By Your Side

by Kasie West

[Raven]

I really didn't think that I was going to like this as much as I did. You think about people getting trapped in a library for a weekend with no way out or to contact the outside world and it just doesn't make sense. In this day and age... nope. No sense. The lack of a landline at the main desk was suspicious, but otherwise the excuses were believable enough.

I was so excited to see a main character with anxiety. Us panickers need more representation. I've read a few people say it wasn't believably written, but I disagree. Anxiety comes in many shapes and forms and I didn't see it disappear when convenient like others seemed to. I found her reactions to be rather believable and quite similar to my own anxiety.

A love triangle while one of the third was in a coma was a little tasteless, but it was well written. It did help to show the struggle between having anxiety and being "normal", something I liked to see since it mimicked some of my own struggles. The writing is what saved it. Had it been less well written, then the triangle alone would've killed the story.

I expected this to be a really shallow story, something to blow through quickly. I didn't expect to like the story, the characters, the writing, the plot, any of it as much as I did. When I was filling out my CAWPILE, I was shocked to see how it added up. I expected this to be a 3 star at best when I first checked it out from the library. I ended up liking it enough that I just ordered a copy for my bookcase, something I don't do openly or often. I really liked it.