But that is also when she meets Resse who is mister-charisma-spills-from-me, I'm-a-human-attracting-magnet. basically-the-everyday-fantasy-YA-love interest (yeah, tall, brooding, is in love with you from day 1 !!!!instant connection!!!! keeps staring at your face and keeps reminding you that it's in a romantic not creepy way.)

Alfie was consistent, and, because of that, I wasn't crazy. I was calm, I was chill - I was all the things you wanted me to be, Reese. But I was incapable of being those things with you. The more you wanted me to be that "chill" girl - the more you made it clear that your love for me depended on it - the less chill and more crazy I got. Because you weren't consistent. Reading it in my perspective, at first it seemed so shallow, so irrelev

The Mix

A candid look at ‘romantic’ relationships and their impact on psychosocial development and mental health during adolescence The Chapter names- They are all based on the names of the places or the reasons why she cried and absolutely no idea why, but I loved them. You are looking for a piece of honest, no-nonsense teen literature that will empower students, make them feel like they are not alone and help them make healthy, confident decisions. Look, if you’re coming to this book for suspense or surprise, you will not find it. The plot is utterly predictable, even without Amelie’s very overt foreshadowing mentioning red flags and the end of friendships, etc. That’s the point: Bourne is preparing us for the emotional journey ahead by giving us the framework of the narrative journey. This isn’t about trying to figure out what will happen, how it will end, etc. It’s a story about Amelie coming to terms with this huge thing that happened to her.

lastly, i just need to mention the writing. if i'll ever write a book i want to be able to write like that, so effortlessly, seamlessly, intimately and beautifully. The “it” that I’m working through now. The messy line of biro. The dots on a map where you made me cry – I’m sure it’s all my fault somehow. If only I’d done things differently. Been… less me, then I wouldn’t have driven you away. La escritura de Holly continúa siendo genuina y poderosa; aún en los momentos más difíciles logra transmitir la fuerza vulnerable pero resiliente de la juventud, sin caer en melodrama. Esto hizo que todo se sintiera aún más auténtico... y yo sufrí las puñaladas. Lloré como hace mucho no lloraba con un libro: de tristeza pero también de alivio... que refrescante es ver una afección mental tratada con el respeto que merece.

As it turns out, they are the result of a radioactive relationship full of thorns and punctured dreams. Who are you going to trust? The calm boy whose voice doesn't wobble, who can explain reasonably and using examples, why everything is fine-- or the crying girl saying she can feel something is wrong?

A new college. A new city and that is when she meets Hannah-who gets the best friend of the year award-on the very first day and makes a friend. I think this book is a very important contemporary novel, but I cannot say I enjoyed reading it. I think I need to say straight off the bat, that the synopsis of this book is quite vague and it makes it sound essentially just like a break up story; but I must say that in my opinion this novel is a very tragic story of a rape and abuse victim coping with PTSD. I wish I had listened to my gut. It takes guts to listen to your gut, though. It takes bravery to walk away from something because part of your bowel tells you to. I mean, who does that? That is crazy. Amelie, however, is an exception. She’s wept in Clapham Junction waiting room, the music classroom, the bench on top of the common and plenty more places besides. And what has been the reason for her tears? One day you’d be all over me, making my anxiety disappear, being kind and considerate and amazing and everything I’d always wanted. “God I love you, I love you so much,” you’d tell everyone at the lunch table, and the rest of the band would groan while I glowed. But then, later that afternoon, we’d walk past a girl and you’d say, “Wow, she’s so pretty,” then get in a mood with me if I dared to be upset.This book follows Amelie, a sixteen year old who moves Down South from Sheffield, leaving behind friends, a boyfriend, and sixth form for an unknown town somewhere insignificantly near London. She's musical. She's self-deprecating. She wears granny cardigans and vintage dresses. She likes her parents. What happens (or more specifically who happens) after she joins a new college makes up the rest of the book. The only reason this isn’t a whooping 5-stars is because this was still quite a difficult read at times, because of the themes of the story. Still 200% recommending this, if you can handle the trigger warnings. This book is like the YA version of It Ends with Us- feminist to the bones and written in a much better way and a more believable and real ending.

On that note, I did have a rather love-hate relationship with the author’s writing style. I loved the touches of British slang and humour that I miss in a lot of the American YA that I read, but one of my pet peeves is when dialogue or angry thoughts are written in all capitals. It’s such a minor thing, but wow it grinds my gears and loses so much of the impact for me. I also find lyrics for fictional songs in books so jarring. I don’t know why but it makes me uncomfortable. Lyric writing and novel writing are two very different things so I find it awkward when a character gets told that she’s an amazing lyricist, but then we read the lyrics and they’re actually not that great. It’s just awkward to me. But these are such minor things in context of the novel. Holly Bourne has once again produced a story regarding young adult issues that is at times hard to read, but is emotive and totally honest... The story follows 16 year old Amelie (who is also the narrator of this emotive read) who has recently moved away from all that she knows due to her parents having to relocate. She is not a confident girl, but truly shines when she plays her music, which is how she gets noticed by Reese. Due perhaps to feeling 'the odd girl out', Amelie falls fast and hard for Reese, ignoring some of her gut instincts and friendly advice. He loves her, doesn't he? He told her. If things go wrong it's her fault, because he said so, he only tells her because he loves her so much! He's so romantic and loving, but is he?Starting A-Levels in a new town, a new school and being a painfully shy singer/songwriter who suffers from a ‘shyness rash’ and has a ‘full-blown obsession with cardigans’, Bourne, establishes a vulnerability in Amelie and the ensuing obsessive love/hate relationship with Reese where she ‘fell hard for Reese’ and it ‘looked like love’ and ‘felt like love’ but is not sure if love is ‘supposed to hurt like this’. But the closer Amelie gets to Reese, the further away from her new friends and family she becomes, and understands less and less about love and relationships, where ‘even after the best night of my life, you still manage to make me cry’. Reese, like a drug, is described as a ‘giant sexy magnet’ and Amelie states that she felt ‘like I was wearing chainmail’. There are lots of places where it can easily be tempting to have a good blub in public, but not all of us will give in to the urge, let alone talk about it afterwards.