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The Blurb On The Back:
I’m getting higher and higher and I feel the swing set creak.
“Be careful,” he says.
“Why?” I’m not thinking about being careful. I’m thinking about one last push, of letting go, of flying, and of falling.
“You aren’t allowed to die without me,” he whispers.
Aysel and Roman are practically strangers, but they’ve been drawn into an unthinkable partnership. In a month’s time, they plan to commit suicide – together.
Aysel knows why she wants to die: being the daughter of a murderer doesn’t equal normal, well-adjusted teenager. But she can’t figure out why handsome, popular Roman wants to end it all .. and why he’s even more determined than she is.
With the deadline getting closer, something starts to grow between Aysel and Roman – a feeling she never thought she would experience. It seems there might be something to live for, after all – but is Aysel in so deep she can’t turn back?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )
The Verdict:
Jasmine Warga’s debut YA novel is a sensitive take on the emotional subject of teen suicide but while I liked Aysel’s first person voice I found the reasons for Aysel and Roman’s suicidal feelings to be a little too contrived and artificial and I wished that there’d been something more ‘ordinary’ behind the pair’s emotional issues. One of the interesting things about Aysel is the impact of her Turkish heritage on her American upbringing and the way in which she sees her Turkish mother as being able to ‘pass’ as American and having left her dad to pursue a more American, westernised life. I wish that more had been made of this conflict between Aysel and her mother and the knock on impact on the relationship between Aysel and her half-sister Georgia (a preppy, all-American type), particularly as the resolution is so pat. I also wished that there had been more of a resolution to the relationship between Aysel and her father (who, it is hinted, had emotional issues of his own that led him to kill). The relationship between Aysel and Roman develops well and is sensitively depicted, as is the depression that they both suffer from but this is a book with an open yet positive ending that again, felt a little too contrived in the circumstances. For all this though, although this book didn’t quite work for me, it’s nevertheless an interesting novel about a difficult subject and I look forward to reading what Warga does next.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
“Be careful,” he says.
“Why?” I’m not thinking about being careful. I’m thinking about one last push, of letting go, of flying, and of falling.
“You aren’t allowed to die without me,” he whispers.
Aysel and Roman are practically strangers, but they’ve been drawn into an unthinkable partnership. In a month’s time, they plan to commit suicide – together.
Aysel knows why she wants to die: being the daughter of a murderer doesn’t equal normal, well-adjusted teenager. But she can’t figure out why handsome, popular Roman wants to end it all .. and why he’s even more determined than she is.
With the deadline getting closer, something starts to grow between Aysel and Roman – a feeling she never thought she would experience. It seems there might be something to live for, after all – but is Aysel in so deep she can’t turn back?
( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): ) The Verdict:
Jasmine Warga’s debut YA novel is a sensitive take on the emotional subject of teen suicide but while I liked Aysel’s first person voice I found the reasons for Aysel and Roman’s suicidal feelings to be a little too contrived and artificial and I wished that there’d been something more ‘ordinary’ behind the pair’s emotional issues. One of the interesting things about Aysel is the impact of her Turkish heritage on her American upbringing and the way in which she sees her Turkish mother as being able to ‘pass’ as American and having left her dad to pursue a more American, westernised life. I wish that more had been made of this conflict between Aysel and her mother and the knock on impact on the relationship between Aysel and her half-sister Georgia (a preppy, all-American type), particularly as the resolution is so pat. I also wished that there had been more of a resolution to the relationship between Aysel and her father (who, it is hinted, had emotional issues of his own that led him to kill). The relationship between Aysel and Roman develops well and is sensitively depicted, as is the depression that they both suffer from but this is a book with an open yet positive ending that again, felt a little too contrived in the circumstances. For all this though, although this book didn’t quite work for me, it’s nevertheless an interesting novel about a difficult subject and I look forward to reading what Warga does next.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
