A review by gertak
I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios
5.0
OMG! I cried so much reading this, I don’t know why but for some reason this book struck a cord and the tears kept coming. Good thing I read this when everyone else was sleeping. I literally started with it yesterday and stayed up until 5 o’clock reading it. So I am still pretty tired.
This book was beautiful and I loved every single page and word. I added this to my favourites list because that is what this book is now- a favourite.
“It gave me hope: if you could make a beautiful piece of art from discarded newspapers and old matchbooks, then it meant that everything had potential. And maybe people were like collages–no matter how broken or useless we felt, we were an essential part of the whole. We mattered.”
I love how the story was focused on underprivileged teens who struggled with everything. A small town with nothing to do, everyone had a job somewhere to get extra money. I think the setting for the book was really good. It painted a really nice picture of this life which I had never thought about too much. I always pictured these nice houses and families with just enough money for everything while reading books, for some reason that has always been the way the families are in them. But I saw a side of America that I understood better.
It was sad how Sky saw discarding her dreams as the only way to keep her mom and her going. She took everything onto her shoulders and it is crushing that there are young people out there that actually do have to earn a living just to keep their family floating. She saw herself as the only way her mom would be okay and she was ready to throw all of her dreams away just to prove it.
“The moon’s not big enough to wish on. Nothing is.”
When it comes to the characters then I liked them all for the way they were imperfect and flawed. The main character was a really strong no BS kind of girl and called people out for being racist, homophobic. Josh was a really great character. He was very well written and I loved the chapters that he ”wrote” , I guess they were passages from his journal. The pain of his time in Afganistan but also his joy came across really well and made him seem that much more realistic.
“I don’t really know what it means to move on, but lately, with Sky, I’m starting to feel like I want to because when I look at her, I don’t see you or the war or any of the shit in my head. I just see her, and it’s like suddenly I can breathe again after holding my breath for so long.”
The friendship between Josh and Sky was super. So was the romance, but I still liked the friendship aspect a lot more. The way they had each other’s backs and helped the other through whatever low point they had reached. They kept each other grounded and got the hope for a better life.
“I had to tell him we were like a collage. Pieces that could be put back together in a new way, a better way. If I didn’t say it now, I never would.”
Chris and Dylan were amazing friends. Both with their own ambitions and strong personalities. Dylan was a girl who actually loved living in a trailer park with her baby. She had no regrets because she felt absolutely happy with everything she had and I feel like that was really important, to show that while there were people like Sky and Chris who wanted to get out, there were also people who had nothing to feel angry or sad about.
“Might as well,” she spit. “You know what it feels like, being friends with you guys? Do you have any idea how it sounds when you talk about how crappy this town is and how you’d rather die than end up saddled with a baby, living in a trailer park, broke as hell? Every time you say that, you’re describing my life. A life I’m actually okay with—I’m sure as hell a lot happier than either of you.”
I honestly have no idea what else I am supposed to say besides the fact that this has to be hands down the best contemporary I have read in a long time. Definitely puts a lot of old ratings for books into perspective and makes me want to change some of them. Because this is a 5 star book. It is moving and just the perfect book to give you a really nice book rush.
It is always so much easier to criticize and bring out the bad things but I don’t know what to say. This was perfection. I loved it.
This book was beautiful and I loved every single page and word. I added this to my favourites list because that is what this book is now- a favourite.
“It gave me hope: if you could make a beautiful piece of art from discarded newspapers and old matchbooks, then it meant that everything had potential. And maybe people were like collages–no matter how broken or useless we felt, we were an essential part of the whole. We mattered.”
I love how the story was focused on underprivileged teens who struggled with everything. A small town with nothing to do, everyone had a job somewhere to get extra money. I think the setting for the book was really good. It painted a really nice picture of this life which I had never thought about too much. I always pictured these nice houses and families with just enough money for everything while reading books, for some reason that has always been the way the families are in them. But I saw a side of America that I understood better.
It was sad how Sky saw discarding her dreams as the only way to keep her mom and her going. She took everything onto her shoulders and it is crushing that there are young people out there that actually do have to earn a living just to keep their family floating. She saw herself as the only way her mom would be okay and she was ready to throw all of her dreams away just to prove it.
“The moon’s not big enough to wish on. Nothing is.”
When it comes to the characters then I liked them all for the way they were imperfect and flawed. The main character was a really strong no BS kind of girl and called people out for being racist, homophobic. Josh was a really great character. He was very well written and I loved the chapters that he ”wrote” , I guess they were passages from his journal. The pain of his time in Afganistan but also his joy came across really well and made him seem that much more realistic.
“I don’t really know what it means to move on, but lately, with Sky, I’m starting to feel like I want to because when I look at her, I don’t see you or the war or any of the shit in my head. I just see her, and it’s like suddenly I can breathe again after holding my breath for so long.”
The friendship between Josh and Sky was super. So was the romance, but I still liked the friendship aspect a lot more. The way they had each other’s backs and helped the other through whatever low point they had reached. They kept each other grounded and got the hope for a better life.
“I had to tell him we were like a collage. Pieces that could be put back together in a new way, a better way. If I didn’t say it now, I never would.”
Chris and Dylan were amazing friends. Both with their own ambitions and strong personalities. Dylan was a girl who actually loved living in a trailer park with her baby. She had no regrets because she felt absolutely happy with everything she had and I feel like that was really important, to show that while there were people like Sky and Chris who wanted to get out, there were also people who had nothing to feel angry or sad about.
“Might as well,” she spit. “You know what it feels like, being friends with you guys? Do you have any idea how it sounds when you talk about how crappy this town is and how you’d rather die than end up saddled with a baby, living in a trailer park, broke as hell? Every time you say that, you’re describing my life. A life I’m actually okay with—I’m sure as hell a lot happier than either of you.”
I honestly have no idea what else I am supposed to say besides the fact that this has to be hands down the best contemporary I have read in a long time. Definitely puts a lot of old ratings for books into perspective and makes me want to change some of them. Because this is a 5 star book. It is moving and just the perfect book to give you a really nice book rush.
It is always so much easier to criticize and bring out the bad things but I don’t know what to say. This was perfection. I loved it.