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Book Review of Sweethearts

Sweethearts
Sweethearts
Author: Sara Zarr
Genres: Children's Books, Teen & Young Adult
Book Type: Hardcover
whippoorwill avatar reviewed on


Sweethearts is one of those novels that my words will always be inferior in describing. It's one of those novels that is experienced, not just read. It's a novel that makes you question yourself and what you believe about yourself, and the world, and your own personal history. It's what I like to call a "What If" novel. What if this happened to me? What would I do? What if there is no right or wrong way to react?

What would you do if someone from your past, someone you thought was dead (and might as well have been) suddenly reappears and brings along with him secrets and pain of a former life you thought you'd successfully buried long ago? For Jenna, the sudden reappearance of Cameron, her best childhood friend, brings confusing memories as she struggles to reconcile who she is now at 17, with the Jennifer she was in 5th grade.

I loved it. Loved it in a way I've loved only three other books: Raise High the Roof-beam Carpenters, Looking For Alaska, and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Novels that made me cry, hold my breath, and hope they would never end.

Sweethearts is the type of book that makes me wish it was around when I was a teen. It's a book I would have loved / needed at that age. Like Looking for Alaska and Nick and Norah, Sweethearts is a book that makes me wish I had the ability to go back in time and experience them again for the first time as a teen.

Rating: 5 closet food binges out of 5.