Author: Natasha Friend
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Shelves: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Recommended for Fans Of: Janet Gurtler, Eileen Cook, Leila Sales
Synopsis: Alexa has always been pretty. Revered among the girls at school and desired by all the boys, Alexa has an easy life. But one night, and one party can change everything. On the night of her best friend's betrayal, Alexa gets in a moving car... and her face goes through the windshield. After multiple surgeries and life altering changes, Alexa will never be that beautiful girl ever again. Every day is a painful reminder of the life she once had, until she meets Theo, whose inner scars match her own, and who might be the one person who can heal her too.
Review: This is such a powerful novel. Natasha Friend wove a story about so many raw and paingful things, from sexual assault, to anorexia. She opens a reader's eyes to the clouds of darkness that surrounds people, people that you may love, and people that you may hate. Yet the impact of all these problems doesn't truly hit you until you finish the book.
Storyline/Plot: Oh wow, my heart really went out to Alexa plight. What happened to Alexa could happen to anyone, and not just in the sense of the car accident, but also the bullying and harassment that came afterwards. High school itself is such an outrageous and obstinate place, but when you combine that with horrible people and personal emotions, the effect can be devastating. After reading My Life in Black and White, I realized that Natasha was not only telling Alexa's story, but the story of many other girls also. The events that occurred in this novel just made me so angry at people, and their terrible actions.
Characters: I was so so angry at some of these characters. For example, Alexa's sister was SO SELFISH. While Alexa had just gone through a traumatizing and life changing ordeal, her sister Ruthie was sitting at home, complaining about all the ways ALEXA was selfish. Ruthie really bothered me because she didn't even try to put herself in Alexa's shoes. If my younger sister had just had her FACE DAMAGED BEYOND BELIEF, I would be more sympathetic than Ruthie's trashy behavior. At the end, I don't really feel like Alexa got the revenge she deserved. Her so-called "best friend" had betrayed her, giving Alexa's boyfriend a BLOW JOB, and yet Alexa was ready to forgive her. This just proves to me that sometimes the best people are the ones who get hurt the most. And that is not fair.
Romance: Aw, okay, the romance was definitely cute. Theo helped Alexa through a really tough time, not only through love, but through sports and exercise too *not going to tell you what sport, read it yourself to find out!* I do wish that Theo's character was introduced a little earlier on in the novel, just so we could have more swooniness! (is that even a word)
Conclusion: My Life in Black and White is definitely a strong novel that packs quite the punch *this pun will make sense if you READ THE BOOK* I definitely recommend this book for everyone, because it will speak to you in so many different ways.
xoxo,
Fiction_TheNewReality
I downloaded this book a long time ago and still haven't read it. It looks really interesting and I can already tell a lot of these characters will drive me crazy. Alexa seems like a great character, having your face being damaged like that has to have a major impact on your life. I will definitely be reading this book soon, thanks for the great review :)
ReplyDeleteThat's one of my favorite plots! And the changes the characters have make them more stronger!
ReplyDeleteThis novel's been sitting on my to-read shelf for quite a long time now and I'm sure to read it soon. Thanks for your review! :--)
ReplyDeleteI love these kinds of stories. The ones that are meant to mean something, to change the way you think and act, instead of just being a story to entertain. I think we need more stories like this one. About REAL real life. I am reading the Experiment in Terror series by Karina Halle right now, and while it has absolutely nothing to do with this story, and is not similar in any way, the main character Perry said something that struck me, and it fits with this story from what I have read of your review. This isn't a direct quote because my memory isn't all that great, but it was basically that she wished that the good people in life were the beautiful ones, and that the bad people in life were ugly. That it would make life so much easier. I agree with that, and it would make things so much simpler! Thank you so much for your review. I am going right now to see if I can find myself a copy of this book. Sorry I rambled!
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