Last week I took the afternoon off and treated myself to my favorite local bookstore, tacos, and a quiet afternoon. I had no books in mind while I was browsing, but the second I read the description of this book, I was in. A girl literally dies of a broken heart and then has to navigate the afterlife while watching those left behind cope with her death? It’s pretty much literary crack to me.
Brie’s boyfriend Jacob takes her to dinner one night shortly before her 16th birthday. There he tells her he doesn’t love her–but before he can finish, Brie keels over and dies, her heart cleaved in two. The book starts with her death and explores a few themes from there: what happens when we die; how death can affect the parents and siblings left behind; the lies we tell ourselves so that we can live with our actions; and a dog’s love for his human. The dog parts got me the most, if I’m behind 100% honest with you. I thought this was a really interesting take on the brokenhearted teenage girl story and Rothenberg’s writing was fresh, funny, and had just the right touch of emotional weight. There was a scene in the last third of the book that was described so well that I thought I was going to have nightmares about it. I was a little sad to see this is her only book so far and I’m hoping she publishes more.
The story itself was really interesting to me. The most fleshed out characters are Brie and her afterworld guide, Patrick. Their story had some twists to it I thought detracted from the story more than anything. This novel had so many layers to it that the Brie/Patrick story was like that one accessory you should take off before leaving the house to keep yourself from looking too overdone. The strength of the book was Brie and how she handled her own death. I really liked that she seemed like a teenage girl to me. She wasn’t just going so smile and forgive the people in her life. They did some messed up things, in her eyes, and she was mad and wanted revenge. She isn’t always a good person, a nice person. She does bad things because she’s pissed off and hurt which, as a former teenage girl, I find pretty believable.
I read this book in an afternoon. It was written well enough to keep me guessing about true motives and actions, to keep me wanting to find out how it all ends. A lot of debut novels tend to feel clunky and like they’re trying to hard, but Rothenberg hit all the right notes and made Brie a believable, sympathetic character who’s story is worth telling and, what’s more, worth reading.
Interesting. So is the moral of the story that one should NOT die of a broken heart? :)
Or at least wait and hear the whole story before you decide if you should or not.