ARC Review: This is Not a Love Letter by Kim Purcell

Book info:

Title:  This is Not a Love Letter
Author:  Kim Purcell
Genre:  YA contemporary
Release Date:  January 30th, 2018
Publisher:  Disney Hyperion
Source: ARC received from Publisher
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
One week. That's all Jessie said. A one-week break to get some perspective before graduation, before she and her boyfriend, Chris, would have to make all the big, scary decisions about their future--decisions they had been fighting about for weeks.

Then, Chris vanishes. The police think he's run away, but Jessie doesn't believe it. Chris is popular and good-looking, about to head off to college on a full-ride baseball scholarship. And he disappeared while going for a run along the river--the same place where some boys from the rival high school beat him up just three weeks ago. Chris is one of the only black kids in a depressed paper mill town, and Jessie is terrified of what might have happened.

As the police are spurred to reluctant action, Jessie speaks up about the harassment Chris kept quiet about and the danger he could be in. But there are people in Jessie's town who don't like the story she tells, who are infuriated by the idea that a boy like Chris would be a target of violence. They smear Chris’s character and Jessie begins receiving frightening threats.

Every Friday since they started dating, Chris has written Jessie a love letter. Now Jessie is writing Chris a letter of her own to tell him everything that’s happening while he’s gone. As Jessie searches for answers, she must face her fears, her guilt, and a past more complicated than she would like to admit.

My Review:
Okay, so, this book really had a little bit of everything in it.  And while it started off a bit slow, after a short bit, it got to the point where I couldn't put it down.  In fact the way the story was slow makes a lot of sense, because it is spent with the characters, waiting on any scrap of news or clue as to what happened to the  missing boy, Chris.  The author kept me guessing for most of the way through the book, something that I really enjoy when reading.  Every character in this book had their own cross to bear, their own sins - their own demons.  Just like in real life, there usually aren't going to be cut and dried "bad guys".  That doesn't mean that the people in this book that are the bad guys don't do terrible things.  They do, and while you may feel some sympathy for them after certain facts come to life, they still do things that make them the bad guys. Not only that, there is a character that you probably won't like.  I didn't.  Jessie didn't. But in the end, along with Jessie, you will realize that maybe that person isn't quite the horrible person they've been made out to be.  Maybe they do deserve a little leeway and understanding of their own situation. 

As I started out saying, this book touches on so many different topics, very heavy ones as well.  Depression, bullying, racism, family issues, and LGBT issues, just to name a few.  While reading, I kept imagining who could be responsible, what could possibly have happened to Chris.  And even though I knew that with the feel of the book, something bad had probably happened to him, I couldn't keep myself from imagining what ways he could possibly still be alive, and that in the end we could have an unexpected, highly unlikely, happy ending. When the news that I knew was coming no matter what actually was delivered in the story, tears began streaming down my face.  The way the characters were written, the emotions and reactions they had to the news just hit me so hard.  I knew it had to be going that way, the more clues and background information that we got.  But I kept hoping so hard, even after it was pretty much assured what was coming, that some way, some how, we could get Chris back without any heartache.  Because with all the flashbacks and memories of Chris, I kinda fell in love with him, and really wanted the chance to meet him in the present day of this story.

A great story, an author I look forward to reading more from in the future.  Definitely a book I want to add to my high school library collection, and one I will recommend when I work at my part-time job at the bookstore. 

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

I hadn't heard about this book until I listened to the author at a YA Panel at the RT Convention this past May.  It was a panel on tough issues, which this definitely is one.  So once she talked about it, I had to buy it.  And I was not disappointed.  As with the other books I've enjoyed by this author, Transcendence and Intuition, the writing was very good.  And what I mean by that is that it flowed so seamlessly it was hard to put the book down because I wanted to know what would happen next, I was so involved in the story.
Dirty Little Secrets is the story of Lucy.  Lucy's mother is a hoarder.  Lucy has had trouble in the past keeping friends once they saw what her house really looked like on the inside.  The piles of newspapers, and stacks of boxes, and the disgustingly dirty kitchen, what counter space there is showing, is covered by mold. The house smells of rotten trash.  When she lost her last friend from seeing the house, Lucy asked to be transferred from the private school to public school, to get away from all the teasing.  To get where no one knew.  And now she has a best friend named Kaylee.  And the book starts with the girls out for a movie.  And they see in line two boys that they're interested in.  When Kaylee goes up to talk to the guy she likes, Lucy is left with Josh, a guy that she thinks is cute.  And they kind of seem to hit it off.  He even invites her to a party that his band is playing at the next night.  Lucy kind of floats home on cloud nine.  Only to walk in and find her mother on the floor under one of the piles of trash.  And she is dead.  Lucy can see that she was reaching for her asthma inhaler, and unable to get to it.  All Lucy can think about is that once she calls 911, the secret will be out, everyone will know that her mother was a hoarder.  The house is so bad in fact, that Lucy knows the paramedics won't even be able to get a stretcher through the house to get her mother.  And so she comes up with the plan that she must get as much cleaned as she can before they come.  It's cold out, and she hopes that if she keeps the house cold enough, she'll be able to get by without calling 911 long enough to get the house cleaned enough to help her not be so ashamed.  As she starts cleaning, we get to read memories of her past, and how things got to this point.  We learn more about her sister and brother, and how they got out of the house as soon as they could.  Now Lucy must decide if she can go meet Josh at the party or not.  And she must figure out how in the world to clean up the house, when before it had even got to this point, when they'd still been able to use the kitchen, it had taken 3 people 2 weeks to clean it.
This is such a good story.  And I'm sure there are people out there, kids, that are dealing with things like this at home.  While you may not agree with how Lucy decides to handle the situation, you'll have to admit after reading her story, that it is easily understandable why she makes the decisions she does at her age.
Now, reading this made me really start itching to get my house cleaned.  My upstairs bedroom has definitely started piling up, books, stuff from school, stuff from working on my last degree, and things that I had intended to sell in a garage sale that we've not ended up having this summer.  So after reading this, I'm pretty motivated to get in there and start throwing things away as well as cleaning and organizing.