•Pro: Natalie was a charming and engaging narrator. Her voice was clear and real, and I cared very much about what she had to say.
•Pro: Nat's squad was top notch. Twig was already her steadfast friend, who grew over the course of the book, and she demonstrated how she was a true friend and supporter of Natalie's. I also thought Davi was a fabulous addition to their twosome, and together, this "team" had great strength.
•Pro: You have to know, that the science geek in me was all over so many things in this book. There were awesome illustrations, fun science investigations, and I loved when Natalie's reflections were told via the science report format. The way the formats were employed was very thoughtful and effective as well.
•Con: I liked dad, but I would have liked to know what his hang up was with his Korean heritage, and I would have liked to have seen Natalie explore that a little more with him. It was treated in passing in the book, which made it stand out to me.
•Pro: Yeah for therapy! Natalie's dad is a therapist, and he takes her to a therapist. Natalie may joke about therapist "tricks", but in the end, she admitted it made her feel better. At first, I thought maybe the family was ashamed of mom's mental health issues, but I think them keeping it under wraps had more to do with Natalie's youth, than shame.
•Pro: Keller did such a good job making me understand how Natalie felt about her mother's health issues. I ached for Natalie. When she would talk about her mother in the past tense, and how she missed her, it really tugged at my heart.
•Pro: So much growth! Natalie grew tremendously over the course of this book, and started seeing things that were always there in a new way. Keller expertly took us through Natalie's struggle to understand what had happened to her mother. It was real, it was honest, and her emotions were believable.
•Pro: There were all these fantastic things accomplished in the writing. The metaphors and parallels Keller presented were quite beautiful.
•Pro: This book deals with something painful and sad, but it moves in the direction of hope, which worked for me.
In her book, she'd written: Science is living. Science is asking questions and finding answers and never, ever stopping. I wanted to scream her own words at her, and I wanted to say, Why did you stop?
Overall: An honest look at how mental health issues can affect others within a family, which was told thoughtfully and beautifully.
*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
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