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A review by thesummer
Over You by Amy Reed
3.0
Spoiler alert!
Amy Reed has been one of my favourite authors for a long time. However, I really was not happy with Over You.
Namely, the end.
Although I suppose I should start this review with the beginning.
Very interesting writing in this, with first person, but also second person. Amy Reed, of course, pulls this off very well, with gorgeous prose as always. The scenes are vivid and full, without having long descriptions of places.
The characters, as ever, are amazing. This is Amy Reed's greatest gift. It was excellent to have a female protagonist like Max, clever and aware of what is happening in her life, showing that people make mistakes, even when they're not stupid like the characters in the majority of YA novels. Sadie, her inseparable best friend, is self-destructive and has issues, and Max is continually loving her and helping her, so much that her own life is neglected all the time. Dylan was an asshole, if a hot and mysterious one at first.
The pacing flows along, and this book is certainly addicting.
However.
That ending left me very unsatisfied.
Yes, I understand the author's point- that in life, things rarely get tied up perfectly with a bow, but, well, I kind of hate it when authors do this- try to get completely realistic with things.
Because people read stories for a reason.
It's to experience lives they never could.
And part of that deal is that you give an adequate ending with closure.
This book has no closure.
Very little, at least. Yes, we see Max grow as a character, and it ends with her going home to patch things up with her family.
But, so much of the book centred around her and Sadie that the end felt like a wide, gaping, hole. It's a beautiful thing that they were so close, and all we got at the end was a "You should drink less" and an awkward goodbye. No tears, no nothing. Just emptiness and a feeling deep in my stomach that I have been cheated somehow.
Maybe Max and Sadie were beyond repair. I don't believe that- Sadie could have done some growing up and they could still have their bond, albeit a different one. Instead, Max leaves and Sadie is to live on a weed farm for the forseeable future, without any real resolution to her drinking and self-destructiveness. Even if they were broken, I would have liked more of a resolution to their years of friendship than what we got.
I don't know. I'm still feeling a bit of a mess.
Amy Reed has been one of my favourite authors for a long time. However, I really was not happy with Over You.
Namely, the end.
Although I suppose I should start this review with the beginning.
Very interesting writing in this, with first person, but also second person. Amy Reed, of course, pulls this off very well, with gorgeous prose as always. The scenes are vivid and full, without having long descriptions of places.
The characters, as ever, are amazing. This is Amy Reed's greatest gift. It was excellent to have a female protagonist like Max, clever and aware of what is happening in her life, showing that people make mistakes, even when they're not stupid like the characters in the majority of YA novels. Sadie, her inseparable best friend, is self-destructive and has issues, and Max is continually loving her and helping her, so much that her own life is neglected all the time. Dylan was an asshole, if a hot and mysterious one at first.
The pacing flows along, and this book is certainly addicting.
However.
That ending left me very unsatisfied.
Yes, I understand the author's point- that in life, things rarely get tied up perfectly with a bow, but, well, I kind of hate it when authors do this- try to get completely realistic with things.
Because people read stories for a reason.
It's to experience lives they never could.
And part of that deal is that you give an adequate ending with closure.
This book has no closure.
Very little, at least. Yes, we see Max grow as a character, and it ends with her going home to patch things up with her family.
But, so much of the book centred around her and Sadie that the end felt like a wide, gaping, hole. It's a beautiful thing that they were so close, and all we got at the end was a "You should drink less" and an awkward goodbye. No tears, no nothing. Just emptiness and a feeling deep in my stomach that I have been cheated somehow.
Maybe Max and Sadie were beyond repair. I don't believe that- Sadie could have done some growing up and they could still have their bond, albeit a different one. Instead, Max leaves and Sadie is to live on a weed farm for the forseeable future, without any real resolution to her drinking and self-destructiveness. Even if they were broken, I would have liked more of a resolution to their years of friendship than what we got.
I don't know. I'm still feeling a bit of a mess.