Lovely, Dark and Deep

by Amy McNamara

In the aftermath of a car accident that kills her boyfriend and throws her carefully planned future into complete upheaval, high school senior Wren retreats to the deep woods of Maine to live with the artist father she barely knows and meets a boy who threatens to pull her from her safe, hard-won exile.

• ISBN10: 1442434376
• ISBN13: 9781442434370
• Publish Date: 1 December 2013 (first published 16 October 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Another book given to me from Mickey of I’m a Book Shark. It’s an ARC copy.

It’s very long and not much happens. It’s dull. Grief is like that. I don’t think it’s deep, unless just the subject matter makes it qualify. It’s a standard message for these kinds of books.



It is beautifully written most of the time. I was not surprised to find the author has a major in poetry. It reflects Wren’s fucked up perspective due to the mental anguish and being a stupid teen really well. However on point the descriptions of anxiety, depression, and grief, I wish we got out of her head more.



It’s a really difficult place to be and she annoyed me often. I feel for her situation and I’ve been in a depressive state but damn, is she a lucky little brat. Of all her moaning how horrible she is, she never picks up on how her family so privileged to begin with.



It doesn’t fucking matter if you watched your own mother die, if you have jobs, bills, responsibilities, commitments, you get up and do it. Because down here, your mommy and daddy can’t fix it and get you several chances.

Yeah, I know that she’s 18 but she’s going to be fine. She’s going to be able to just pick up and go back to college. The only roadblock is herself. And I got really tired of hearing it after her family clears the fucking way and she doesn’t get it. She like “oh I was so stupid and naive but now I see”. Shiiiiit. You still are, kid. Felt like deceptive depth.



Things finally start to pick up towards the end for me, and then it stops. It’s probably meant to be one of those profound and meaningful open-ended endings, but I was just glad it was over. Maybe if some time, whine, and petty misunderstandings was culled from her journey, I might’ve wanted to see how it progresses.

But why put that extra twist on Wren’s tale of woe? She couldn’t just suffer so long through the grief of seeing her would-be-ex-boyfriend die? Just had add something extra to justify it?

She did make stupid decisions leading up to the accident and they don’t make sense with the picture of who she used to be. That barb thrown by the shrink doesn’t make it fit, it makes him an asshole. Maybe it’s so she could connect with Zara better? But, grief for a life diverged is what brought her and Cal together, so why is grief for Patrick not enough?

I don’t like it. It felt forced to give her another blanket of guilt. Like she needs more justification. Isn’t grief supposed to be needing to deal with it your own way with time? Why add on extra melodrama when clearly Wren doesn’t grieve for it specifically? Pointless. Try-hard. Fake. It’s a useless tidbit that Wren doesn’t even bother with after her “startling confession”.

Wren and Cal are basically insta-lovers. It's ridiculous how she almost blurts “I love you” so quick. They don't know each other and she forgets basic facts about him at first. He calls her “intense”. Intensely sad? I guess. Until the end when she learns to love again. All they seem to have together is grief and life going askew between them.


And this. Mostly this.

People do make connections like that, but I'm wondering what happens when they start talking. Plus, I'm not a fan of the relationship “fix”. Why does it take a man to make her feel again? Why can't they try to be friends? Everyone else is “Oh, you don't see how he looks at you” and I don't get it either. Maybe being too far inside her heads leaves it...flimsy and flaky. I can't see how they're going to make it work beyond a temporary solution because of their paths either.

I just hope they get their shit together and don’t send each other off cliffs. It's scary how emotionally dependent Wren is on Cal. Cal's problem is being a stubborn blockhead.

At least, it showed how MS is invisible and unpredictable well.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

After seeing this beautiful cover, and reading the promising synopsis, I knew I had to read this book. It just screams "awesome"! But now, having read it, I can say it wasn't my cup of tea.

Wren has been spending time at her father's house in the middle of the woods, in the middle of nowhere. She has wanted to escape everything that reminded her of the crash that caused her boyfriend's death, the crash that she was in. She is drowning in depression, overcome with grief and guilt, and is trying to work her own way out of it - alone, in the quiet. This is a little hard to do when no-one will leave her be, especially her mother. Then a chance meeting with Cal stirs feelings inside of her she thought long dead. Feelings she doesn't want. Struggling to come to terms with what happened while everyone else is telling her how she should grieve, as well as unwanted attention and reminders of the past from Cal almost get too much to bear. Will Wren come out on the other side with Cal at her side, or will she sink even further?

I have been reading Lovely, Dark and Deep for two weeks. I struggled so much with this book it took me forever to get through it. I couldn't connect to the story; I didn't care about the characters so couldn't get emotionally invested in it. You may possibly think that Wren's intense depression brought me down or maybe annoyed me because there was never any real relief from it, but no. That would require some emotion from me. The most I felt was irritation that it wasn't finished yet.

That sounds so harsh, but it's how I felt when reading. I can't exactly say why either. I've already said I didn't care about the characters. I think that might be because some of what Wren was feeling felt repetitive - but that's understandable because she's grieving, that doesn't fade away over night. Perhaps it was the pace; nothing major really happens in this book, so it's all really one level. Perhaps it was because there didn't seem to be much depth to most of the characters, really, apart from Wren's feelings. It's like she was so wrapped up in what she's feeling, that we don't get to see much about the other characters and their interests. Or maybe it was that I felt no chemistry between the Wren and Cal at all. I was hoping their relationship would be the light among the dark, but I just didn't feel it. The first time Cal and Wren kiss, we get this:

'He runs his fingers across my lips. Puts a warm hand on either side of my face and pulls me closer. I close my eyes. His mouth is on mine.
"You're talking again," he says, after a while.' (p105)

That's it. Really. Cal makes comments at times about how she turns him on, but you never really feel it. It never gets heated, there's no passion, nor could I feel the love.

The whole book just fell kind of flat to me, and it's because of this that it took me so long to read this book; I just couldn't find the motivation to pick it up again after I put it down. There were so many more interesting things to do than read. It has to be said, that once reading, the pages turned quite easily, and some of the lines and imagery is really quite poetic and beautiful, but on the whole, it just didn't do it for me, unfortunately. There were people who said they would put a book down if they were struggling as much as I was with this one, but I was hoping that maybe I would love it when I got to the end. Then I did. I have the achievement of finishing a book I didn't really enjoy, but nothing else.

Some people have really enjoyed this book, so don't base your decision on whether you'll read Lovely, Dark and Deep on my review alone. Check out a few others. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it more than I did.