The Beginning of Everything

Okay. So, this book broke my heart. Not because it was bad though, because this book was so fucking amazing. I read it in around two days only because I stayed up until 4am reading even though I had uni early the next morning - for some reason I was just so fucking committed to this book.

The thing about this book is that from when Ezra meets Cassidy you assume the whole book is a love story, which it is for a brief period of time when Ezra is falling in love with her in a few chapters. This novel is so much more than that. It's about individuality and how no matter what your interest are or what you're good at, you are under no obligation to be confined to a specific clique or social status.

Ezra's character was beautifully written with drastic character development which was relatively subtle throughout the book considering that his live HAD to drastically change due to his accident. Ezra was always ‘different' when he was friends with the jocks because he was smart, witty and his main priority wasn't doing keg stands. Although he didn't know his true potential until his accident his character development seems to flow so naturally.

What made me really love this book was the very last chapter, where he is in college and wonders what has happened to Cassidy. I love the reality of this. Cassidy's character was one of the most realistic in the novel (and of course the most unrealistic being Charlotte, but I mean you can't have a book about high school without vapid, materialistic, social climbing cheerleaders); her decision to keep away from Ezra after figuring out his car had collided with Owen's instead of going back to him was the most realistic anyone would have made. She knew that realistically, love wouldn't fix everything. And ALSO realistically, you don't keep in touch with someone that has broken your heart and I love that he had no idea where she was or what she was going. There was some sort of beauty in that I can't really explain.

Ugh. There's so much more I love about this book I can't even begin to articulate everything else. It's amazing, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think anyone that is a fan of realistic young adult fiction HAS to read this. Right now.