2.5 stars*
Honestly, this book just really got on my nerves. Here's my list:
- the beginning was rushed
- was that a joke I was supposed to understand? cause it made no sense...
- whining. a lot of complaining and whining.
- "Samantha": I literally have three friends named Samantha and I refer to them ALL as Sam (her best friend doesn't even call her Sam)
- speaking of Nan, what happened to her?
- Grace is a bitch
- Samantha pissed me off
- the only logical people were Jase and Tim which reminded me exactly of What I Thought Was True and made me conclude that Huntley Fitzpatrick only write's annoying YA novels with petty girls and all-knowing boys

That is all.

Finished reading: June 12th, 2016
I'm not sure what to say about this, or even what to rate this yet. Especially with all the talk about it. It might take me a second.

Edit: June 18th, 2016
Disclaimer: the following is my opinion and my opinion only. I'm not saying you shouldn't like the novel because I didn't rate it one star, I rated it two. I did enjoy some of it, and I've listed both my problems and the stuff I liked below. ALSO I know I've left stuff out, but I wanted to make this casual.

Alrighty folks, so I think I'm going to do a video about this on my YouTube channel because I also saw the movie and I have a lot to say about both and their relation to each other. But I'm gonna say a few things about just the book here.
Going into this, everyone told me how much I was going to cry and "that ending!" I expected to read a sad, Nicholas Sparks-esque romance. What I got was kinda similar, kinda different. It was very sad, it was a romance, but it was also very problematic. I don't know Jojo Moyes personally, I don't know if she knows anyone who is disabled but this novel went about it in all the wrong ways.
At first I really loved Lou as a character. I connected with her unsure-ness of life and her simple job and her family and money-issues. Her character felt real. What bothered me about Lou, was Lou's family. Her sister doesn't even TRY to help her after *SPOILER* she's sexual assaulted, and the novel passes it off and requires her not to remember any of it because it's convenient to the story. Meanwhile, it's a big part of Lou's life. It's the reason why she isn't social and why she doesn't talk about herself personally. I also hate that her life taking off, and her growth relies on the fact that Will is disabled.
Onto Will. Will is horrible. He's basically verbally abusive to Lou and the excuse is that he's disabled so "obviously he's going to be miserable, stuck in that chair" - basically a quote from one of the characters. I'm not sure if there's a term for this, but it's pretty shitty of people to look at disabled people and say "wow, glad my life isn't like that." He obviously has a mental illness, but there's no mention what-so-ever about getting him any kind of help. And his parent's are conveniently rich, able to pay to reno their home so it's wheelchair accessible, pay for the insanely expensive chair, an at-home-caregiver, physiotherapy, all those meds, and I don't know what medical bills are like in Britain, but that can't be cheap, either.

I don't know if this novel is a commentary on social conditions for disabled people, I don't know if it's trying to educate people on assisted suicide. But if it is, it should've been executed better than this.

I'd recommend this novel to anyone who's looking to just read a sad romance and is willing to look past the problems.

sittin' in the middle on this one. will review in full later...

August 28th:
I'm gonna give this a 2.5/5 stars, right in the middle. For what this was worth, I enjoyed it! After JUST finishing the Harry Potter series for the first time, I didn't find the character to be out of character as much as everyone else has seemed to, and i think that's because they're not as built up in my mind... I haven't even watched all the movies yet! I do however, agree with what people are saying about Ron; his character felt whittled down to comic relief, when we know he is more complex than that.
There's a lot I have to say about it being a script and the tropes that go on with plays that no one (that I've seen) has mentioned. I think the plot felt reused. The idea of [POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING] going back in time to try to change something and then changing present-day feels way too familiar; something the Disney channel would do, not a plot JK Rowling would write.
I did love the relationships, and seeing the characters we know and love in their adult lives, and how all they done as affected their future-selves. I also loved the ending scene in the church... that's all I'll say about that.

3.5 stars
This was super interesting and I enjoyed it but I found the author's side-notes a little strange and unnecessary. The plot was a bit confusing at times as well with a lot of scientific language and not a lot of explanation as to how everything connects. Thank goodness for the glossary.

I'm finished, but I don't think I can rate this yet as I have no clue what I just yet! I'll come back to it after we've discussed it in class and I have more context!

wow.
this book literally made me feel exactly how the main character felt and that doesn't happen too often.
sometimes the books you're forced to read turn out pretty good.

full review to come

I'll fill this in later but just know I LOVED THIS

this one will definitely go down as one of my favourite volumes