Every day and all the time Book

This book did not appeal greatly to me and I had to force myself to finish it, but I will readily admit that it is well-written and would encourage you to give it a try if the description interests you. I am also a writer and I am frustrated by one-sentence reviews I read, so I will try to explain why it didn't grab me but it may well grab you. I will also try not to give things away, though there may be minor spoilers.

Oddly enough, this is the second young adult novel in a row I have read where the lead character has thoughts that are sort of witty insults of people around them. Now I try to include a lot of wit and humor in my books, but to me constant little pot shots at other characters is not the best kind of humor. It makes me like the character less and therefore I am less likely to smile at the jokes. Again, however, maybe that is just me because of my own writing style. I also got a bit tired of the plot device of her talking to her dead brother, since it lasts right up until nearly the final page, though I will admit I like how the situation was resolved in the end.

So it was difficult to really curl up and settle into this book with Emily rubbing me the wrong way, but your heart will probably reach out for her in ways mine did not and cut her a lot more slack. The book takes place in Maine. I lived in Maine for over fifty years and placed some of my novels there, but I usually created a fictional town for my settings, so it seems jarring to hear all of the place names dropped here and there to set this book in the Portland area. At first it felt like there were too many place names and not enough cultural references (the people, way of life, etc.) to the southern Maine I know so well, but as the book moved along, it cumulatively began to feel like home.

I will stress that Emily does grow and develop emotionally during the course of the story, which I feel is especially important in a young adult novel. Her parents also are developed after they seemed a bit two-dimensional in the early pages, which may well have been intentional to further show Emily's emotional growth.Likewise Emily's relationship with a few other minor characters reflects her coming to terms with her tragedy and feeling empathy for others, such as with an old woman she visits in a nursing home.

(I had to smile when I realized Emily's father was a writer - I try not to have any writers in my novels as it feels like I am taking a shortcut writing close to home. But then again, we are told to write about what we know! And her mother is a surgeon, after all.)

Sometimes a book doesn't grab me because I know what is going to happen before the characters do, or I find myself thinking "I could write better than this," but there is nothing like that here. Like I said at the start, this book is written well, so personal taste and your level of empathy for Emily should be major factors deciding how much you enjoy this book. So I suggest you give it a go and decide for yourself.