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Author: Amy Zhang

Series: None

Rating: 5 stars

Genre: Contemporary

Synopsis: On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect?

Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher

How I got this book: Won from Book Nerd Reviews

The Short Version:

Holy Crap this book was amazing.

The Long Version:

Wow. Just wow.

HOW am I supposed to write a review for this. Seriously, how?

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I seriously have no idea how to review this. I mean, I just loved it so very much.

Which is weird, because it was full of the kinds of characters I usually hate.

Let’s start with Liz Emerson. She was mean. No going around it, she was a horrible person. The kind of person who I do not like. The kind of person who does what she does because people are looking and she wants to be accepted.

I have never understood people like that.

And yet…and yet, I completely loved this book. Completely and utterly loved it.

So, what did I love? Let’s make a list:

  • The Narrator. A story told from the point of view of a forgotten imaginary friend. Imaginary friends know everything about you, they exist inside your head, you can’t hide anything from them, and I loved the way this story was written. We knew everything about Liz Emerson, because her imaginary friend knew everything.
  • The way the story was told. The all-over-the-place thing was fantastic. I love non-linear story-lines. Really love them. Especially when done well, and this was done fantastically.
  • The Characters. In real life, I would strongly dislike these people. I would more than likely be one of the people they bully. And yet, they are so real. I don’t like people like this, I don’t understand them, and yet they exist and these characters were so accurate. I once asked a girl at school why she hung out with the popular group if they were so horrible to each other (she was one of the nicer members of said group), and she couldn’t answer me. Nobody knows why they want to be popular, they just do, so they act like the popular people want them to, and that’s what these characters were doing.

In Conclusion:

There’s nothing really left to say, except that I loved this book and will now proceed to throw it at everyone I meet.