The Catastrophic History of You and Me

by Jess Rothenberg

If I'd known right then that this was the kid who would grow up to break my heart beyond repair, maybe I would've stayed upstairs on the phone with Tess.

Maybe I would've gone to bed early. Maybe I would've begged my parents to take me with them - even though those doctor dinners are pretty much the boringest things ever.

But I didn't know. Couldn't know. So instead I shrugged and said something really genius like "Um, whatever." And proceeded to fall totally, madly, crazy in love.

• ISBN10: 0803737203
• ISBN13: 9780803737204
• Publish Date: 21 February 2012 (first published 1 February 2012)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Dial Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 375
• Language: English

Reviews

"Just like Jacob Larkin made me realize that no matter how much you think you know a person - no matter how pretty they are, or how together they act, or how popular they seem, you can never know what their lives are really like." (Brie Eagen)

This is my second five star read of 2016 and I'm starting to see a trend when it comes to my reading enjoyment. My first five star book of 2016 was Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, I've come to the conclusion that books about life and death, redemption and what comes inbetween all of that, intrigues me... So do funerals... (I'm not even lying), most books that I love have funerals (and morbid themes) in them .e.g. Torn by Cat Clarke.

"I was fifteen years old when I died of a broken heart." (Brie Eagen)

The Catastrophic History of You and Me has an interesting premise. Brie Eagen literally dies of a broken heart. WHAT?!?!?! Yeah, I scoffed and laughed at this book when I heard that, but the way in which this premise was carried out proved me wrong. VERY WRONG!!! Like living life only to find out it was a lie wrong... Wait does that even make sense? Anyways...

The main character, Brie, was a character that I connected to easily and couldn't get enough of. Brie has an extremely quirky voice reminiscent of those chick-lit, contemporary voices and I loved it so much. Brie's thoughts and what she was going through was unfiltered. This made me love her, understand her denial, her anger, her mistakes, her lessons, her need to do the right thing.

Patrick was another amazing character. He is the unwanted, afterlife spirit guide. He is extremely funny and I loved the banter, fights and funny nicknames that him and Brie had.

The secondary characters are also impressive. They are realistic and unstereotypical. Even when I thought that I knew who they were and what they would do, I didn't. This book had an element of unpredictability to it that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The Catastrophic History of You and Me is extremely inventive and interesting. This book is comical and quirky, but it's also extremely sad and heartwarming. What you see from this book on a surface level and what you expect to get from it, isn't what you get from it. What you get from this book is so much! ALL the twists and turns! ALL the things! ALL the feels!

I can't recommend this book enough. This is Jess Rothenberg's debut novel and I can't wait to read what else she has in store for us!

[Bianca]

There is absolutely nothing 'fun' about falling in love. Nope. Mostly it just makes you feel sick and crazy and anxious and nervous that it's going to end miserably and ruin your whole life. And guess what: Then it does.

[Joséphine]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

Initial thoughts: When I picked up this book, I didn't realize how young the protagonist would be. Generally I have little interest for books involving 15-year-olds but despite that, I thought The Catastrophic History of You and Me was entertaining, if a little sad. Aubrie, better known as Brie had a hilarious voice that overshadowed the fact that she was a dead person watching the living, unable to move on from this afterlife. She witnessed her family unravel in the wake of her death and that was heartbreaking. At the same time, the style of writing was light and funny, which lessened the impact of the sadness.

One thing that I didn't care for were all the references to cheese and the myriad of cheese-related nicknames that Brie received. Also, Brie was extremely self-absorbed in a way that made me want to slap her. Then again, even the best of us were self-absorbed at that age, so here's to a good dose of a realistic portrayal of a teenager on her path to a slight bit more maturity. (For she did develop more empathy in the end.)

[Kelly]

3.5 Stars
http://divainpyjamas.blogspot.com.au/

The Catastrophe of You and Me was a beautifully written story of loss, acceptance and living in the moment. Brie tells the reader her story, starting from the moment her heart broke, and she passed away. Surprisingly, there are far more poignant, witty and heartwarming moments than sadness and grief. The concept of a novel depicting the afterlife, didn't sound entertaining, but thankful I didn't trust my own judgement, it was worth the chance and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Stephanie]

Brie died of a broken heart, literally. Right after hearing the words "I don't love you" from her boyfriend, her heart split in half and she died right there at the table. Now she has to overcome the five stages of grief in her 'little slice of heaven' while she watches her family and friends fall apart. Luckily she has Patrick there to help her through it all.

I was really interested to see how 'dying of a broken heart' was played out and how the author explained it, scientifically. Brie's dad is a cardiologist, so the fact that his daughter died because of her heart really weighed on him and made him feel like he had to figure out what happened, since a heart doesn't necessarily split in half too often, especially in a 16 year old.

I didn't expect this to be so sad. Well, I expected some kind of sadness, but this story really gets deep and emotional. Especially when Brie see's what is happening to her family and friends after her death, and how much her death affected them. There is so much I really want to elaborate on, but I don't want to give too much away. I really think you all should just read the story to find out, because I was pleasantly surprised by everything and really enjoyed it all.

