A review by eemilycolleen
Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

oh man oh man, this is something else. i cried :) i was equally riveted and moved by both narrators (and julia whelan does such a beautiful job with the audio, OBVIOUSLY) -- they were both so achingly sad and tentative and hopeful in such specific but interlocking ways that i absolutely wept for them both. their separate journeys and their arcs toward and away from each other, whew. THAT'S LIFE, ISN'T IT. arcing toward and away from the people you decide to love. the future unreal conditional tense in the last chapter sent me spiraling in the best way. LIFE IS JUST REACHING OUT YOUR HAND AND OPENING THE DOOR!!!!!!

because i am a sap, i was especially moved by the image of the yerba buena itself, and how much it meant to each of them individually, and the whole concept of how these physical objects carry different meanings for different people, and what a blessing it is to uncover those meanings and merge that knowledge with your own. what a joy to understand someone else's metaphorical resonance, however incompletely. WHEW!
 
also i CRIED when we saw grant at the very end. "tell us something about him," emilie said. "no," spencer said. "tell us a few things." kill me!!!

"but it didn't turn out that way. it turned out with them surviving." ok i'm done but i'm still unwell