I was a little weary
about this book because it deals with suicide. Usually, in this type of books,
I can’t really connect with the characters. They all feel 2D to me. I neither
love nor hate them- I kind of just… don’t feel them. They are not real to me –
they’re paper and nothing more. This didn’t happen in this book. At all. All of
the characters come alive in the pages. Every single one of them. From James
and Marilyn, to Nath and little Hannah. Even
Lydia, who’s dead from the first page. Yes, even Lydia. She was just a girl who
wanted to do right by everyone. She made a mistake. She miscalculated. She
carried all of her parent’s expectations on her shoulders, and they were so
heavy she sank.
And Lydia herself- the reluctant center of their
universe- every day, she held the world together. She absorbed her parent’s
dreams, quieting the reluctance that bubbled up within. Years passed.
The story goes from
present to past, and, piece by piece, you see their life. As I read, I kind of felt like the author had
plucked me from my life and set me on the Lee’s home in Ohio, 1977. The thing
is, it focuses more on the family than on Lydia herself. How her death made
them confront the fact that they didn’t know anything, anything at all, about each
other anymore.
As you can tell, I really
liked this book because of the characters. None of them are perfect. They all
made mistakes. There’s no hero, but there’s also no evil villain. They are just
like anyone. Human. Flawed. With hopes and dreams, fears and insecurities.
He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her
life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember
another.
SPOILER ALERT
(KIND OF)
Can we just talk
about:
- How they will never ever know what Lydia was thinking. They will always think she committed suicide.
- James' thoughts when Nath got mocked in the pool. I wanted to hate James so much and yet... I couldn't. Not with what we already knew about him. His parents, his childhood, his loneliness, and the racisim against him.
- Hannah! This invisible, too observant, sweet, little thief.
- Marilyn's self percieved failure.
- James and Marilyn... their connection went deeper than love. It was comfort, belonging, and home.
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