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The start of this reading year is proving to be a very interesting one. The way everything is put together in this one: I’m hard pressed to name one thing I disliked; everything about it falls under the category of “My Kind of Read.”

It touches on more than one emotional thing: flashes to the past of who they were coupled with that unsaid thing that’s opposed to those things that are stated. It was a mix of the sweet and the bitter, then the sad and the sadder. And it’s not limited to the MC either as there’s plenty of heart break to go around.

For Sophie, definitely: facing her demons as she has is made more difficult by the doubts that it’s created (not just in herself but in others for her, too.) Sad and frustrating are what follows her account of the things she’s put herself through versus the state she’s telling her present in. I sympathized for her but much later I was awed by her… and sure, the whole teen girl taking on the scene had me doubtful (as is usually the case) but it’s the emotion behind it all that tugged at me, especially the emotions based on WHY she was where she and WHY she was doing what she was.

So, yes, may be I wasn’t such a fan of the whole teen-girl is on the case, but everything else worked BECAUSE the emotions weren’t all about Sophie. Who Mina is is key her and though she’s far from perfect it’s that very thing that made her read real. DESPITE that imperfection there’s a ‘rightness’ to her then to them. It’s this rightness that’s made clear only slowly with each detail that’s doled out sparingly.

Beyond the emotional, there’s that whole mystery thing of what went down. Initially, it was simply, me wondering over the reliability of what’s being stated. Do I buy into it? Should I buy into it or not? But with the way things were pieced together, eventually it worked. Despite my hesitance to be on board with her putting things to rights, things made sense and not too predictably either. The whole who-what-where- when do come together well enough in the end, but it’s not that that’s got me thinking back to the book right now.

What does have me going back to it: the connections and the emotions that those bring about: Sophie to Mina to Trev to Kyle. Then Sophie to her mother to her father and her aunt; then Sophie to the rest of the world…. But mainly: it’s Sophie and Mina and all the implications that the same brings out that Sophie’s left to deal with.

So, imperfection and acknowledgement of the same; a nostalgia for what was versus a consideration of what might have been. Then perception and expectation coupled with missed cues and choices made. To say that this is emotional and gritty is an understatement. The real nitty gritty of this is Sophie facing who she was and dealing with what’s not been dealt with. A lot of the heavier drama has to do with her contending with others (or them her) especially as she’s back in the real world.

Thank you, NG!