Synopsis:Bully and victim.
Tormenter and tormented.
Villain and hero.
Ellie McCallum was a bully. No connection to anyone or anything. A sad and lonely existence for a young woman who had come to expect nothing more for herself. Her only happiness coming from making others miserable.
Particularly Freaky Flynn.
Flynn Hendrick lived a life completely disconnected even as he struggled to become something more than that boy with Asperger's. He was taunted and teased, bearing the brunt of systematic and calculated cruelty, ultimately culminating in a catastrophic turn of events that brought Ellie and Flynn’s worlds crashing down.
But then Flynn and Ellie grew up.
And moved on.
Until years later when their paths unexpectedly cross again and the bully and the freak are face to face once more.
When labels come to define you, finding yourself feels impossible. Particularly for two people disconnected from the world who inexplicably find a connection in each other.
And out of the wreckage of their tragic beginnings, an unlikely love story unfolds.
But a painful past doesn’t always want to let go. And old wounds are never truly healed…and sometimes the further you try to run from yourself the closer you come to who you really are.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow...
Ok I'll be back when I can think straight.
I was really conflicted reading this book and even more so trying to write this review.
I think what makes a book amazing is when an author is able to convey an idea so flawlessly thought out making you come back for seconds despite having you disagree wholeheartedly with the actions taken and disliking most of the characters. I found the writing vivid enough to make the characters come to life right before my eyes, the situations realistic enough to make me cringe, and the heartache devastating enough to make me cry.
Ellie: the bully
This girl is down right depressing and its not that she's sad in the literal sense, its more of a helplessness of giving up hope leading to giving up on life. She is an ugly person who does ugly things and has ugly thoughts. She is selfish and cruel. Mean and tactless. She was coward and a spineless one at that. And sometimes she just sucked. She sucked without needing to, with no reason behind it, just because she could.
The weird thing is I don't hate Ellie. I do admit she makes it easy to loathe her, man, she makes it so goddamned easy, but still, I do not hate her. I'm a very firm believer that we are a product of our environment. One cannot love if one does not know love and how would you know love if you have never been loved? You cannot give what you've never received. I know there are exceptions because we do see them, like, when parents that come from a broken homes decide that they would rather rot than inflict on their children what was inflicted on them. But are we not human? And what do humans do if not just choose the easy way out? And what is the easy way out if not just do what you've been taught? And what have you been taught if not just to leave when things get hard or to just not stay long enough to wait for them to get hard in the first place?
Flynn: the victim
He is everything that Ellie is not. He is the spark of change in Ellie's life, the flicker of light in her darkness and he is the one who makes her salvageable. He chooses to love her and by doing so he teaches her how to love. Flynn is the catalyst in her redemption. He sees the beauty that she so desperately tries to hide. He sees the kindness that she withholds. He sees the tears she cannot cry, the hurt she cannot show and he just teaches her to love without limits, without condition, to love with abandon. He teaches love is everlasting and all consuming. He teaches love is not limited to a mile radius but ever reaching. I believe love is not a sentiment or an emotion for those are fickle and volatile. I believe it is a choice. We do not fall in love, we walk right into it. Love is not blind, we just choose not to see. It does not end, we just choose indifference over it.
“Some people came into your life and they changed it completely and then they slipped out of it again before you could grab ahold of them.
And their presence motivates you and strengthens you and devastates you all at the same time.”
These were one of those books that really affected me. Do you have any of those? I'd love to chat about them! Drop by :)
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