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picklechic 's review for:
The Girl He Used to Know
by Tracey Garvis Graves
3.5 stars. This book was kind of an odd read for me. I liked parts of it, and it is not a bad book, but there were parts I could not connect to. The Girl He Used to Know is a second chance love story between Jonathan and Annika. The two of them met in college but a traumatic experience caused them to emotionally drift apart and they broke up. Now, nine years later, they run into each other and strike up a friendship which leads to a romance again.
I found this to be in an interesting book. The story is good and I liked the characters. But this book deals with some heavy subjects ( ) . It is not a light book. Annika has autism, though it is not called autism until late in the book. It is obvious that she is very different. I think Ms. Graves showed living with autism very realistically. I liked Annika, but I found it very hard to connect with her character and her being in a romance. She was child-like in some ways, which made it hard to see how she could be in an adult relationship, with sex and all. Being in her head was probably very realistic, but I could not identify with her at all. She is very 'in her head' with little emotion and little happiness. I liked Jonathan, but did not really understand how he could fall in love with Annika the way she was. I did not truly feel the love between them. But I was still able to enjoy the story. I did find that the event near the ending of the book, , came out of left field. I didn't think that event matched with the rest of the book and was unnecessary drama. I also found the overall tone of the book as a little depressing and the story a little on the slow side.
Overall, though, I mostly enjoyed this book even if I didn't 100% love it. I was a little disappointed because it is nowhere near on the level of Heart Shaped Hack, which I loved. Still, this is not a bad book. It is worth reading. I will continue to read Ms. Graves books and look forward to more from her in the future.
*arc provided in exchange for an honest review*
I found this to be in an interesting book. The story is good and I liked the characters. But this book deals with some heavy subjects (
Spoiler
autism, miscarriage, 9/11, etc.Spoiler
Johnathan being in one of the towers struck on 9/11. He does escape and lives.Overall, though, I mostly enjoyed this book even if I didn't 100% love it. I was a little disappointed because it is nowhere near on the level of Heart Shaped Hack, which I loved. Still, this is not a bad book. It is worth reading. I will continue to read Ms. Graves books and look forward to more from her in the future.
*arc provided in exchange for an honest review*