This book deals with some seriously heavy themes –
depression, suicide and dealing with loss – without falling into a pit of
darkness.
Caroline Davis suffers from depression – the clinical kind. She
takes medication and struggles to be happy but the condition grabs her every
once in a while. She has loving support from her girlfriend, Ever, and bestie,
Mia. The three of them share an apartment during their college days. The world
comes crashing down on Ever and Mia the day they return home to find that
Caroline has committed suicide. As time passes, Mia and Ever handle the loss in
their own ways. Ever mostly doesn’t handle it or deal with it. Ever drops out
of college, joins a dead-end job and stops living. Mia is concerned and tries
to get Ever back to living.
Of the characters, we really liked Mia, Caroline and Caroline’s
sister, but couldn’t get a read on Ever. All that comes across about Ever is
that she loved Caroline.
Since we are rather forgiving of typos, we felt that for
about 60%, this book had potential of greatness. Coping with loss and finding
an ability to live and love again could’ve made it to almost literary fiction. But
then the author loses the gravitas of the plot and the ability to develop the
relationship between Mia and Ever and even slips into kind of a ghost
appearance from Caroline. This is one book that should have had a proof-reader,
someone to make the formatting right and a mature editor who could’ve steered
the story better.
⭐⭐★
