it makes it a lot easier to start to figure out the ways that we can help people who are going through things like this. she was hurting so badly and unfortunately he was the only one there that she felt she could rely on in a way. he also very easily used jo's shared interests to manipulate her and for those of us on the outside, it's really easy to say that she's just being a dumb teenager. we can obviously see that she's not an idiot. it's beyond easy for people to be manipulated when they are in pain. if more people see that, victims would most likely feel better about telling their stories instead of hiding them out of shame. it was so hard seeing jolene going through that and I really loved how shelly stood by her side instead of leaving her to deal with it alone. yeah, I just think that it was very well written and with so much empathy and understanding too.

Adam also dealt with so much, the poor thing T-T
god, everyone in this book was just so emotionally broken but their growth and friendship was *chef's kiss*
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