Not Just Romance, I Promise.
INT. A MATH CLASSROOM. EARLY MORNING. TWO TEENAGE GIRLS ARE SITTING IN DESKS NEXT TO EACH OTHER AT THE FRONT RIGHT CORNER OF THE CLASSROOM. EACH HAS A MYRIAD OF COLORED PENS SPREAD ON THEIR DESK SURFACE, ALONG WITH SEVERAL WORKSHEETS AND NOTE PACKETS.
GIRL 2, SITTING ON THE RIGHT, BRINGS UP BOOKS THAT THEY ARE BOTH INTERESTED IN. GIRL 1 ENTHUSIASTICALLY ADDS TO THE CONVERSATION.
GIRL 1: I really need to get a Goodreads account.
GIRL 2: You really do! It’s so amazing; I use it to organize everything. And it’s such a great way to find new books that might interest you.
GIRL 1: What are you reading right now?
GIRL 2: Oh, a whole lot of things. I tend to read too many books at one time. But right now I’m reading Endure by Sara B. Larson. It was a pre-release on Ms. ______’s shelf, but I think it’s actually been out for, like, a year or two.
GIRL 1: I love Ms. ______’s pre-release shelf! I read this book that she had on it once - it was called Whisper to Me, by Nick Lake, and it was so good. You absolutely have to read it!
GIRL 2: Sounds great! I’ll put it on my ‘to read’ list.
Oh, how grateful I am to you, Girl 1, for recommending this masterpiece to me. Even though it took what seemed like forever for the library to finally get a copy to me, taking the time to read this book is probably the best decision I have made all summer.
First of all, simply spending 12 hours (straight) reading a 531 page book and relaxing was amazing - I really needed the mental break. And second, within a day a novel that I knew literally nothing about became one of my all-time favorites. This is a book that I can - and will - read again and again. It was even hard putting it down when I finished it!
The format of the novel is incredibly unique, for starters. The entire thing is narrated from the protagonist’s point of view as she writes a lengthy email to the guy she is in love with, explaining everything, everything that she did to hurt him in the end, desperately hoping that he will find it in his heart to forgive her. Her life, as it turns out, is far from simple, and there is a lot that she has done and gone through that he has absolutely no clue about. Nick Lake manages to capture both sophisticated and relatable teenager-esque diction, combining lengthy, powerful descriptions with a colloquial tone. But while this may sound like the story of a girl who is desperately trying to fix a break-up, and little more, nothing could be further from the truth.
Cassie (our protagonist and narrator), as it turns out, hears voices that no one else can - and yet are all too real to her. Rather than open up and work through it, she chooses to hide her problems from the people she loves the most. Yes, this book has been shelved in the YA Romance genre forevermore, and there is certainly romance involved, but the focus of this book is self-discovery more than anything else. Lake points out that no, medication doesn’t always solve the problem, and that there are alternative methods for treating mental illness, but medicine also should not be discounted. There are statistics that show the effectiveness of both methods, but utilizing one without the other isn’t particularly healthy either. Eventually, Cassie has to learn that she isn’t the only one with her best interests at heart, and that pushing her feelings and emotions down ultimately does more to harm her than to help.
While I have never personally dealt with a hospitalizing mental illness or state, so much of this book rang true for me. And I think that it does that for everyone who reads it. Whether or not you can relate directly to the situation Cassie finds herself in, Nick Lake has hidden fragments of truth on every page of this beautiful novel that will undoubtedly hit home with his every reader. All you have to do is hit
I give this lovely read 4.5 Emails out of 5.
Aside from the occasional swear word, I absolutely adored this novel!
If you’d like to buy a copy of this book, please check out the following online locations!
