A review by etherealisnt
Take Me With You When You Go by David Levithan, Jennifer Niven

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Once again I'm reminded that every child deserves parents, but not all parents deserve children.


This book was really interesting. I enjoyed it A TON!
What I've realized while reading is that I usually read about love between romantic partners, but this book has made me realize, that I enjoy reading about love between siblings/parents/guardians etc. And that is quite exciting!! Makes me confident to discover other books with such themes :) 
It was also incredibly easy to read because of the format, the book only uses this e-mail type of formatting. It was very different and new, but also easy to get used to!

I wondered: Did Mom and Darren hurt us more by what they did or by what they didn't do? Which wounds us more - the hostile presence or the absent kindness?

I REALLY liked Ezra and Bea. They're both amusing and they feel very realistic, like someone I could actually meet in my life. But that also means that their story is a reality for many. The whole time I was hoping that at some point their life turns around or they're magically saved by this other parental figure. But reality is often disappointing.. the turn this book took was shocking (to say the least). Everything I thought would happen didn't and instead they basically got a new problem thrown in their face. Even through all of that happened and their emotions were played like a fiddle, the Ahren siblings were still close to each other.

I appreciate that the authors gave the characters an ending where they had each other, no matter what happens in the future. Regarding the future, the book stayed pretty open ended, but to me that felt satisfying. A sort of "hope nugget" to latch on to.
Thank you to both of these amazing authors for shedding light on people's lives who suffer from abuse or know someone who does.

We thought there was a wall around our story. But what if there were windows?
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