I have been a fan of Brenna Yovanoff’s writing ever since I read the excellent The Space Between so I was very excited to see that she had a new book due for release. Couple that with the gorgeous cover and I was itching to read it. And read it I did. In one setting.Yovanoff’s trademark lyrical prose is rather missing in this one – it has not totally disappeared but Yovanoff’s opts for straight forward prose rather than the style used in her previous novel and that’s okay with me. The novel is extremely readable, it grasps your interest and keeps it until the book is done. However, it is not without its faults and those are what I’m going to talk about before I go on to the good things of which there are plenty in this novel.It feels that Yovanoff attempts a bit more in this novel than there is space for. For instance, there are issues of suicide (of a sort), eating disorders, death and grief, serial murderers, social status and discrimination between social classes, poverty, parental abuse – there is just too much going on and sometimes things do get muddy because when there are too many themes, the narrative tends to get swamped. Oh, I forgot to add life after death, hauntings and ghosts. Dead best friends and a mean girl parade. There were so many things going on that there was a lack of focus and detail on a single thing. There were questions that weren’t answered and this was jarring because I wanted to know why Hannah saw ghosts, what was the story there?Why was Angelie such a bitch? I understand that there was a hierarchy in their little group but her venom was way more acidic than the situation called for. And this part is going under the spoiler tag so please don’t read it unless you want to be critically spoiled but I feel like I have to put it in because it is the reason I reacted to the book as I did.We live in a society where common people fancy themselves well versed in matters of crime and crime detection. We have learned to ask searching questions and look for logic thanks to dramas such as CSI and Criminal Minds. We actually know a little bit about the psyche of killers and we look for logic in such events. That is why Paper Valentine with its serial killer was so interesting to me. Unfortunately, Yovanoff did not deliver what the situation called for. When Finney is taken away by the police and we are told that there is a danger that he would be charged for the murder, it doesn’t make sense because if he is innocent, there would be no DNA or any other evidence connecting him to the murder scene and the murder site. They cannot keep a minor in custody without concrete evidence tying him to the crime. Minors are protected by law. So that threw me out of the narrative.Furthermore, Connor’s fixation on Hannah is never explained. Why her out of all the girls he knows? Why not his girlfriend? Is it because she is the one who told the police about his partner in crime? This is never addressed and it bothered me. And if Yovanoff was going to make Connor the culprit, she should have given us some hints, hints we would not have taken but hints nonetheless. He’s not much of a character in the novel until he shows up in the end as the villain. So, this was the biggest quibble I had with the book and one that dominated my entire thinking of it.However, as I said, there are some awesome aspects to the novel that made me like it despite its rather glaring flaws.First, the relationship between Hannah and her sister. Ariel is such an awesome character with all the irrepressible charm of a twelve year old who is trying to be an adult too soon. The conversations between Ariel and Hannah are sweet and Ariel’s concern for her sister shows affection in a subtle way. I like how Yovanoff portrayed the dark hot days Hannah spends in her room with only the ghost of her dead best friend for company. Lillian is a curious character – cold, melancholy and somehow malevolent towards everyone except Hannah.The greatest plus in this book is Finney. Or to be more exact, Finney and Hannah’s relationship. It’s subtle and almost wordless. There is no grand scene where love confessions are made and accepted. It is a natural progression from looking into each others to holding each others hand to kissing each other. Finney has plenty issues and I so wish Yovanoff had decided to focus on them and on the way these issues shaped Finney and his relationship with Hannah but alas. I liked the person Hannah became when she was with Finney.So this book, you guys, it isn’t my favourite Yovanoff book but it is not my last Yovanoff either. I think you should read this one, if only for Finney.
