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A review by tish
Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar
5.0
I'm not sure I'll be able to verbalize what I love about this book, but I feel impelled to try anyway. I've never surfed even once in my life and I know nothing about the sport. That said, the book goes into quite a bit of surfing detail (complete with its attendant terminology) and yet I was never at a loss for overall understanding or put off by the alienness of it. For all this is a YA book and Carly is only 19 (and I'm in my 40's), I identified so strongly with her.
I know how she felt inside her skin, recognized her need to be alone, viewed the world along with her thru the lens of a psyche cracked by traumatic violation. Carly felt so spot on to me. I like how Eagar never makes her maudlin or turns sappy or whiny, and how strong Carly actually is despite her emotional fragility. I especially identified with her insight as to why Carly never told anyone what happened to her that night.
Carly felt alive and three dimensional and Eagar, thankfully, doesn't take the HEA route, even though the book ends on a good note, you just know it's still going to take time for her to heal. There are no snapping of the fingers and voila! Carly is fine and ready to run off into the sunset with Ryan - something writers do all the time and it annoys the crap out of me. You aren't just fine after a gang rape, you are never going to be the same person ever again.
Eager lets you know that there are still obstacles ahead, but that now Carly's ready to begin trying to surmount them, that's she's ready to move out of the limbo she's kept herself in. I loved Carly, I loved this book. I loved Ryan for being the flawed, confused man and yet not pushing anything right from the start, almost like he knew instinctively that she was like a deer caught unawares, ready to bolt at the slightest provocation - which of course, she was. I loved this book
I know how she felt inside her skin, recognized her need to be alone, viewed the world along with her thru the lens of a psyche cracked by traumatic violation. Carly felt so spot on to me. I like how Eagar never makes her maudlin or turns sappy or whiny, and how strong Carly actually is despite her emotional fragility. I especially identified with her insight as to why Carly never told anyone what happened to her that night.
Carly felt alive and three dimensional and Eagar, thankfully, doesn't take the HEA route, even though the book ends on a good note, you just know it's still going to take time for her to heal. There are no snapping of the fingers and voila! Carly is fine and ready to run off into the sunset with Ryan - something writers do all the time and it annoys the crap out of me. You aren't just fine after a gang rape, you are never going to be the same person ever again.
Eager lets you know that there are still obstacles ahead, but that now Carly's ready to begin trying to surmount them, that's she's ready to move out of the limbo she's kept herself in. I loved Carly, I loved this book. I loved Ryan for being the flawed, confused man and yet not pushing anything right from the start, almost like he knew instinctively that she was like a deer caught unawares, ready to bolt at the slightest provocation - which of course, she was. I loved this book