Sunday, October 7, 2012

Review: Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Amy McNamara




 A resonant debut novel about retreating from the world after losing everything—and the connections that force you to rejoin it.Since the night of the crash, Wren Wells has been running away. Though she lived through the accident that killed her boyfriend Patrick, the girl she used to be didn’t survive. Instead of heading off to college as planned, Wren retreats to her father’s studio in the far-north woods of Maine. Somewhere she can be alone.
Then she meets Cal Owen. Dealing with his own troubles, Cal’s hiding out too. When the chemistry between them threatens to pull Wren from her hard-won isolation, Wren has to choose: risk opening her broken heart to the world again, or join the ghosts who haunt her.

The beautiful cover of this contemporary young adult fiction drew me in and the synopsis had me hooked. While reading this I almost cried because the sadness in the story felt so real. The writing was wonderful and I’m glad to say that this debut had me wanting to read more of this author’s writing.

Wren wasn’t a character I related to, however I did enjoy reading her story and the things she thought. I think I would’ve been friends with her (before the accident) because she seemed so fun and outgoing. 

Through the book, the reader gets a look into her life post crash and twists and turns appear at a couple of corners. Cal Owen (the male lead) was definitely one of my favorite male characters because he wasn’t the average perfect hot guy you see in almost every YA novel. He had MS and was dealing with his own struggles in life while Wren was handling hers.

The author is really good at writing because the words on the page felt real to me. Here’s a sample of what you can find inside Lovely, Dark, and Deep:

“Okay. Open your eyes.”
Hundreds of tiny lights before us. Strands of golden sparkles crisscross the terrace between the house and the water. It’s like the sky loaned down some stars and they’re dusting the bare limbs of trees, twinkling from small snowy tufts of bushes, lining the terrace all the way to the edge. It’s another world. A dream of light.


Lovely, Dark, and Deep is a book that I can recommend to those who enjoy YA contemporaries and I enjoyed reading it. 4 Stars!

3 comments:

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  2. Love the the simplicity and beauty of the book cover (:
    I think I would relate more to Wren afterwards. I'm not saying I'm on the run or sad. I just like characters when they have problems and are more emotional than usual.
    Weird title but good in a way.
    She’s Got Books on Her Mind

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  3. The title comes from the Robert Frost poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," a line of which is also one of the chapter titles (Whose Woods). Wren and Cal have a brief conversation about the poem.

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