A review by lyndsayreads
The How & the Why by Cynthia Hand
2.0
Okay so unfortunately, I really did not like this. I wanted to like it so bad because the reviews are good and the plot sounded really promising. But this just did not work for me on a lot of levels. Even though I was listening to the audiobook and the audiobook isn't very long, it took me 2 weeks to read this. I almost DNFed about 6 times but I kept pushing through thinking it'd get better and it just never did.
So if you don't know, this is about a girl named Cassandra who was adopted when she was 6 weeks old and has never been concerned about her birth family. But she turns 18 and her mom is in the hospital and so she starts to get curious about where she came from. Additionally, this book is told from the perspective of Cassandra's birth mom who is writing letters to her unborn child in hopes that the baby will read them one day.
In my opinion, the best and strongest part of the book was the flashbacks to Cass's birth mom writing the letters. I found her story far more compelling than Cass's story to be honest. The letters were few and far between in the book but I think I kept reading because I wanted to know how her story ended. As far as Cass, I found her to be very annoying and kinda bratty. She's going through a lot with her mom's illness and all that. But she was kind of the worst to her friends and her family. And I didn't find her story interesting at all.
Cass is really into musical theater. She's in her school's musical and there is a lot of talk about musicals in general. And i just didn't really care about any of that stuff. Every time we had to hear more about the musical or theater in general, I just wanted to skip it. I'm not a fan of books with a lot of pop culture references. And this book was full of pop culture references that I didn't even understand. So it was just blah.
Also, on a technical level, I really didn't like the writing style at all. I got so bogged down with all the details of every little thing. Also, this book says the word Idaho way too many times. I get it obviously, the book is set in Idaho and there's going to be a lot of talk about Idaho. But I don't even know that much about Idaho. It's one of those states you never really hear about, kinda like Arkansas, and I just didn't care? There were lots of other little technical things too. I thought the characters came off as childish, the plot was not compelling in the slightest, and the book itself was just boring.
I wanted to like this so bad. I thought it was going to be a really emotional, hard-hitting YA novel. But for most of the book, I didn't care about what was going on and I definitely didn't find it all that emotional. I can't speak to how the adoption representation comes off because I'm not adopted. But I'd also be willing to bet that each adoption situation is different so that doesn't make one any less authentic than another. But even that wasn't that interesting to me. Unfortunately, this is the second book by Cynthia Hand that I've read and not really been impressed with, so I might be done with her as an author. But I know this book got mostly positive reviews so I'm pretty sure I'm the outlier here. Honestly, I'd recommend reading it because chances are, you'll feel different about it than I did.
But this is definitely not a new fave and I'll be unhauling as soon as I can.
So if you don't know, this is about a girl named Cassandra who was adopted when she was 6 weeks old and has never been concerned about her birth family. But she turns 18 and her mom is in the hospital and so she starts to get curious about where she came from. Additionally, this book is told from the perspective of Cassandra's birth mom who is writing letters to her unborn child in hopes that the baby will read them one day.
In my opinion, the best and strongest part of the book was the flashbacks to Cass's birth mom writing the letters. I found her story far more compelling than Cass's story to be honest. The letters were few and far between in the book but I think I kept reading because I wanted to know how her story ended. As far as Cass, I found her to be very annoying and kinda bratty. She's going through a lot with her mom's illness and all that. But she was kind of the worst to her friends and her family. And I didn't find her story interesting at all.
Cass is really into musical theater. She's in her school's musical and there is a lot of talk about musicals in general. And i just didn't really care about any of that stuff. Every time we had to hear more about the musical or theater in general, I just wanted to skip it. I'm not a fan of books with a lot of pop culture references. And this book was full of pop culture references that I didn't even understand. So it was just blah.
Also, on a technical level, I really didn't like the writing style at all. I got so bogged down with all the details of every little thing. Also, this book says the word Idaho way too many times. I get it obviously, the book is set in Idaho and there's going to be a lot of talk about Idaho. But I don't even know that much about Idaho. It's one of those states you never really hear about, kinda like Arkansas, and I just didn't care? There were lots of other little technical things too. I thought the characters came off as childish, the plot was not compelling in the slightest, and the book itself was just boring.
I wanted to like this so bad. I thought it was going to be a really emotional, hard-hitting YA novel. But for most of the book, I didn't care about what was going on and I definitely didn't find it all that emotional. I can't speak to how the adoption representation comes off because I'm not adopted. But I'd also be willing to bet that each adoption situation is different so that doesn't make one any less authentic than another. But even that wasn't that interesting to me. Unfortunately, this is the second book by Cynthia Hand that I've read and not really been impressed with, so I might be done with her as an author. But I know this book got mostly positive reviews so I'm pretty sure I'm the outlier here. Honestly, I'd recommend reading it because chances are, you'll feel different about it than I did.
But this is definitely not a new fave and I'll be unhauling as soon as I can.