A review by irishlassofcork
Faithful by Alice Hoffman

4.0

I received this as an ARC through Netgalley. I first read an Alice Hoffman book 15 years ago when I found Practical Magic on a display at my local library and fell in love with the book. In this book, we have Shelby, a former popular pretty girl turned into a broken shell after a horrific car accident. I, first of all, found this to be very different from other Alice Hoffman books I’ve read. While there are some dark elements in other works, I feel like this hit more psychologically than I was expecting. It was hard for me as a reader to get through all the pain and confusion, but I think that just shows the masterfulness of how Shelby’s emotions and situation were written. If it were easy to read, the emotions wouldn’t have seemed as true. The little tip of fantasy through an ‘angel’ was a nice touch and I did find the turn of who this ‘angel’ was sort of ironic. I really enjoyed watching Shelby come out of the darkness though and that it was realistic as it came piece by piece and not magically all at once. She was a very human, relatable character. Overall, I believe this was very well done and I look forward to reading more by the author in the future.