You Are Here | Jennifer E. Smith | Review
“But a small part of him also knew that the reason he'd never ventured anywhere was because of the worry that the reality of the world wouldn't match up to his dreams.” - Jennifer E. Smith, You are Here
When Emma discovers a birth-certificate of a twin brother she didn't know she had she decides to go to North Carolina where she and her brother was born, and where he was buried a few days later. When Emma's car breaks down somewhere in New Jersey she calls her neighbor Peter who comes to the rescue...
I'm kind of surprised that I picked up You are Here by Jennifer E. Smith because this isn't the type of book I usually go for. I like apocalyptic novels, zombie stories, non-fiction, real life stories and the occasional fantasy. But a love story for young adults? That's totally out of my comfort zone. To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm the right person to review this book because this isn't my usual cup of tea (at all). But in some sense it makes it a bit more interesting, because when I for example review zombie books I always feel a bit biased. I did really go into this reading experience with an open mind and was excited to try something new...
...But I have to admit that this wasn't a completely successful experiment. I don't want to be a party-pooper so let's start with the things I liked about You are Here. I think that it was a well-written novel, Jennifer E.Smith's writing style is easy and enjoyable and I can really see why this story is easy to like for some people... But I got a bit bored along the way. It's not like I was hoping for a lot of action and excitement. I knew that this story was going to be about humans and human relationships. But to be honest, nothing exciting really happens in this novel and I felt like this book wasn't gripping enough. I didn't connect with the main character Emma. I even thought that she was pretty annoying, and that's usually okay as long as the character goes through some kind of development (but I'm not sure if that ever happens in this case). I was also a bit disappointed with the road-trip aspect of the book, it was fun but I wish it would've been a bigger part of the story.
This isn't a bad or horrible novel in anyway. It's a fast and well-written young adult romance for a rainy day but it isn't anything spectacular or special. That being said, there might be a chance that you will enjoy this book more if this genre is the thing you typically go for. I give You are Here 2,5/5 stars.
This post was written by regular reviewer Niina, get to know her here.
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