pages: 340
read: 4/2-7/2019
rating: like yea but WHAT!?
book: 31 in 2019
SYNOPSIS
Almost everyone in the small town of Splendor, Ohio, was affected when the local steel mill exploded. If you weren't a casualty of the accident yourself, chances are a loved one was. That's the case for seventeen-year-old Franny, who, five years after the explosion, still has to stand by and do nothing as her brother lies in a coma.
In the wake of the tragedy, Franny found solace in a group of friends whose experiences mirrored her own. The group calls themselves The Ordinary, and they spend their free time investigating local ghost stories and legends, filming their exploits for their small following of YouTube fans. It's silly, it's fun, and it keeps them from dwelling on the sadness that surrounds them.
Until one evening, when the strange and dangerous thing they film isn't fiction--it's a bright light, something massive hurtling toward them from the sky. And when it crashes and the teens go to investigate...everything changes.
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION
yea i liked it but i have no idea wtf i just read.
LONG VERSION
Ahm, hmm.
I finished this book at about 230/3am Saturday into Sunday morning. (I'm writing this the day I finished it at 12pm now but who knows when I'll get to publish it since I'm a bit behind actually posting these)....
And I have to say, idk wtf I just read.
Emily Henry is known for her magic/surrealism writing and I love her for it. Admittedly, her first book had me a bit lost. i didn't really know what i was reading. and meanwhile for her second one I was a bit more prepared on what to expect and had a better grip, her third book completely threw me off.
It's still surrealism. Just, in a different angle (?). I'm not sure.
I've read that this book is compared to the serpent king and stranger things.
I can see stranger things. I'm a huge chicken shit so I was already scared reading a few pages in, in the dark in my own room! but over all, yes. I can see the resemblance. it has soome outer space thing that's running amok in the town and of course the kids are left to well, figure it out.
As for the serpent king, well, I wasn't a fan of that book. There certainly were moments that I loved but I still stand by the whole "nothing really happens" thing except for it ripping your fucking heart out bc of Travis! I can see that it's the same in the aspect of friendship. Instead of 3 its 6. And I honestly loved this group of 6 (some more than the others and maybe it was their interactions with each other vs them individually) and also the whole small town/nothing will ever happen here & were doomed basically if we stay/we gotta get out of here deal.
basically, those 2 match this book in the sense that:
Small town = small town tragedy: ✔
Friendship bonded together over tragedy: ✔
Beat this shit together & live happily ever after: ✔
...as much as I wanted this book not to be compared to TSK, well, it is similar. Lots.
Especially in the sense that, a whole lot of movement happens but, nothing really explains the happenings until pg 320. And this book is 340 pages long.
So much was going on with everyone having a piece of something going on, and all the Ahhh!!!! And you finally piece it together starting chapter 34 and then you're like oh! This is what it's all about.
And....well, really?
In the sense of a reader I was like really!?
ALL
OF
THIS
just to get this!?
But then as I'm assuming Henry might have ever felt, I'm like oh, okay. This is about the universe and how shit happens and how a million things have to happen to give you what you currently have and you should appreciate it no matter what because its yours!
This books a lot about black holes and the universe and the Fibonacci spiral and it had me all over the place and more lost than not. It talked a lot about outer space shit that I've never even heard of and man, Henry really shows her knowledge here. I can imagine someone who loves outer space and stuff like that geeking out over this (assuming that it is all correct. I honestly have no idea.)
I'm rambling on.
Overall, I'm glad I read it.
I'm probably going to have to re read it several more times to fully understand it.
But I gotta say, if I look at it from the "universe and everything happening to give you what you have" angle, then good fucking job.
But I also gotta say, A LOOOOOOOT happens, too much, to justify the reasoning in regards to why it all happened for me.
I cant really spoil it for you in details because i don't even know how to explain it as i read so just jump over for the allness of it.
Thx for reading!
SPOILERS
Straight to the point because I couldn't even if I tried.
CHARACTERS:
Franny & Arthur (bro & sis), Sofia, Nick, Remy & Levi (cousins).
There's this house, The Jenkins house, that's sposably haunted, they go in there to record videos to upload to YouTube. They're there one night when they notice this blinding white light thing.
They go to the source, they break in and Arthur being Arthur goes towards the thing and touches it. Franny tries to stop him and they all pass out for about 6 hrs.
5 years ago, Franny & Arthur's brother Mark & Nick's dad and Sofia's aunt and grandpa ( I think that was it for 'fia) were at the mill the day of the accident. they all pass away with the exception of Mark who has been in a comma for 5 years.
Everyone blames it on Wayne Hastings (solely because he called out. they thought he had planned it.)
when they touched the thing, i guess it was a being or idk what that went into them and gave them superpowers of some sorts.
Franny had the power to create crazy amounts of energy
Sofia had the power to see inside their minds kinda like see what they are seeing at the moment.
Levi slept walked. and that kept leading them to Hastings house.
Remy...idk wtf he had.
Nick kept having these visions about a red piano
and Arthur was idk the power of knowledge? like putting it all together?
oh! and Droog, their dog also had the power to i guess lead the way seeing whats in front of her....tbh, idk.
(this is why you don't wait 20 days to write out the spoiler. im lost! gah!!!!)
anyway.
so they all have these powers. (Nick and Arthur's really don't kick in until the end.)
Levi goes over the footage and sees things, he calls the gang over and long story short, of course it ends up on YouTube where most people call bullshit, some believe and then there's the one that tells them to delete it right away or the wrong people will get their hands on them and it'll only be worse for them.
Remy and Fran meet one night and he tells her that he sorta saw it happen since he was the furthest from the explosion (but then why did Droog get powers also? she was outside the fence!) and she tells him about the dude who left the comment about deleting it and Rem thinks they should contact him.
Fran does and basically he tells her that the same thing happened to him and all this shit and long story short on that subject, once shit hits the fan, he manages to find out where fran is at.
he kidnaps her and almost kills her and Sofia and it turns out at this dude wanted to kidnap them to i guess kill her and take whatever it is that was inside of both of them.
his wife saw the emails once he left and alerted the authorities since hes kind of a nut about this.
ANYWAY because idk where I'm at.
the whole point of the story is that Fran & Arthur's creepy neighbor, the one that everyone blames for the mine explosion, was actually just trying to get in touch with his daughter Molly.
and this being or whatever the fuck was his daughter in a sense trying to get to him?
idk.
it all comes back to all the kids and that guy.
and communication.
and then Franny telling Mark that its okay for him to move on if he wants to because they'll always meet again.
.
.
.
honestly, don't wait to write down spoilers because then you get this shitty deal. lol
if it helps, i don't really know what i read to begin with. i have to re-read this to really understand what i read.
sorry for the worst spoilers i've ever done on here!
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