I swear, it's worth getting past the first chapter. I know the choppiness of the book may be a bit of a turn-off for some of you, but that's only the first chapter, really (I actually saw somebody give this book a 1 star on Amazon because of the first chapter. Yikes

At the end of the "May" chapter, I cried. I really don't cry much over fiction, but that got me. It wasn't a sad cry. But yeah. Let's just say that was a good ending to a chapter. I found Holling and his sister's relationship so sweet; especially after he "found" her. I can't wait for "Just Like That" to come out. I'm just going to keep binging Gary D Schmidt's books until then haha

I've always looked at historical events with an outsiders perspective. I think most people do. In history class, you learn about all the little bits of information about these historical figures, but you're not really affected by it. Not unless you've lived it, really. But reading this book made me think of these events in a different way. I think about now like it actually happened. Like, yeah, I _know_ it actually happened in real life, but it just doesn't _feel_ that way when you're reading a textbook about Martin Luther King Jr., or Bobby Kennedy, or the Vietnam War. Reading this book did give me a different perspective about all of this. Holling's family was really affected by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, particularly his sister, Heather, who strongly believed in equality, was on the side of these people, and considered herself a flower child (ngl I didn't know what that was until I read this book haha). And many of the adult characters were related to men in the war, and you can see how much it affects them.

Hm... Okay. I gotta say, I was a little... underwhelmed. Didn't feel much connection to the characters, the prose was... Alright I guess. I have these thoughts in my head about why I didn't like this book all that much, but I just can't express them. It's not a bad book, though. I am glad I read this (especially before I read the original), it's just that it was way too simplified/shortened. It's hard to compare it to the original when you haven't read it, though haha

But yeah. Kinda meh. 5/10 probably. 2 stars seems too harsh, so it'll just be 3. It's nice that other people enjoyed it, though!

3 stars is not a bad rating from me. I mean, it's 6/10, and that's not bad. At all. I'm not good at reviewing things, so I'm not gonna. Give it a chance, though. It's definitely interesting.

I loved this so much. So so much.