Declan Murphy isn’t the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he’s trying to escape the demons of his past.
When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can’t resist writing back. Soon, he’s opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they’re not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.
My Rating: ******/ five out of five
It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a contemporary novel as I’ve recently been on a fantasy kick. I had a very vague idea going into this book what the premise was and it only took me about five pages to get sucked right into the plot.
Kemmerer’s writing style is so eye opening. Every word she uses to describe how heavily oppressive grief is bone chilling. Her writing style makes you think of everything about life from how fickle love is to how lonely loss is. I was continuously shocked by how dark the plot is. Kemmerer’s constant reference to photography and poetry in capturing the presence of grief is so powerful. Her references show the existence of grief physically in the photographs as well as internally with the interpretations of the poems. Kemmerer shows how omnipresent grief is by portraying how it can be seen with your eyes or felt with your heart. Every chapter serves a purpose in the growth of these characters and their understanding of who they are and the grief that haunts them.
Going into the story, I had no idea there were two protagonists and was especially confused as there were no chapter labels to indicate this. The way Kemmerer etched out these two characters is so symbolic in the way that they are the exact opposites in every way possible. I loved how gray all the people who played a role in Declan and Juliet’s lives were. Kemmerer writing style leaves the readers to form their own assumptions on how good or bad these characters are and by the end of the novel, Kemmerer has somehow overturned all of our assumptions. Every character was so flawed in such a way that it made the overall message of the plot more powerful. Alongside the character flaws, Kemmerer’s constant addressing of judgements and stereotyping really opens your eyes on respect and judgements and how debilitating they are. No one really knows who someone is because many of the times, people don’t know who they are themselves.
When talking about the characters in this novel, I’ve got to say my favorite character was definitely Declan. All I wanted to do while reading this book was to give this kid a hug. At times, I really found Juliet to be quite annoying and immature. A reason to this is probably because Juliet only recently fared with loss while Declan had been dealing with that grief for a longer time and had more time to emotionally develop. Again, as polar opposites, I believe that Kemmerer incorporated the slow character growth of Juliet to address how sometimes, overcoming grief is slow and sometimes hard to adjust to. I love how Kemmerer portrayed the differences in grief and loss with these two very different characters. I also loved Rev because oh my gosh, he was so sweet. I love the friendship between Declan and Rev and how natural it was for me to just understand how close they are. Kemmerer didn’t have to do any past building or anything to describe the unbreakable bond between the two. Also I’ve heard there’s a second companion novel about Rev and I can’t wait to get my hands on it! I probably won’t pick it up for a while though because this book was very heavy and had left me with a headache from crying so much.
Overall, I loved Kemmerer’s writing style and how unsuspectingly powerful and symbolic it was. This book had me crying many times while I was reading and had me questioning a lot of things. If you’re looking for a powerful read that’s going to move you in ways you didn’t expect it to, pick this book up as well as a tissue box!