Over You

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Simon Pulse and Edelweiss.)Max and Sadie are best friends, and have been inseparable since they were small. Max is Sadie's keeper though. She is always doing damage control, always making Sadie leave when she's too drunk, always the designated driver, and always the one that clears up Sadie's messes.This summer Sadie and Max are going to visit Sadie's mom who lives in a commune on a farm. Sadie and Max are expected to work in the fields harvesting the crops, and both are a little concerned about how bad it is going to be.Only a few days into their summer Sadie becomes ill and is diagnosed with mono, she's told that she must be quarantined so that the rest of the commune don't catch it, and Max must move out of their shared trailer, and continue working without Sadie.It is this forced absence from Sadie that lets Max realise that there is more to life than looking after Sadie, that she has her own ideas and dreams.How will Sadie feel about this though? How will she react to the fact that Max is no longer going to be her slave? And what will happen at the end of the summer?This was an interesting `coming-of-age' story, but it won't be to everybody's taste.Max was clearly the responsible one of her and Sadie's friendship. She was always looking after Sadie, clearing up her messes, and performing damage control, and had been doing it for a long time. The dynamics in their relationship was a little difficult because of this, and I liked it when Max realised that she wasn't only Sadie's friend, and that she had a life of her own.Sadie was quite a spoiled character, and was ultimately very selfish. Everything was about her, and Max was expected to go along with whatever she was doing, and be there to pick up the pieces afterwards. Even though the whole summer at the commune was Sadie's dad's idea, Max was expected to go along like a lapdog, and it was unfair the way that Max was like a replacement mother to Sadie.There was a love interest in this book called Dylan, but he wasn't as much a feature in the story as the blurb has you believe. Max and Dylan did have a sort-of relationship at points, and Sadie was jealous, but this wasn't the main storyline.There wasn't really all that much romance in this book at all really, there were some romantic encounters, but overall the book was quite light on romance.I liked the storyline in this book, mainly as I really wanted Max to come to her senses and stop pandering to Sadie. Sadie really needed a wake-up call, and some lessons in how to treat her friend. Even though she did apologise at points, and she did begin being nicer to Max, it was obvious that she didn't really want Max to have a life outside of her.The first ~40% of this book was written in a strange way, it was first person, but it was written like Max was writing/ talking to Sadie - `You ran away from me', `"No way!" You say'. This was a little odd to get used to, and I liked it better when the author changed this style half-way through the book to a normal first-person way of writing.Each of the chapters also had a little intro to it, some of which were a little odd. Each intro was about a Greek god, or the devil and other stuff (I don't remember them all!), one was definitely about Artemis, another was Nereids (Goddesses of lakes?), and then there were pieces about love and war. I think these intros were supposed to relate to the next part of the story, but many were just a bit too obtuse for me to really get!Overall; this was an interesting YA coming-of-age story, but the lyrical way of writing, and the letter-style narration of the first half of the book will not be to everyone's taste.7 out of 10.

Amy Reed never ceases to amaze me. Every single time I start one of her books, I think that it can't possibly be as good as the last one. And every single time I'm wrong. Reed's writing is consistently amazing. All of her books left me with a case of "oh my gosh, this book is so fantastic I can't even articulate my feelings towards it", and Over You isn't any different.Max is a headstrong character who is able to successfully carry her own during the story. Her best friend Sadie, however, is nearly the exact opposite. Sadie is the wild one. She doesn't have a problem with partying and breaking the rules. Despite Sadie being unruly, Max can't help but follow her to Nebraska. In Nebraska, Max starts to realize that she wants to try and distance herself from Sadie, and build her own life. To me, Over You is about Max trying to overcome her previous life as Sadie's "sidekick". She has to learn to make her own choices, not ones that revolve around Sadie. However, Sadie also has a chance to grow. Sadie has to learn how to treat Max better- and how to overall treat people with more respect.Over You, though at times slow, was a great novel. I loved that it wasn't all about romance and boys (despite what the summary leads you to believe). It was about two friends trying to balance out their relationship with each other, while also trying to navigate being a teenager (which, let's face it- is a really awkward time in life). Reed is a fantastic writer. Her writing is lyrical and upfront. I would highly suggest Over You, along with the rest of Reed's novels.

great

The perspective in this one threw me at first, but not enough to put it down. The point of view is just weird. It is from Max's pov, so she is the "I" but it is also second person because Sadie is"you". So it is like she is writing a letter, or telling the story to us, but as the reader we are in Sadie's pov. Like I said, confusing, but I got used to it. It also changed at about the halfway point because Sadie got sick. Oh, and I didn't like the things at the beginning of chapters. I have seen lots of authors use a short quote, but this was like page or more long of stuff about the goddess and stuff, and it just wasn't my style, so I skipped over it. I do think it is neat in theory because Max is interested in the classics as for literature and she grew up hearing myths. The setting is also unique. Sadie and Max are on a commune, what her called an intentional community." They chose to live a different way, and they chose to be around each other, sharing the work, the places to sleep, cook, eat and shower. The animals, and the people help Max to learn so much about herself and realize what she wants changed and how she needs to change for that to happen. One of those things is the codependency and her need to rescue Sadie from herself. I don't think that she fully gets there, but over the course of the book she definitely starts changing the friendship to a more healthy and standing up for herself more. So, in the end, I feel like there is so much hope and promise for Max's future and what she learned over the summer. This is a book for mature teens only because it deals with drinking, marijuana use, language, codependency, and some sexual situations. Nothing is too explicit though. The drinking goes a little far, but it comes with consequences, it shows how scared Max is when Sadie over does it or makes poor decisions because of it. The ending wasn't as wrapped up as I'd have liked it, but like I said it does end at a good spot, where Max is making a huge stand for herself. She is going back to figure out if she can piece together the mess that is her family, because she'd neglected them to some extent for Sadie, and I think that is a good first step. She will def have to stay strong though because if she let them, they could be the next place where she self sacrifices herself.Bottom Line: Over You is a dark, gritty but realistic book that had some powerful themes and messages.