Names They Gave Us

by Emery Lord

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating 4.5 Stars

This is my first Emery Lord book, and I can say, I now understand why people love her books so much.

I have heard some people saying that they are leery of this book because it has a religious aspect, however, religion was not the crux of this book. Lucy was a preacher's kid, so her faith was part of who she was. She suffered a crisis of faith when her mother's cancer returned, but it was not just her belief in God that she was questioning, but rather, she was questioning everything she thought was true. She became sort of untethered when the foundation of her world began to crumble, and I would say her flagging faith was just a part of her coming of age.

There was so much to love about this book. Lucy, her family, her camp friends, the romance -- I was just won over by the entire book. Cancer books have been difficult for me since my father's diagnosis, and his up and down battle with lung cancer, but I thought Lord was very thoughtful with her portrayal, and it was also very realistic.

So, I adored this book, yet I docked it half a star. Why? Because I struggle a little with the ending. A lot of HUGE things were revealed at the end, and I remember, I kept looking at how much was left to read, and I could not imagine this being wrapped up in so few pages. Well, I was right, and I was left with one of those dreaded open-ended type endings. Although I totally understood that this was Lucy's story and it was her coming of age, I just was perturbed that Lord left a particular storyline in that state. You can't just write a character, make me care about them, and then leave me hanging at the end. It's just not right.

Overall: A beautiful coming of age story, which was sweet, poignant, and sometimes, quite painful.

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