A review by danaaliyalevinson
I fell in love with hope by Lancali

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I think what works in this book far outweighs what doesn't. A group of chronically ill teens who practically live at a hospital buoy each other through the storm. There is a supernatural/metaphysical element of the story that I can't get into without spoilers, but it takes what would be a run of the mill drama and makes it fascinating The characters are compelling and beautifully drawn. The prose is often beautiful. The world is interesting, there's an almost plucked out of time and place feeling, where the hospital exists in its own world with its own rules, which only heightened the sense of it as the only world these kids know. What I thought it needed help with was focus. There are a lot of ideas. But once the twist of the story became clear, it also became clear how many of those ideas were unnecessary to make that ending land, and in fact, the ending would’ve landed that much harder had there been more focus. It made me wish the author, who clearly has immense talent it should be said, had been able to get this book published the traditional route so that she could’ve had an editor helping to hone the narrative. That said, the whole time I kept thinking what a fantastic movie this film would make, especially if the film can narrow the focus to its most important parts.
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