When We Collided

by Emery Lord

[bumblingbookworm]

This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Bookworm

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

OMG, can we talk about how amazing that cover is?!  It's so beautiful, I adore it - and it's so fitting for this story.  I really love bright, bold covers with amazing font :) Back to the story, I'm really regretting having put off reading this for so long.  I adore all of Emery Lord's other books, and this was no exception.  I loved the characters, particularly Jonah and his family - they gave a real My Life Next Door kind of vibe, which was impossible not to love.

I thought the portrayal of grief and mental illness was particularly excellent, and although I can't speak to the accuracy of the mental illness portrayal, it seems from the author's note that it was an own voices portrayal.  At times I was trying not to cry, which was particularly embarrassing since I was reading it in Melbourne Central! Also, unlike other books that feature instalove, I didn't have as much of an issue with it in this book.  It fit the context of the story, in that it was a characteristic of Vivi's mental health issues, which made it all the more realistic - 4.5 stars.
Check out the rest of my review here!