Thursday, June 3, 2021

Book Review: When We Were Infinite by Kelly Loy Gilbert

 

Title: When We Were Infinite
Author: Kelly Loy Gilbert
Genre: Coming of Age, Contemporary; Romance; Young Adult
Publication Date: March 9th, 2021
Publisher: Simon & Schuester
TW: Emotional & Physical Abuse; Suicide

All Beth wants is for her tight-knit circle of friends — Grace Nakamura, Brandon Lin, Sunny Chen, and Jason Tsou — to stay together. With her family splintered and her future a question mark, these friends are all she has — even if she sometimes wonders if she truly fits in with them. Besides, she’s certain she’ll never be able to tell Jason how she really feels about him, so friendship will have to be enough.

Then Beth witnesses a private act of violence in Jason’s home, and the whole group is shaken. Beth and her friends make a pact to do whatever it takes to protect Jason, no matter the sacrifice. But when even their fierce loyalty isn’t enough to stop Jason from making a life-altering choice, Beth must decide how far she’s willing to go for him—and how much of herself she’s willing to give up.

 

Rating

*A Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this. This is my honest and unbiased review*
 
 Hello Fellow Readers,

This book is so much more than a coming of age young adult book, and explores so many themes that I'm surprised they all fit into this book. I wish I read this book as a teenager or at least very early adulthood but since I am much older than the target audience it didn't make as big as an impact as it should. This does not mean that the book is bad, quite the opposite actually.

Gilbert has a magical way of making you feel everything that Beth (the main character) is feeling from the very beginning which sucks you in. Considering the contents of the book and being so invested in the emotions of Beth will make some parts very hard to read and get through for some readers. They were times however that I found Beth to be a bit irritating, not sure if that was the adult in me but certain actions or times (especially around her mother) which made me want to reach in a pull her out to explain that she should stop.
 
I had remind myself multiple times that Beth is just a teenager and combined with her neglectful father, picking a college, and being faced with what's going on in Jason's life, this is a very tumultuous time in her life. She is not always going to make the most logical decisions and what may seems obvious to us won't be for a teenage girl who has no reason to rely on anyone but her friends. 
 
Overall, this is a very powerful book.

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