Spoilery Book Reviews

When We Collided by Emery Lord

Back of the book

Seventeen-year-old Jonah Daniels has lived in Verona Cove, California, his whole life and only one thing has changed: his father used to be alive, and now he's not. Reeling from the tragedy, Jonah must take care of his family.

Enter Vivi Alexander, new girl in town.

Vivi is in love with life. A gorgeous, unfiltered hurricane of thoughts and feelings, she transforms Jonah's family and changes his life.

But there are always consequences when two worlds collide...

My thoughts

I adore these characters. Vivi is full of life, vivacious, and extroverted. Not just Jonah, but everyone in the town falls in love with her. Jonah is the opposite of Vivi, level-headed, calm and responsible. The grief of losing his father weighs him down further, so Vivi helps him find his inner child again.

The setting is gorgeous too, Verona Cove, California. It's easy to see why these characters had a whirlwind romance. Everything is a whirlwind or hurricane with Vivi involved. But this book is so much more than a young adult summer love.

This novel was written as two POV's, Vivi and Jonah, alternating. It worked beautifully. It allowed us to have one foot in calm reality while Vivi spun into mania. As a re-read, I was always trying to pinpoint where it went from normal Vivi-ness to manic Vivi. Vivi is always loud and bright and wild, so her mania is not instantly apparent as it would be if Jonah started having symptoms.

I would have liked if this book engaged more with the identity crisis that having bipolar creates. Where the diagnosed person must decide and draw the line between their normal actions, and what was too far. With so many mental illnesses the symptoms are seen as a choice, a battle of willpower, and someone who is stuck in bed with depression is just lazy. That of course is not the case, but mental illness cannot be visualised and it is 'all in your head' so too often people see it that way, including the person with mental illness.

I understand Vivi's rage. That she doesn't want to have bipolar. She doesn't want to have this disease that makes her out of control, engages in actions that hurt her friends and family. Surprisingly, Vivi engages in very little self-loathing, which is how I would respond to something like that. I loved that she didn't hate her body and mentioned gaining weight. That's a rarity in novels.

There was one scene that made me a little uncomfortable, where Jonah appeared not very willing to engage sexually with Vivi but then he gave in. Other than that scene I loved that Vivi was overt with her sexual desire, showing the narrative that teenage girls are horny too.

I couldn't fault this book. The writing flows well and is exceptionally expressive. I fell in love just as fast and hard as the characters and sobbed when things all went wrong. I am a sucker for a non 'cookie-cutter' happy ending, which this book had. It had a truthful, hard ending but it was beautiful which didn't detract from its sadness. I highly recommend a read because majority of this book is beautiful and fun until the consequences catch up with the characters and the dark undercurrent becomes the focus.

TL:DR

A gorgeous book about love, pain, loss and mental illness. If you've read All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven and liked it, this is another stunning story you'll enjoy.