REVIEW: A LOVE STORY STARRING MY DEAD BEST FRIEND by EMILY HORNER

REVIEW: A LOVE STORY STARRING MY DEAD BEST FRIEND by EMILY HORNER

*Note: Because I found two different synopsises and I couldn't pick between them because they're both different, I've decided to post both*

For months, Cass Meyer has heard her best friend Julia, a wannabe Broadway composer, whispering about a top-secret project. Then Julia is killed in a sudden car accident, and while Cass is still reeling from her death, Julia’s boyfriend and her other drama friends make it their mission to bring to fruition the nearly-completed secret project: a musical about an orphaned ninja princess entitled Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad.

Cass isn’t one of the drama people. She doesn’t feel at home with Julia’s drama friends, and she doesn’t see a place for her in the play. Things only get worse when she finds out that Heather Galloway, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school, has been cast as the ninja princess.

Cass can’t take a summer of swallowing her pride and painting sets, so she decides to follow her original plan for a cross-country road trip with Julia. Even if she has a touring bicycle instead of a driver’s license, and even if Julia’s ashes are coming along in Tupperware.

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend is a story about friendship. About love. About traveling a thousand miles just to find yourself. About making peace with the past, and making sense of it. And it’s a story about the bloodiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

**

Cassie is in grief over the death of her best friend, Julia, who died behind the wheel in a road accident. She had unrequited romantic feelings for her friend, and now she is determined to cycle from Illinois to California with Julia's ashes, so she can scatter them in the ocean that Julia never managed to see.

Over the course of her trip, through various experiences and encounters, Cassie confirms to herself that she is gay. And then, when her bike and most of her money is stolen, she discovers her true friends and a sort of unhoped-for salvation.

Interspersed through the narrative is the unfolding love story between Heather and Cassie, as Heather slowly reveals to Cassie her true feelings, and Cassie begins to open up to the possibility of reciprocal romance.


See what I mean about the different synopsises? Anyway :P

As soon as I picked it up, I was excited and thought, this is exactly the type of novel that I love reading.

Upon starting it, I had a 'whoa' moment and realised that it took another direction altogether!

The novel split between two times: the Then and the Now.

As in, Then when Cassie went on the trip to honour Julia and the Now of the play and the aftermath.

At first, I'm not sure if it was because I'm completely daft (and I hope that's not the reason!) or I read it too quickly because I wanted to find out what happened, but I got a bit mixed up between the times and lost track of what was what.

But once I had that Duh! moment when I realised I had lost track, I re-read bits of it and got up to date, and from then on it was all good.

Somewhere in the first half of this novel I meandered between like and dislike. I thought it dragged a bit. My like and dislike also changed frequently, depending on the page. But from about half way it was awesome.

I loved the entire second half, after a somewhat slow start.

I also meandered between wanting to read the Then and the Now. Often the story-lines of both were left on such cliff-hangers that I wanted to keep reading that part and not stop!

Cass was a likeable character, dealing with two things: the death of her best friend, Julia, and coming to terms with her sexuality.

I think only one criticism I have - apart from me getting confused (but then again, that could be just me) - is that I wanted to see some sort of resolution between Cass and Maggie - in a very dramatic, girly type move, it all ended in shouts and slammed doors. And by dramatic and girly type way, I don't mean that in a bad way. Quite the opposite in fact. I was laughing to myself about how real that was!

I felt an email or something would have been nice to wrap up that story line. And Emily did leave that gate open - Maggie said she wanted Cass to email her, yet in the novel, she didn't.

I also thought it was a bit convenient that a lesbian happened to pick Cass up on the side of the highway, but hey. She was needed for the story and short of Cass sneaking underage into a gay nightclub, I guess it had to happen somehow.

I really liked their sub-plot actually. I thought it was innocent and sweet and cute, but, as I said, I would have liked some more resolution.

Actually, speaking of criticism, I have two more: I didn't think it was realistic that Cassie's parents would let their sixteen year old daughter go on a road trip via bicycle for months by herself. I would have believed it more if Cass was slightly older, perhaps eighteen.

Similarly, I also didn't think Julia's parents would have let Cassie take Julia's ashes with her!!!! I mean, I know Cassie was Julia's best friend, but they are her parents!

Apart from those two things - which I quickly got over - the novel was great.

I loved the trip and the description - I felt like I was there.

I loved the awkward teenage moments, the shared and second-hand friends, the beginnings of a relationship, the hurt when someone dies, the complications when you like a friend a little bit more than you should.

Emily really captured the way that teenagers think, speak and act.

I also liked the end. I won't spoil it, but it was cute.

Over all, it was a cute, enjoyable novel with an awesome sub-plot of the play. That, of course, was inter-woven with sadness because Julia wrote the play, but it was silly and funny and I liked it.

One last thing - how awesome is the cover? Love it!


Its out at the end of the month, and I strongly recommend you read it.

For more information, you can check Emily's site
and Penguin Australia