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Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him-at least not yet. Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change. Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl-she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland's brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.
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Update 2024 - Why does this book still hit me so deep? I wept, I sobbed. This book deals so much with grief and loss and heartbreak and love and it is honestly just one of my favorite things.
Update March 2021 - Yep. Still love it. There are so many beautiful things here. The end of this book still gets me!
Update 2020 - I still love this dang book! The last quarter was even better the second time around!
4.5 Stars
I know it's cliche to say it, but I think this book may have changed my life. It definitely caused a change in my soul.
Sutherland's writing is so quirky and eye-catching, the way she writes things, the heart that goes into the words. It's well said, well thought. Relatable, OH SO relatable. Those of us who have loved, whether at the right or the wrong time, will always find a piece of themselves in this work.
I won't say the plot was the most surprising thing I've ever read. The "twists" were easily guessed. But they were exactly what this story needed. It needed all of it, to become this grand piece it now is.
Henry is what I'd assume is a typical teenage boy. It's been 12+ years since I've spent any significant amount of time with one to know for sure, but he seems about right. And you can't help but relate to him on his level. We've all been through high school, falling for someone so hard you couldn't think straight. We've forgotten the things that were most important to us. There's this line about how he figures you can never truly know yourself until you've loved someone. It's so accurate. There are so many facets of what makes us who we are, and how we love is one of the most important ones.
Muz and La. Two eccentric characters who brought humor and heart to this story. Henry's friends moved the story in the direction it needed to go in, while at the same time, showing you other stages of teenage love. They both went through good and bad stages of relationships during this story and it managed to put a normal feeling to it all.
Grace. There's so much I'd like to say about Grace but I honestly feel like her story is better learned about from the narrative itself. To let her speak for herself.
Sadie. She's a side character, sure, but her conversation at the end of this book warrants a mention here. The author's notes suggest that Sadie's character was based on a neuroscientist from Yeshiva University named Lucy Brown. Sadie's career (her adult one, not her stint as a teenage delinquent) lends so much to the end of this book.
In the end, it was the talks that got me. Talks about the science behind love. Of how our bodies are given back to the universe once we die. How sometimes, ghosts are more real than you think.
Yeah. Much like Sutherland's A SEMI-DEFINITIVE LIST OF WORST NIGHTMARES, I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.
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