This is a different take on the afterlife. I have to admit that I was confused at times, because Brie's after life takes place in almost an alternate universe where all the dead go before they can move on. Basically, it's like a Limbo, but it's in the form of Bries hometown. So when Brie goes back and forth between the two worlds, I had some trouble trying to decipher whether she was in her 'slice of heaven' or the real world. I really liked the idea of 'zooming' and them being able to jump back and forth between worlds, which explains how there could be ghosts. It was also fun to see Brie mess with her friends.

Now, Patrick. I loved him. He was the comic relief of the story. I loved everything he said and enjoyed every minute he was around. That being said, I did get annoyed with Brie at times, especially with the way she treated Patrick. I couldn't understand why Patrick would want to be with her at times because she was so rude to him. But Patrick was always there for Brie whenever she needed him. Especially when Brie was trying to come to terms with her death.

The ending was what really made me love the story. Everything came together perfectly and I definitely didn't see it coming. It was a little confusing, but I knew that going into the story, so it didn't throw me off too much.

Overall, I really liked this story. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to read a new twist on the afterlife.

[Jo]

After reading the blurb and title, I picked up this book thinking I was in for a nice romantic love story that went wrong, and how I would get to read about the whole romance from start to finish, and how she dealt with it after. That sounds like the type of book it would be, right? It isn't. It's absolutely nothing like it. It's a story of a girl who dies of a broken heart, literally. Her boyfriend dumps her, and her heart literally severs in two. This isn't a spoiler, this is found out from the very beginning. Then we follow Brie as she tries to come to terms with her death, in her "slice of heaven".

So I picked up a book that was telling a completely different story from the one I was expecting, down to a not so brilliant blurb - the blurb is actually an excerpt from the book, but it doesn't really explain what this story is about, or that Brie is dead. So I was a little annoyed that I was reading a different book, but I ecided to put that aside and give it a go. And it was enjoyable, but now as good as I hoped.

It didn't hook me in much. It took me a long time to read because I wasn't desperate to find out what happened next. I wasn't the biggest fan of Brie, the main character. When she was raging at the world and everyone in it, although I understood, I got annoyed with her. It went on a little bit too much for me. I really liked Patrick, he was really sweet and funny, but there wasn't enough of him; he was Brie's friend and companion in her slice of heaven, but she was completely focussed on her own issues, that I didn't think he had enough page time or that I got to now him enough.

I also thought the story was a bit slow. Brie has to come to terms with her death, and in doing so has to go through the five stages of grief, but as she does, there didn't seem to be much point to the story - until very close to the end. It didn't seem to really be going anywhere. It was only in the last third/last quarter of the book that things looked up; questions I didn't know to ask were answered, and things started making a little more sense. Once all that started happening, I could appreciate how clever the plot is, be extremely wowed by the title, and thinking that the book was becoming quite cool with the new exciting twist. I even thought that maybe this was the first book in the series, because things were working themselves out towards the end rather than finding more out earlier on, but then the book ended, and I realised it's a stand alone. I also found the ending a little bit confusing. So after the plot dragging a little for a while, then finally starting to make sense, but then ending as it did, I was a little bit "what?"

It wasn't all bad. The story of what happened to those left behind was really sad, and there were some serious issues covered. It was really, really upsetting to see how the lives of her friends, her ex-boyfriend, and her family were turned upside down and started crumbling. And it was surprising to see that things weren't entirely what they seemed. As I said I really liked Patrick, and the twist that came up around the end was really pretty genius. It's just with everything else, I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted. It was ok. Thought I'm sure some of this is half down to originally being annoyed by the misleading blurb. If I read it again knowing to expect the type of story I got, I might have enjoyed it more. I just don't think I was in the mood for this time of story.

A fairly good story over all, one I'm sure a lot of people would enjoy, but just not really for me right at the moment in time. Hopefully I'll find more enjoyment in it next time.

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog

[Amber]

Review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2012/02/catastrophic-history-of-you-and-me-by.html

I LOVED the whole idea of a girl dying by having her heart broken. It's original, and although it seems a little unrealistic, it was interesting. I liked reading about Brie as she went through the five stage of grief (or death?) and her journey was really interesting. I especially liked the idea of this limbo kinda thing she was in until she was ready to move on.

Brie was not a very relatable character, but that didn't stop me from enjoying reading about her story. She was very selfish at times, and even a little psychotic in my (totally unprofessional) opinion, but she's a fifteen year old who's just died so I cut her a tiny bit of slack. Plus, her name is Aubrie. Aubrie (Aubrey) is my grandad's name and I love it. Yes, I am partly judging her by her awesome name.

Patrick, the guy who will - obviously - become the love interest, was funny and hot. He and Brie bickered A LOT and I thought it was quite cute. That said, by the end of the novel I was entirely put off by his character. He does something that I don't think is sending the correct message to teens and other people in that situation. It wasn't nice to read about, especially as he didn't overcome it on his own.

At the risk of sounding completely unintelligent and slow, the ending confused me. At least, the build up to it did, though the final few pages were fine. Cut me some slack, I'm trying to be vague here! I didn't completely understand the history that was introduced and I felt it could have been put forward in an easier to read manner.

Overall, this was a good read and you should give it a go if you think it sounds something you'd enjoy. I was just put off by Patrick's character and his actions, as well as the complicated ending. Then again, I might have just had a stupid few minutes.

[Joni Reads]

Review to come.