Read of the Week: Me Since You by Laura Wiess

Laura Wiess captures the visceral emotion of a girl’s journey from innocence to devastating loss and, ultimately, to a strange and unexpected kind of understanding—in this beautiful and painfully honest new novel.

Are there any answers when someone you love makes a tragic choice?

Before and After. That’s how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old—a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.

If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger’s shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother — and herself — from the endless replay of heartache and grief.

Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?

Me Since You is so uniquely moving.

When I read the synopsis for this book, I assumed the mostly tragic events would take place first and foremost, gotten over before the get-go, and that after that we’d get all the good. When I started reading this book, I still thought that. The first chapter in, I still thought that. Halfway through the book, I still thought that. And then, it happened. I’d predicted it, ultimately, before starting altogether, but after about a hundred pages I thought maybe I’d assumed wrongly(when we assume we make asses out of ourselves) and went about reading. I’d figured the pain was over and dealt with and from then on it was only going to go up, things would get better, people would heal. I was wrong, I was very wrong. But that’s just the beauty of life, isn’t it? Things don’t ever actually turn out the way we want/expect them to. That’s just what happened in Me Since You.

I can think of few books that have moved me the way that this novel did, and though I may have not shed a tear on the outside, on the inside I felt myself turning to mush, becoming a wreck, feeling, being Rowan. She was such a beautifully powerful character and her bravery through thick and thin was so awe striking.

Solace comes in the form of Eli, son of a soldier and owner to Daisy, the lovable pup found in Iraqi. What I loved about Eli was the feeling that this story didn’t just belong to Rowan, but to readers as well. Their love for one another was withstanding and I loved being able to see both of them grow, emotionally and in other ways. Seeing how they could connect with each other through their love for their fathers and the tragedies they’d both faced was both parts harrowing and enlightening. I wish there would have been more of them together, and more time to get to know the in’s and out’s of Eli, not just the bad and the ugly. I feel that even though he was on the screen small-time, he made a huge impact and I only wish there would have been more for readers to love. Nadia’s relationship with Rowan absolutely drove me mad, and I was so glad, on the other hand, that she happened to be a small fragment of the story, as well. Their friendship was wholly one-sided and Rowan didn’t, in any way, deserve to be treated the way she was. I wasn’t even willing to see them try to work things out, so when the companionship was altogether dropped I can’t say I was sad to see it go.

Me Since You shows us that mental illnesses are real and they can hit the unlikeliest of people, just as it shows us that fate and life work in wondrous ways, and sometimes, maybe, something beautiful can come from something not-so great. I can see this book being so, so helpful to people in need of reassurance, to people who need to see the good.

I hope, hope, hope everyone reads this and sees that there is.

Rating: 9/10