Title: Before I Let Go
Genre: YA Mental Health + a little paranormal
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Publication: January 2nd 2017
Cover Rating: 5/5
Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp is the story of best friends Kyra and Corey. One girl is dead and one is trying to figure out why. It's a magical story about love, loss, hope and secrets but the story just happened to fall flat for me.
Corey arrives back home to Lost, Alaska in the wake of her best friends death. Her best friend being Kyra, the Bi-polar town outcast that everyone tries to have sent away. Lost is a town that doesn't like change or anything unpredictable and those are the two things Kyra brings to their doorsteps. Kyra killed herself because of her Bi-polar, or so it seems, and Corey sets out to figure out the truth. The entire town is hiding something, including Kyra's parents. They tell Corey that while she was gone, they came to love an appreciate Kyra, but at what expense? They tell Corey she is now an outsider and they don't want her there anymore. But she can't leave without the truth and the town won't let her leave WITH the truth.
This book had such an interesting plot and it was sad and made me angry but aside from those few things, it really did nothing for me. It hurt my heart so very much to give this book the low rating that I gave it. I ADORED the authors first book and it will forever be in my collection but Before I Let Go, sadly will not.
There were also some good points to the story. Otherwise why would I have given it the rating I did? The friendship between Kyra and Corey was beautiful yet fragile. Then you have the mystery behind Kyras death and Corey's unwillingness to accept anything at face value. I also truly loved the descriptions of Kyra's art(despite how she felt about it) and her love of stories. I feel like a character is more realistic when they have an obsession or passion. The book was also set in Alaska. That is pretty rare and I loved that. Trust me, there were a bunch of positive parts to the story, it just didn't live up to my expectations and felt a little boring to me.
In the end, I will still recommend this book to people. I would probably say read Before I Let Go first if you haven't read her previous book that way you might spare yourself and disappointment. Also, the ending was pretty anticlimactic. It just... ended.
Overall, I gave the book 3/5 stars.
*Disclaimer* I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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