A review by spaley
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This is going to be a very unpopular opinion. I wanted to like this book, I really really did, but I just couldn't. This isn't an action-packed story, so the meat of the book is the character development, and it felt really flat and predictable to me. The problem with dual POVs is it can get really tedious, and even irritating, if you don't like one of the narrators, and I don't like Henry. He was whiny, self-absorbed, and very immature. His only redeeming quality was that he was quotable:

"I love books in a way that's beyond logic and reason. That's just how it is. I love them the way those people in the Letter Library love them. It's not enough to read- I want to talk through the pages to get to the other side, to get to the person who read them before me. I want to spend my life hunting them, reading them, selling them."

Sadly, that wasn't enough to make me like him. He just felt so superficial compared to George and Rachel, and this just dragged the book down for me. I really liked Rachel. She felt real and her emotions were complex and I even cried while reading about her grief. She's a great character, but I don't like the implication that the way for her to "move on" from her brother's death is to replace him with Henry, "I think I knew when I came back to the city that this moment would come. The moment when I wouldn't feel overwhelmed by sadness for Cal, when I'd feel overwhelmed by Henry." I think the story would have felt more real, more complete, if Rachel and Henry ended as friends with the possibility for romance in the future. The way the book ends just feels rushed and a little too much like they're both on the rebound (her from grief, him from heartbreak).

My issues with the plot and characters doesn't lessen the impact of the beautiful writing and the poignant story of grief and loss in all its various forms. It's a decent, fast read, it just didn't change my life or anything.
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