For some reason, Where the Crawdads Sing gave me a serious book hangover. The book that I picked up to read after it was not The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (sorry, MB >_<) but rather The Chaos of Standing Still by Jessica Brody.
I picked up this book a couple weeks ago at Barnes and Noble. It was on an end cap and the cover was really pretty! I read the back of the book and figured that I'd give it a try. As I'm sure that some of you have noticed, I haven't been reading a lot of YA lately. I haven't found anything that I've been excited to read (but that will all change with my next review!)
Was this the best book to read after a book hangover? Meh, that remains to be seen but I couldn't think of any other way to start off this review....
The Chaos of Standing Still introduces the reader to Ryn Gilbert, an 18 year old who spent the last 11 months and 31 days on learning how to navigate through her life without her best friend, Lottie. Ryn is on her way home from Atlanta, but due to a blizzard and a lay over at the Denver Airport- Ryn won't be able to make it home for the 1 year anniversary of Lottie's death.
The story flashes back between the present, with Ryn being in the airport during the snow and in the past through a series of flashbacks.
With each flashback, the reader learns more about Lottie and Ryn's relationship with her. Lottie was this intense force field that was constantly moving around Ryn; she seemed to influence everything that Ryn did. Without Lottie, Ryn's life completely fell apart. I'm not a psychologist and I'm not going to try and diagnosis a character but as the reader, you could tell that there was something going on with Ryn. She seemed to be very withdrawn and at times, you could sense that she was anxious. Ryn has an obsession with googling questions for answers; regardless of the question, she was always looking for an answer.
Ryn trips and falls, causing her to unknowingly switch phones with a guy named Xander. This accidental swap causes a chain reaction of a series of events that create one very unforgettable night at the Denver Airport for Ryn. It's a night that causes her to think back to Lottie and to help her move forward.
The only way you're going to find out about the events from that night is if you read the book. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone!
I found The Chaos of Standing Still to be super heavy! The topic that it tackles, for me, was something that I found to be heavy. Ryan has a massive amount of survivor's guilt toward what happened. Here is this girl, she lost her best friend and as a result, she lost her ability to live. That's not something that's easy to digest. When you learn about their past, to me, it seemed like Ryn really loved Lottie. I thought that maybe it was more than a friendship type of love. Feel free to disagree with me but I seemed to me that Ryn was in LOVE with Lottie. So much so, that her feeling toward Xander kinda surprised me.
As the reader, your heart broke for Ryn :(
I would Brody's book a solid 4 coffee beans out of 5.
(I actually lent my copy out to a co-worker! I'm looking forward to hear what she has to say about the book.)
-JB
I picked up this book a couple weeks ago at Barnes and Noble. It was on an end cap and the cover was really pretty! I read the back of the book and figured that I'd give it a try. As I'm sure that some of you have noticed, I haven't been reading a lot of YA lately. I haven't found anything that I've been excited to read (but that will all change with my next review!)
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| For some reason plants make me think of airports |
The Chaos of Standing Still introduces the reader to Ryn Gilbert, an 18 year old who spent the last 11 months and 31 days on learning how to navigate through her life without her best friend, Lottie. Ryn is on her way home from Atlanta, but due to a blizzard and a lay over at the Denver Airport- Ryn won't be able to make it home for the 1 year anniversary of Lottie's death.
The story flashes back between the present, with Ryn being in the airport during the snow and in the past through a series of flashbacks.
With each flashback, the reader learns more about Lottie and Ryn's relationship with her. Lottie was this intense force field that was constantly moving around Ryn; she seemed to influence everything that Ryn did. Without Lottie, Ryn's life completely fell apart. I'm not a psychologist and I'm not going to try and diagnosis a character but as the reader, you could tell that there was something going on with Ryn. She seemed to be very withdrawn and at times, you could sense that she was anxious. Ryn has an obsession with googling questions for answers; regardless of the question, she was always looking for an answer.
Ryn trips and falls, causing her to unknowingly switch phones with a guy named Xander. This accidental swap causes a chain reaction of a series of events that create one very unforgettable night at the Denver Airport for Ryn. It's a night that causes her to think back to Lottie and to help her move forward.
The only way you're going to find out about the events from that night is if you read the book. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone!
I found The Chaos of Standing Still to be super heavy! The topic that it tackles, for me, was something that I found to be heavy. Ryan has a massive amount of survivor's guilt toward what happened. Here is this girl, she lost her best friend and as a result, she lost her ability to live. That's not something that's easy to digest. When you learn about their past, to me, it seemed like Ryn really loved Lottie. I thought that maybe it was more than a friendship type of love. Feel free to disagree with me but I seemed to me that Ryn was in LOVE with Lottie. So much so, that her feeling toward Xander kinda surprised me.
As the reader, your heart broke for Ryn :(
I would Brody's book a solid 4 coffee beans out of 5.
(I actually lent my copy out to a co-worker! I'm looking forward to hear what she has to say about the book.)
-JB
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