Miss Shayne returns this week with another review! This title is new to teen collection at the library.
This book follows the individual stories of Juliet and
Declan and how they become intertwined.
Juliet’s mother recently passed away and to help cope with
the sadness, Juliet writes letters to her mother and leaves them at her grave.
One day, a letter is discovered by Declan, who is doing community service in
the graveyard after getting drunk and crashing a truck into a building. Declan
reads the letter, relates to what Juliet wrote, and writes a response. This
begins an anonymous correspondence between the two.
When they are in school, these two don’t get along. Juliet
is an artistic student who has had a hard time getting back into the swing of
things since her mother’s passing, and Declan is an outcast who seems to only
have one friend: Rev. Even though they run with different crowds at school,
Declan and Juliet get along when they are writing anonymous letters to one
another. In fact, each of them feels like the other understands them better
than anyone else ever could.
BEEF:
Declan claims to be nice under his “tough guy” façade, but
he is constantly starting conflict with everyone else. He is such a rage-filled
individual; it’s no wonder everyone is afraid of him.
Juliet’s best friend Rowan is insufferable. Whenever there’s
conflict, she can’t address it herself; she always has to threaten to get an
adult involved. I found this irritating and juvenile. Juliet always goes along
with what Rowan says and if Rowan is being hostile toward Declan, you can bet
Juliet is about to be as well.
Even though there are a few minor annoyances, this book
addresses some thought-provoking issues:
Don’t let one bad day
define you. Because Declan got drunk and crashed his father’s truck into a
building and has to do community service, everyone views him as a burnout.
Because everyone treats him this way, he starts to view himself this way, when,
in reality, he just had one really bad day and is a good kid when it comes down
to it.
Burnouts receive no
protection when being harassed. If someone is hostile towards another
person, it is generally considered bad and intervention may be necessary.
However, if someone is being hostile toward someone who has a record, everyone
looks the other way and the only intervention that will take place is if the
person with the record lashes out at their oppressor. I’m not saying this is
true in all cases, but it was the case in this book, and it is something that
could happen.
Despite its few flaws, this books was a good read.
--Reviewed by Miss Shayne
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