Book Review: Over You by Amy Reed

Please note: Christie talks about Over You by Amy Reed as part of the Hidden Gems of YA Contemporary 16.  Check out her post here for the full review.

Here’s a little taste . . .

“I trail a few steps behind, giving you and Lark some space to catch up. But I need space too- just a few feet around me to breathe and take in my surreal surroundings. Just last night, I was hugging my dad goodbye and getting on a red-eye flight to Denver, asking him over and over again with rising panic in my voice if he was going to be okay without me, never believing him when he said yes. Is this how most teenagers react to spending a summer away from home? Is it normal to fear the world is going to fall apart without me? Is it normal for a seventeen-year-old girl to think her parents can’t take care of themselves?

Now it’s like I’m on a different planet. We’ve been deposited in this strange pace where dogs are named after revolutionaries, where people live in tents, where mothers hug you every chance they can get. We’re surrounded by unremarkable miles of corn, but here, hidden in plain sight, is this magical green place. You are glowing, like being near Lark has lit up some dormant place inside you, and maybe I don’t’ have to worry about you anymore either. This is what I try to focus on- your happiness, your second chance- not the jealousy jabbing at my heart, not the yearning for my own mother who’s arms used to be as open as Lark’s, whose love used to be that free, but who is now lost to me despite still living in my same house.

You always tell me I make things too complicated, I over-think everything, I am incapable of living in the moment. You told me this summer was going to be all about focusing on the now. It seems like it should be so easy, but I have to remind myself to feel the sun warming my skin, to smell the perfume of lavender in the air, to see my best fried in the whole world happy and calm and momentarily unwracked by the chaos that seems to follow you like a cloud. Yes, in this moment, right here and now, I think I’m happy too.”

Filed under: Amy Reed, Book Reviews, Over You