A review by cestnicka
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, by Josie Silver
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
This book feels a bit complicated for me to review as I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t hate it. It’s a good book but there were some issues with it that would make me a bit hesitant to recommend it to anyone, it would need to come with some warnings.
The first bit of the book is really good. She does an amazing job of pulling at your heart strings and makes you feel for Lydia bird as her situation is absolutely heart breaking.
I actually really liked the back and forth between two worlds, I thought that was really interesting. I think it’s totally possible to think someone could greave in that way of being in a “different world” with the person they loved who has passed. I also liked that she made it feel real and that it eventually takes a toll on you and everyone else around you and you have to choose to live in the present. It was an interesting way of presenting grief and how some people might work through it.
The part I struggled with this same thing that I liked, was that you knew eventually this would not last, and sometimes it felt like it was dragging on a little bit too long. I think there was too much time in the dream world. As a lot of those chapters didn’t add a lot to the book or to developing Freddie’s character. I felt like I got a sense of him more through the people in the presents recollections. And even though I got so much about him in those dream scenes I just never seemed to like his character that much. So alot of the time I felt the need to read quicker or skim and that’s never a good thing. I also like the way she ended the dream scene. But it was hard for me to connect with her being so sad as he had started to turn into a bit of a turd at the end. But maybe the point is that we aren’t alway perfect. I dunno.
I had guessed that Jonah had always been interested in Lydia and she didn’t see it, as she had found her true love. Which is fair. But I wish the book had developed this a little but more. It felt so rushed over. I would have loved to have gotten to see more of that relationship at the end of the book. Maybe a 5 year down the road chapter? See how they have adjusted to their life without Freddie but together. I also felt there wasn’t enough spice in this book. Zero spicy scenes and I feel like a grief romance needs at least one of those.
This book was alright. Enjoyed the premise and the over arching storyline, and also how she got us to think about grief. but It felt way too long and it dragged in a few areas. There was also way too many extra plot lines that I felt were either too long or didn’t even need to be there as they didn’t add anything to the storyline. Some examples would be Kris, the loss of the baby in the other world, the cat, Croatia felt too long, but I understood why she put it in there to get us to understand her family better and turn a corner to being the caregiver, and a few others.
I would probably only recommend this book to someone who reads alot of romances. I don’t think people who read other genres would be into it.
The first bit of the book is really good. She does an amazing job of pulling at your heart strings and makes you feel for Lydia bird as her situation is absolutely heart breaking.
I actually really liked the back and forth between two worlds, I thought that was really interesting. I think it’s totally possible to think someone could greave in that way of being in a “different world” with the person they loved who has passed. I also liked that she made it feel real and that it eventually takes a toll on you and everyone else around you and you have to choose to live in the present. It was an interesting way of presenting grief and how some people might work through it.
The part I struggled with this same thing that I liked, was that you knew eventually this would not last, and sometimes it felt like it was dragging on a little bit too long. I think there was too much time in the dream world. As a lot of those chapters didn’t add a lot to the book or to developing Freddie’s character. I felt like I got a sense of him more through the people in the presents recollections. And even though I got so much about him in those dream scenes I just never seemed to like his character that much. So alot of the time I felt the need to read quicker or skim and that’s never a good thing. I also like the way she ended the dream scene. But it was hard for me to connect with her being so sad as he had started to turn into a bit of a turd at the end. But maybe the point is that we aren’t alway perfect. I dunno.
I had guessed that Jonah had always been interested in Lydia and she didn’t see it, as she had found her true love. Which is fair. But I wish the book had developed this a little but more. It felt so rushed over. I would have loved to have gotten to see more of that relationship at the end of the book. Maybe a 5 year down the road chapter? See how they have adjusted to their life without Freddie but together. I also felt there wasn’t enough spice in this book. Zero spicy scenes and I feel like a grief romance needs at least one of those.
This book was alright. Enjoyed the premise and the over arching storyline, and also how she got us to think about grief. but It felt way too long and it dragged in a few areas. There was also way too many extra plot lines that I felt were either too long or didn’t even need to be there as they didn’t add anything to the storyline. Some examples would be Kris, the loss of the baby in the other world, the cat, Croatia felt too long, but I understood why she put it in there to get us to understand her family better and turn a corner to being the caregiver, and a few others.
I would probably only recommend this book to someone who reads alot of romances. I don’t think people who read other genres would be into it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death