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A review by therese_nook68
This One's For You by Kate Sweeney
4.0
4/5 stars
TW: parental death, estranged parental relationship, grief, loss, alcohol use
I really enjoyed this coming of age, road trip novel! It was fun time watching Cass and Syd go through the different states and start to uncover more and more about themselves and become closer to who they want to be as young adults versus what their parents wanted them to be/expected them to be. It’s a good time to see them struggle and learn more about themselves while also facing very real consequences of their decisions or rather lack of decision depending on the situation.
My biggest issue with the book is that Cass made a very good point throughout the novel regarding his mom’s death about how her band members let her get in the car which ultimately caused her death and that conversation never happened. It felt like if this was something that kept getting brought up, I would have loved to have seen those thoughts come to a close and maybe an emotional discussion between him and the band about what happened that night because that portion feels very open-ended.
A mild criticism is that I don’t think the romance was necessary. While cute, I think the romance could have been removed and you wouldn’t have lost out on anything. The story could have just been about two best friend reconnecting and going on a journey of self-discovery based off of an impulsive decision. The end especially where we learn why they stop talking and why Syd basically hates him and they both get a different perspectives of how they interpreted the situation, but there was never a conversation that was had — which I feel like was needed considering how hurt both sides were.
TW: parental death, estranged parental relationship, grief, loss, alcohol use
I really enjoyed this coming of age, road trip novel! It was fun time watching Cass and Syd go through the different states and start to uncover more and more about themselves and become closer to who they want to be as young adults versus what their parents wanted them to be/expected them to be. It’s a good time to see them struggle and learn more about themselves while also facing very real consequences of their decisions or rather lack of decision depending on the situation.
My biggest issue with the book is that Cass made a very good point throughout the novel regarding his mom’s death about how her band members let her get in the car which ultimately caused her death and that conversation never happened. It felt like if this was something that kept getting brought up, I would have loved to have seen those thoughts come to a close and maybe an emotional discussion between him and the band about what happened that night because that portion feels very open-ended.
A mild criticism is that I don’t think the romance was necessary. While cute, I think the romance could have been removed and you wouldn’t have lost out on anything. The story could have just been about two best friend reconnecting and going on a journey of self-discovery based off of an impulsive decision. The end especially where we learn why they stop talking and why Syd basically hates him and they both get a different perspectives of how they interpreted the situation, but there was never a conversation that was had — which I feel like was needed considering how hurt both sides were.