About the Book:Title: The Love That Split the World
Author: Emily Henry
Pub. Date: Jan. 26, 2016
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 396
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Time Travel
Rating: 2.5 stars
Synopsis:
Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.
Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.
That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.
Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.
Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.
That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.
Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.
Review:
This was an incredibly difficult book to rate for many reasons, but the main reason being that I both enjoyed and didn't enjoy the story. I went back and forth between 2 and 3 stars for awhile before finally settling on 2.5 stars. There were several aspects of the novel that just overpowered the rest of the story, and it ultimately resulted in me having to lower the rating. However, this being said, I do think for a lot of people, this book will be a fantastic read because there are truly many amazing parts of this book. I just wish that every part of this book was on the same level as those other parts.
One of the great aspects of this novel was the depth of the story and how well written it was. I was pleasantly surprised by how well Ms. Henry wrote this story, and how deeply she made you feel things while reading. This is very much an introspective book, and it makes for an interesting reading experience. While the main character is deciding things about her own life, this novel makes you reflect on your own life. It makes you think, and while this might not work for everyone, I thought this was a very unique element to this story. The story celebrates diversity, feminism, and realizing your beliefs. While I am not Native American, I felt that the way in which Emily Henry delivered the short stories, myths, and history was beautiful and a very good representation/depiction of Native American culture. I thought it was wonderful how much emphasis this novel put on celebrating our differences, and even if your beliefs might not be the same as the main character in this novel, everyone can take something away from the story.
With this being said, the one thing that I didn't totally enjoy was the actual paranormal element of the story. I felt it took away from the underlying story. I actually felt that if this was a simply YA contemporary novel--girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, etc.--this book would have been much better. The paranormal element was inconsistent in the way that the romance overshadowed it and it ended up falling to the wayside in parts of the book. There were times where I felt that the author wasn't fully committed to the idea of the paranormal element she had created, and I guess I was just expecting something a bit more. Additionally, this book was extremely slow. Don't get me wrong, the book was gorgeously written, but this book also needed to be edited. There is writing about a certain concept in a way that is concise but still gets the point across, and then there is writing about a certain concept that goes on for paragraphs upon paragraphs. All in all, it was a bit too much.
Lastly, as I said before, the romance overshadowed a lot in this story. Even more, the romance bordered on cheesy at times, and this book featured one of my biggest pet peeves...insta-love. I didn't feel there was a reason to incorporate the insta-love element, and it bothered me throughout the entire time I was reading this novel.
Overall, while I was in love with certain parts of this book, there wasn't enough to make me give it a higher rating. Ultimately, the "flaws" of this book overpowered the rest of the story and took away from this beautiful story that was created by Emily Henry. If you can overlook the slow pacing and the distracting romance, then you'll love this book, but if not...you might want to skip it.
One of the great aspects of this novel was the depth of the story and how well written it was. I was pleasantly surprised by how well Ms. Henry wrote this story, and how deeply she made you feel things while reading. This is very much an introspective book, and it makes for an interesting reading experience. While the main character is deciding things about her own life, this novel makes you reflect on your own life. It makes you think, and while this might not work for everyone, I thought this was a very unique element to this story. The story celebrates diversity, feminism, and realizing your beliefs. While I am not Native American, I felt that the way in which Emily Henry delivered the short stories, myths, and history was beautiful and a very good representation/depiction of Native American culture. I thought it was wonderful how much emphasis this novel put on celebrating our differences, and even if your beliefs might not be the same as the main character in this novel, everyone can take something away from the story.
With this being said, the one thing that I didn't totally enjoy was the actual paranormal element of the story. I felt it took away from the underlying story. I actually felt that if this was a simply YA contemporary novel--girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, etc.--this book would have been much better. The paranormal element was inconsistent in the way that the romance overshadowed it and it ended up falling to the wayside in parts of the book. There were times where I felt that the author wasn't fully committed to the idea of the paranormal element she had created, and I guess I was just expecting something a bit more. Additionally, this book was extremely slow. Don't get me wrong, the book was gorgeously written, but this book also needed to be edited. There is writing about a certain concept in a way that is concise but still gets the point across, and then there is writing about a certain concept that goes on for paragraphs upon paragraphs. All in all, it was a bit too much.
Lastly, as I said before, the romance overshadowed a lot in this story. Even more, the romance bordered on cheesy at times, and this book featured one of my biggest pet peeves...insta-love. I didn't feel there was a reason to incorporate the insta-love element, and it bothered me throughout the entire time I was reading this novel.
Overall, while I was in love with certain parts of this book, there wasn't enough to make me give it a higher rating. Ultimately, the "flaws" of this book overpowered the rest of the story and took away from this beautiful story that was created by Emily Henry. If you can overlook the slow pacing and the distracting romance, then you'll love this book, but if not...you might want to skip it.
Happy reading :)
~Cassie
I really agree with you Cassie! The book was gorgeous and had some beautiful quotes, but I found it incredibly slow and overbearing. I didn't really understand the paranormal elements.
ReplyDeleteYes! If this book didn't have the paranormal elements, I probably would have liked it so much more. That's why this book was so difficult to rate.
Delete~Cassie