Review: Willow

Title: Willow
Author: Julia Hoban
Publisher: Dial
Date published: April 2009
Type of book: Teen fiction (cutting, grief, first love, orphan)
Pages: 329
I received this book from/at: Amazon.com
My interest in this book is: plot

Ideas expressed/message/plot: “SEVEN MONTHS AGO on a rainy, March night, Willow’s parents drank too much at dinner and asked her to drive them home. But they never made it – Willow lost control of the car, and both of her parents were killed.
Now seventeen, Willow is living with her older brother, who can barely speak to her. She has let behind her old home, friends, and school. But Willow has found a way to survive, to numb the new reality of her life: She is secretly cutting herself.
And then she meets Guy, a boy as sensitive and complicated as she is. When Guy discovers Willow’s secret, he pulls her out of the solitary world she’s created for herself, and into a difficult, intense, and potentially life-changing relationship.

Favorite characters, quotes/lines: Willow; Guy: He really cared about her… and he was real – he didn’t stay happy when Willow was being an idiot like some author’s make characters do

When I finished this book I felt: It was a really good story, but I’m not sure I like how Hoban wrote the book. I think I might have liked it better in first person rather than third; I found it kind of distracting. Other than that, I really enjoyed this book.

Other books to read by this author: this is the author’s first book

I would recommend this book to: teen readers… but they should keep in mind that a main theme of the book is cutting… and for people like me (who have weak stomachs) parts of the story might be a bit difficult to read. But there aren’t very many parts like this in the book.