New Lantern review, and because this is mental health awareness week, it's on a book that touches on mental health issues. 

Also, it contains a link to my donations page. I'm running 13 miles next week for charity, guys, and it would be amazing if you can help me meet my goal.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! How appropriate is this? Doing a review of Paper Valentine on Valentine's Day? I think it's a good sign...

I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about Paper Valentine. That the ending was a whirlwind; that Finny and Hannah's relationship was pointless; Hannah was a forgettable character; that nothing really tied together. Honestly... I really couldn't agree less. 

Hannah is a little... generic... at first, but that's the whole point. She's barely into high school when her best friend, Lillian, dies. Lillian is the type of person that always stood out. Everything she did was in an effort to be unique and special, and Hannah pretty much just followed suit, believing that Lillian had all the answers. Hannah isn't her own person, at first, coping with the fact that Lillian, who was the reason for everything she did, is gone. As the story progresses, Hannah begins to realize who she is, that Lillian has nothing to do with her.

...in the end, maybe the only thing I'm completely sure of is that I am not her.

 

Finny is a mysterious character, the bad boy delinquent with bulging muscles and bleached hair. He's not the kind of boy that Hannah is supposed to want, but he's the catalyst that triggers her "self-discovery." He teaches her, unknowingly, that it's okay to make a scene, to hold your ground. She realizes that she doesn't care what "they" think anymore, that she likes him and she's not afraid to stand up for how she feels anymore.

So then we've got murderers and ghosts. The only hole I could see is that we don't know why or how Hannah sees the ghosts; they just appear to her and her alone. Casting that little mystery aside, the ghosts are a creepy, bloody, vengeful things with an agenda and Hannah is basically their medium. It's awesome.

As for the murder/mystery aspect of this novel, only about half of it was obvious. When I started getting toward the end, I was like WHAT? That's it? That's way too easy and I totally saw that coming. But just keep going. Trust me. There's a lot more that you might've never guessed. At least I know I was pretty surprised.

Everything in this novel tied together pretty nicely. It's about love and death and letting go. It's about finding strength you didn't know you had and standing up for yourself and others. We learn this as Hannah goes from always wearing a plastic, happy smile no matter what, doing whatever her friends think she should do, to a girl who kisses delinquents, listens to ghosts, and realizes that life isn't a contest to be won.

Brenna Yovanoff's writing style is something that gets under you skin and lingers. It's dark and makes you imagine the most mundane of things in ways you would have never imagined before. She's definitely one of those writers in which I'll buy the book without even knowing what it's about ~ because I'm pretty certain I'll enjoy it.

4/5 Stars!

Tuesday Prelude is a weekly post inspired by Should Be Reading's Teaser Tuesday. Since I could never stick to just a couple of lines, I amped up my posts, digging a little deeper into the introduction of my current reads.

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff is turning out to be pretty macabre with anorexic ghosts, dead crows, and murderers who leave tokens of love. But I would expect nothing less of  the dark writing style of Yovanoff, an author whose books take up distinct and unique space on my shelves.

Among everything, one of the most interesting elements in this story is the ghost of Hannah's friend, Lillian.

Ghosts are the kind of things you go your whole life with people telling you they aren't real. I believe in them anyway because the world is full of things that no one really understands.

Hannah misses her friend even as Lillian's presence constantly remains. Hannah's angry and hurt by the circumstances of Lillian's death, but there's also a part of her that's also grateful to be able to hold on to a piece of her.

I hate that she says choice like it wasn't one. Like it was something that just happened, some natural phenomenon or twist of fate, instead of something she actually did.

Sometimes, Lillian tries to explain herself, but Hannah can't understand how anything could be so hard that you'd need to escape to the extreme that Lillian did.

I'm breathing and my heart is beating and as much as it hurts - as much searing, monumental pain as it causes me - I have to exist.

Their friendship is lasting and hilarious at times, but it's also sad and lacking that element people need to move forward and grow. At this point, I'm wondering what's keeping Lillian stagnant and what it will take for Hannah to be able to move on.



Happy Reading Everyone :)