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I read this book for the first time 10 years ago when I was 15 years old. Now I’m 25 and I have a completely different perspective.
The first time I read this book I was around the age that Gemma is and now reading it I’m the age that Ty is. I can remember the first time reading this book, and so desperately wanting Gemma to just get over it and fall in love with Ty. I very much fell victim to the Stockholm syndrome that Gemma was experiencing. I remember rooting for him, wanting him to turn things around and be good. I actually wanted them to be in love and happy, together in the Australian wilderness. I wanted his vision to come to life for them.
It tells you so much about my age, and how the book really didn’t what it was supposed to - put me in Gemma’s mindset.
But now as an adult, who has lived life and knows what mental illness is and what it looks like, I can look at the story and see such a broken human being. I can see that the bigger picture. The first time I read this book you could probably count on my heart racing when I thought that there was a moment they were finally going to get along and this time around my heart was racing with anxiety of waiting for the moment for her to break free.
Both times I ended with a feeling of hoping there is a better life for Ty. He 100% deserves to be in jail for what he’d done. But just like Gemma at the end she hopes that when he is released that he will grow straight. I like to imagine he returns to his wild land with the Separates, his chickens, and his stars.
The first time I read this book I was around the age that Gemma is and now reading it I’m the age that Ty is. I can remember the first time reading this book, and so desperately wanting Gemma to just get over it and fall in love with Ty. I very much fell victim to the Stockholm syndrome that Gemma was experiencing. I remember rooting for him, wanting him to turn things around and be good. I actually wanted them to be in love and happy, together in the Australian wilderness. I wanted his vision to come to life for them.
It tells you so much about my age, and how the book really didn’t what it was supposed to - put me in Gemma’s mindset.
But now as an adult, who has lived life and knows what mental illness is and what it looks like, I can look at the story and see such a broken human being. I can see that the bigger picture. The first time I read this book you could probably count on my heart racing when I thought that there was a moment they were finally going to get along and this time around my heart was racing with anxiety of waiting for the moment for her to break free.
Both times I ended with a feeling of hoping there is a better life for Ty. He 100% deserves to be in jail for what he’d done. But just like Gemma at the end she hopes that when he is released that he will grow straight. I like to imagine he returns to his wild land with the Separates, his chickens, and his stars.