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lisashelves 's review for:
Before We Were Blue
by E.J. Schwartz
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Before We Were Blue is a story about Rowan and Shoshana, girls who are at Recovery and Relief, a treatment center for girls with eating disorders.
I have not suffered from an eating disorder, so I won’t pretend to understand these characters completely, but someone in my family who I’m very close with did. They have since recovered, but I was really brought back to those moments and memories from when they hadn’t. Because of the story and the way, it is written, it felt very powerful to read but I really struggled at the same time. There is no sugar-coating in this book. The mental illness portrayed and everything around is, is laid on thick and in such a believable way. I really applaud Schwartz for keeping it real.
The story is written from the perspective of both girls as they go through the recovery system and their journeys. Both are written really well and are so different. Just like in real life, everyone has a different journey and different approach to getting to their destination. They don’t get some magical awakening and suddenly get better. They decide for themselves. I also appreciate the ending, that not all recovery stories are straight, but curved and not all stories end with recovery.
I did struggle a little bit in the beginning with Rowan’s chapters, mainly due to the 2nd person POV and the way Shoshana was addressed constantly. She kept saying it like “you…”, which felt like she was speaking to me personally, which sometimes made me a little uncomfortable. After a while it didn’t anymore and I enjoyed her chapters a lot more. This can also be accounted to the fact that Rowan isn’t really a likable person at the beginning. She is quite manipulative and unwilling. On the other hand, it made me appreciate her as a character, as her arc was written extremely well. Shoshana was more likable and she was easy to root for.
Overall, it is a hard book to rate, since I can’t say I enjoyed it very much. It isn’t a book I would read for fun. At the same time, it is really eye-opening and it makes me really think about all of it. It was exceptionally well written.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Before We Were Blue is a story about Rowan and Shoshana, girls who are at Recovery and Relief, a treatment center for girls with eating disorders.
I have not suffered from an eating disorder, so I won’t pretend to understand these characters completely, but someone in my family who I’m very close with did. They have since recovered, but I was really brought back to those moments and memories from when they hadn’t. Because of the story and the way, it is written, it felt very powerful to read but I really struggled at the same time. There is no sugar-coating in this book. The mental illness portrayed and everything around is, is laid on thick and in such a believable way. I really applaud Schwartz for keeping it real.
The story is written from the perspective of both girls as they go through the recovery system and their journeys. Both are written really well and are so different. Just like in real life, everyone has a different journey and different approach to getting to their destination. They don’t get some magical awakening and suddenly get better. They decide for themselves. I also appreciate the ending, that not all recovery stories are straight, but curved and not all stories end with recovery.
I did struggle a little bit in the beginning with Rowan’s chapters, mainly due to the 2nd person POV and the way Shoshana was addressed constantly. She kept saying it like “you…”, which felt like she was speaking to me personally, which sometimes made me a little uncomfortable. After a while it didn’t anymore and I enjoyed her chapters a lot more. This can also be accounted to the fact that Rowan isn’t really a likable person at the beginning. She is quite manipulative and unwilling. On the other hand, it made me appreciate her as a character, as her arc was written extremely well. Shoshana was more likable and she was easy to root for.
Overall, it is a hard book to rate, since I can’t say I enjoyed it very much. It isn’t a book I would read for fun. At the same time, it is really eye-opening and it makes me really think about all of it. It was exceptionally well written.