Me Since You

by Laura Wiess

[Leah]

When I spotted Me Since You on Edelweiss, I thought it sounded really interesting, and I was quite intrigued as to know what happened that changed Rowan’s life. After all, the synopsis itself is hardly a walk in the park, so I couldn’t help but wonder how Rowan’s life could possibly get any worse (for the record, it could, and it did) and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in. I have to tell you right now that Me Since You is probably one of the most emotional books I have ever read. It all started out so swimmingly, and the first half of the novel was really interesting, really great, and then it suddenly did a 180 and became a different novel entirely, it was as if I had started reading one book and by the time I’d finished it was an entirely different novel which I have never, ever had happen before, but it was amazing. So amazing that by the end of the novel I was in tears, floods of tears.

Rowan’s world implodes the day she decides to skip school, because she gets caught by her cop father and after he’s dropped her off at home and given her a stern lecture, he’s called to an incident on the overpass by their house, where a man is ready to jump off the overpass, along with his baby son. Rowan’s dad Nick is unable to stop the man from jumping and the video of him trying to talk the man down goes viral. Suddenly everybody has an opinion of Nick Areno, and most of them are opinions neither Rowan nor her dad want to hear. There’s inquests to be had, everybody wants their pound of flesh because Nick was unable to save baby Sammy. Just when Rowan doesn’t think her life could get any worse it does and everything that came before it was child’s play. Her only hope of pulling through this difficult time is Eli, the one shining light in an otherwise dark world, but is love enough to save you when you feel like you’re drowning?

I have to hold my hands up and say that I knew something bad was going to happen in Me Since You. I even called it. I wouldn’t even say it’s a secret, per se, but I will leave it up to the reader to decide. It definitely felt like a ‘Before’ and ‘After’ novel. It was as if we met two Rowan’s. The first is the happy Rowan, being a typical teenager, skipping school, getting in trouble, hanging with her best friend Nadia, and suddenly that all changes on a dime and we meet a new, more troubled Rowan. It was like reading a book about someone with a split personality, but grief can do that to you like nothing else can, and it was all so real. I know that this novel was fiction, I know that it wasn’t really all happening, but it all felt way too real for me. It truly felt like this was a non-fiction account about grief because it hit me sideways. It’s only after I’ve finished the novel that I see just how deep this novel was, how Rowan really did go on a journey, and how grief can do unimaginable things to a person, like make you take in 10 stray cats!

Laura Weiss is a freaking genius storyteller. Me Since You put me through the emotional wringer like no novel has before. I actually feel grief myself upon finishing the novel, believe it or not because I felt like I was with Rowan for such a long amount of time. Rowan was just so real to me, I wanted to climb into the book and give her a hug and tell her, rather cliche-ly, that time will heal things, maybe not properly, maybe not forever, but slowly she will get better and I liked that Eli was there to help her, but he wasn’t overpowering. He didn’t overstep his mark, he knew when to step back and wait for Rowan to come to him and that made their romance all the sweeter, because it wasn’t forced. Their magical non-prom night before everything changed was magical, but what came after was even better because it was exactly what Rowan needed and I liked that she got to get to that conclusion without being pushed. The last thing you need pushing in your face when you’re reading a book about grief is an over the top love story that tries to push out the important meaning of the book and I am so glad Wiess didn’t do that. She let it evolve naturally.

My only complaint – and it isn’t even a complaint about the book, it’s about a selfish, horrible character, is that I was horrified by Nadia’s reaction to everything Rowan was going through. This is your best friend! You do not, under any circumstances, do what Nadia did to Rowan. That’s callous, that’s cruel, and it was just plain awful. I kept waiting for her to come back with her tail between her legs, and I’m sort of glad she didn’t because Rowan deserves a far better friend than Nadia. She was awful. You support someone when they’re grieving, you do not push them to just get over it as if it’s nothing. I spent a while grieving my dog when he died late last year, and Nadia probably would have expected me to get over it the day he died. She needed a good slap for her insensitivity. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Me Since You until I reached the end, when I was crying my heart out. I can’t even tell you why, not really. Something just broke inside me those last few pages, and I had tears streaming down my face. I loved this book more than I ever expected to and it felt like after I’d finished that I could take a deep breath. It felt like I’d been holding my breath the entire novel. Me Since You is just amazing, I have to warn you that it will take you on an emotional rollercoaster, but the payoff is so worth it and to get to know these characters even a little is so special. Wiess is a genius, and I bow down to her for this amazing book!