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Layla's Reviews > Far from You
Far from You
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Ok, so Far From You is not a terrible book, but it's not a particularly memorable one either. The premise of the book is as follows: our protagonist, Sophie, is recovering from some fairly serious trauma - someone killed her best friend (view spoiler) Mina and she witnessed it. Also, because of her history of drug abuse, Sophie's family and peers blame her for Mina's death (i.e., why did you two go into that dark scary wood? For drugs!!) Sophie spends the novel trying to piece together what happened on the night of Mina's murder, but a large part of this also involves rehearsing her and Mina's shared past.
Sophie and Mina's relationship was by far the most interesting (and also most problematic) aspect of the novel for me. (view spoiler)
My main problems with the novel were with the secondary narrative - i.e., the sort of whodunit about what happened to Mina. I think part of the problem is that I never really got a distinctive sense of who Sophie was as a narrator, so when she's put in peril while trying to solve the case, I just didn't care. I also didn't understand why this random cast of characters - Kyle and Rachel particularly - cared about helping her. Especially Rachel - Rachel finds Sophie the night of Mina's death, and they're ... penpals through Sophie's rehab and suddenly besties who trust each other? That relationship just wasn't developed for me, nor was Rachel really (she was kind of a Mary Sue). We're told about it, but we never really see it or understand how it works. And, with the exception of Sophie and Mina's relationship, this was how I felt about most of the novel - the whodunit is solved in a way that seems farfetched and implausible, and we're told about the characters' motives, but it's not really convincing.
Thanks to NetGalley for a digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Sophie and Mina's relationship was by far the most interesting (and also most problematic) aspect of the novel for me. (view spoiler)
My main problems with the novel were with the secondary narrative - i.e., the sort of whodunit about what happened to Mina. I think part of the problem is that I never really got a distinctive sense of who Sophie was as a narrator, so when she's put in peril while trying to solve the case, I just didn't care. I also didn't understand why this random cast of characters - Kyle and Rachel particularly - cared about helping her. Especially Rachel - Rachel finds Sophie the night of Mina's death, and they're ... penpals through Sophie's rehab and suddenly besties who trust each other? That relationship just wasn't developed for me, nor was Rachel really (she was kind of a Mary Sue). We're told about it, but we never really see it or understand how it works. And, with the exception of Sophie and Mina's relationship, this was how I felt about most of the novel - the whodunit is solved in a way that seems farfetched and implausible, and we're told about the characters' motives, but it's not really convincing.
Thanks to NetGalley for a digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
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Reading Progress
October 22, 2013
–
Started Reading
October 22, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
October 22, 2013
– Shelved
January 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
lgbt-fiction
January 12, 2014
– Shelved as:
ya
January 12, 2014
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
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Tara
(new)
Mar 20, 2014 11:48AM
Well, I was debating requesting this one, but I think I'll skip it!
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