While this was not my favorite one of hers, this still held it's own with the rest of Choi's books. The relationship between the sisters was EVERYTHING. ( )

5

What an incredible book about familial and romantic relationships, dealing with trauma, and mental health.

I have to say while a lot of Young Adult books cover similar subjects, this one feels a lot heavier, emotional, and authentic. I wouldn't necessarily categorize this as a YA - I'd probably mark it as a New Adult - but assume it's marketed that way because of the age of the characters, not the content. ( )

Pretty awful topics that need discussion, but I found it hard to grasp the story at certain points. ( )

This one’s pretty emotionally dark throughout, touching on eating disorders, cancer, anxiety, etc., it’s the kind of story you’ll need to be in the right headspace for, I definitely preferred reading it in short intervals rather than sitting with it for long stretches.

The entire story is told from Jayne’s point of view, but her sister June’s personality and psychology ended up being of such interest to me that I found myself wishing this had been a duel POV book, I would have loved to have spent some time in June’s undoubtedly fascinating head and heart.

My favorite thing about this book was how warts and all it was about its characters and their relationships, how much of a struggle it is for them to connect and reach out, they are messy and ugly at times, even the relationship between the sisters and with their mother has more cringe-inducing moments than heartwarming ones, which made them come across as really human and achingly vulnerable and when those few and far between heartwarming moments do materialize, there’s nothing schmaltzy in them, nothing false.

I imagine some readers would prefer a more traditionally satisfying ending, but given the life-like quality of the story and the fact that mental health and cancer battles don’t tend to wrap up tidily, I was good with things not being tied up in neat little bows here either. ( )

4.50

I adored this. Yes, it is a slow paced slife of life, and it doesn't have a satisfactory ending. Neither of those things bother me if the writing is good-of it draws you in. Choi's writing definitely did.

I related to the dynamic between the sisters, to Jaynes disordered eating, especially her disordered life. This was a great read. ( )