Mini Book Review: Before I Let Go by Marieke Nijkamp

33918883 Title: Before I Let Go

Author: Marieke Nijkamp

Genre: Mystery, Young Adult, Contemporary

Date Published: January 2nd, 2018

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Goodreads Rate: 3.26

Goodreads Synopsis:

Best friends Corey and Kyra were inseparable in their snow-covered town of Lost Creek, Alaska. When Corey moves away, she makes Kyra promise to stay strong during the long, dark winter, and wait for her return.

Just days before Corey is to return home to visit, Kyra dies. Corey is devastated―and confused. The entire Lost community speaks in hushed tones about the town’s lost daughter, saying her death was meant to be. And they push Corey away like she’s a stranger.

Corey knows something is wrong. With every hour, her suspicion grows. Lost is keeping secrets―chilling secrets. But piecing together the truth about what happened to her best friend may prove as difficult as lighting the sky in an Alaskan winter…

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Hiya bessies!

How are you all?

I received an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review. This doesn’t influence my review in any way.

This book review is a very long overdue. I’ve finished reading the book a very long time ago. I just didn’t manage to write a review of this because I was busy. So here it is now.

The book is about a girl, Corey, finding out her best friend, Kyra, died in their hometown while she’s studying somewhere else. She wanted to attend her best friend’s funeral. However, when she arrived at their hometown, she found out that there’s a whole other story behind Kyra’s death than what she heard from her parents. So she went investigating.

First thought about this book, I quite didn’t know that it was a diverse book. Haha! I’m sorry. It must have slipped my mind. But then when I figure out that it was indeed diverse and it talks about suicide and depression, I braced myself. Most books that have this kind of topic are kind of heavy for me especially because I can relate to it.

However, I wasn’t moved by this book. I like some of the parts of the book especially the parts where I could actually connect to the characters. But there are parts that I do not understand the point of it. Like, why put it there?

Also, if I understand the story correctly, what happened wasn’t suicide at all, it was murder. Sure the Kyra was depressed, very depressed, but she did not end herself, the whole town did. And all they talk about was her being a bright star and how she burnt out her brightness that is why she died. Like how sick is that?

Upon realizing that part of the book, I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I don’t wanna meet the people from that town. They’re so twisted.

The ending though, I kind of both like and hate the ending of it. I’m pretty sure that there is something that Corey could’ve done other than what she did. But maybe that’s how it supposed to be. Her best friend’s story wasn’t meant to be told to the outside world. Which, for me, kind of sucked because Kyra was an amazing girl; and despite her mental illness, she’s still fighting and being optimistic. She could be an inspiration to other people.

The narration was a bit confusing to me though. It was narrated using a third person point of view but there are chapters that use outsider’s view and sometimes a first person POV too. It was confusing at first but when I adjusted it was kind of fine. Still, I find it difficult to catch up because I sometimes don’t know what the change in the chapter was narrating about.

The story was good but I wasn’t into it as I thought I would be. I feel like this book would have a very huge message if the parts that were confusing and unimportant were gone.

If you are the kind of reader who likes a bit of mystery with their diverse read, this book is perfect for you. I still recommend this despite my review. 😀

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