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A review by nxtapipedream
Fragments of the Lost by Megan Miranda
4.0
Okay so it's been around 24 hours and I've had time to actually try and wrap my head around what happened in this book. I picked it up, expecting a simple contemporary about a girl trying to come to terms with a fatal accident that her ex boyfriend was in. However, it was anything but simple. I loved all the twists, and learning so much about Caleb along with Jessa kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I wish more of the novel took place in the present - I realize that the entire point of this book is about Jessa remembering moments in time as she found things in Caleb's room, but still - a lot of the first part of the book was about her memories, and while it was interesting I felt like that frame made the beginning drag a little bit. But in part two, when the story became less about the memories and more about the mystery, I couldn't read it fast enough.
Character wise, I really only liked Jessa and Max (Jessa and Caleb's mutual friend) from the main characters; they made a good team and honestly after a few chapters with Max during the flashbacks, I shipped it. Hailey, Jessa's best friend, and Julian, her older brother were amazing side characters. But everyone else just bothered me. First of all Caleb's mom, Eve, was awful. I understand that her son was in a fatal accident and she's in mourning, however, blaming a teenage girl for his death, and forcing her to clean out his bedroom as an almost revenge is...a lot. She was rude to Jessa, who's dealing with her own guilt (internalized and placed upon her by the rumor mill at her high school), and also told Caleb's little sister that she isn't allowed to speak to Jessa because she's "sneaky". She only gets worse as the book gets on.
Jessa's parents weren't in the book a lot, but when they were, they almost played favorites with their kids, very obviously preferring Julian. However, this book is told through Jessa's POV so maybe it was just her thinking that her family thought Julian was perfect, so anyways... Also I didn't like Caleb at all. In the flashbacks he was condescending and rude and it was very obvious he hid things from Jessa, and honestly in some of the scenes I just sat there wondering why Jessa was even with him. Which, speaking of: their breakup seems like the center of most of the action in this novel, but the breakup scene takes up about a page and a half (I read the ebook so I'm not sure if it's the same amount of space in the physical book), but what I really wanted was the reason why they broke up. There was a vauge mention of it in the break up scene, but it was never fleshed out.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I think it was really well done and all the twists and turns were amazing; if you're looking for a suspenseful YA mystery novel, I'd suggest picking this one up!
Character wise, I really only liked Jessa and Max (Jessa and Caleb's mutual friend) from the main characters; they made a good team and honestly after a few chapters with Max during the flashbacks, I shipped it. Hailey, Jessa's best friend, and Julian, her older brother were amazing side characters. But everyone else just bothered me. First of all Caleb's mom, Eve, was awful. I understand that her son was in a fatal accident and she's in mourning, however, blaming a teenage girl for his death, and forcing her to clean out his bedroom as an almost revenge is...a lot. She was rude to Jessa, who's dealing with her own guilt (internalized and placed upon her by the rumor mill at her high school), and also told Caleb's little sister that she isn't allowed to speak to Jessa because she's "sneaky". She only gets worse as the book gets on.
Jessa's parents weren't in the book a lot, but when they were, they almost played favorites with their kids, very obviously preferring Julian. However, this book is told through Jessa's POV so maybe it was just her thinking that her family thought Julian was perfect, so anyways... Also I didn't like Caleb at all. In the flashbacks he was condescending and rude and it was very obvious he hid things from Jessa, and honestly in some of the scenes I just sat there wondering why Jessa was even with him. Which, speaking of: their breakup seems like the center of most of the action in this novel, but the breakup scene takes up about a page and a half (I read the ebook so I'm not sure if it's the same amount of space in the physical book), but what I really wanted was the reason why they broke up. There was a vauge mention of it in the break up scene, but it was never fleshed out.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I think it was really well done and all the twists and turns were amazing; if you're looking for a suspenseful YA mystery novel, I'd suggest picking this one up!