Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal
Winner of the American Library Association Morris Award for best debut YA
Winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction
A Buzzfeed Best of 2016 book
Goodreads Choice Awards finalist
A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2016
Publishers Weekly Best of 2016
Dill is a misfit in his small, religious Tennessee town. His dad is in prison for a shocking crime, and his mom is struggling to make ends meet. The only things getting Dill through senior year are his guitar and his fellow outcasts, Travis and Lydia.
Travis is an oddball who finds comfort from his violent home life in an epic fantasy book series. And Lydia is like no one else: fast-talking, creative and fiercely protective. Dill fears his heart will break when she escapes to a better life elsewhere. What Dill needs now is some bravery to tell Lydia how he feels, to go somewhere with his music – and to face the hardest test of all when tragedy strikes.
SO this was an interesting read- I didn't love it, love it, but I didn't hate it, either. It was perhaps a bit too religious for me, though it wasn't exactly Christian fiction, but it does seem to run through the book, and as someone who doesn't really have an opinion either way, I generally prefer my fiction without it.
However I did really like the friendship between Dill, Lydia and Travis. Travis, in particular, warmed my little heart, the way he lost himself in his fantasy world. He was someone after my very own heart, because there is nothing better than losing yourself in a book (or a really, really good series).
There was a bit of a twist towards the end that genuinely left me surprised and mildly annoyed, because I didn't see it coming, and I hate not seeing things coming, and there were definitely a few tears in that last third of the book.
It was also nice to see loving, caring parents, in the shape of Lydia's mom and dad. How refreshing for a YA novel. I'm definitely undecided on this one. There were bits I liked, and there were bits I didn't.
