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This Is Sarah by Ally Malinenko Review

This Is Sarah

When Colin Leventhal leaned out his bedroom window on the night of May 12th and said goodbye to his girlfriend, he never expected it would be forever. But when Sarah Evans goes missing that night, Colin’s world unravels as he transforms from the boyfriend next door to the main police suspect. Then one year later, at her memorial service, Colin makes a phone call that changes everything. Is it possible that Sarah is still alive? And if so how can he bring her back?

As Colin struggles with this possibility, across the street, Sarah’s little sister, Claire learns how to navigate the strange new landscape of life without her sister. While her parents fall apart, Claire remains determined to keep going even if it kills her.

Plot:

This Is Sarah has to be the most painful book that I’ve read this year. When I first received the book from the publisher, I thought, “Okay, this will be a fun, light read.” The book ended up taking me a really long time to get through, though. Not because I disliked it–which is my usual reason for taking my time with books–but because of just how raw and almost overpowering the emotions were.

And, don’t get me wrong, I love that. It just made me think. A lot.

Colin and Claire are two people who have both lost someone very close to them and are watching their own lives and the lives of other people change around them because of the disappearance of this one girl. It wasn’t a suicide. It wasn’t a runaway. Colin’s girlfriend and Claire’s sister, Sarah, was just gone.

In some parts of the book, I was a little bit confused, but the plot moved along well enough that even when I felt as though I had missed something, everything cleared up and began to make sense again very quickly.

This book wasn’t the light reading that I thought it would be at all. It was heavy and took a lot of time to process, but it was good because of this. I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

Plot: 4 out of 5

Characters:

This was an extremely character oriented book. Colin, our main protagonist, was dealing with the heartbreak of losing the love of his life, cycling through the stages of grief. Most of the book evolved from these feelings and how they affected not only he, but all of those around him. We catch glimpses of who Colin was before these feelings set in and all of the pain and suffering really shines through because of this.

Claire, on the other hand, deals with a pain a little bit differently. While she too is heartbroken about the loss of her sister, she has accepted the fact that she is gone much more than Colin has. In her case, we watch how her whole family begins to fall apart after Sarah’s loss. Claire internalizes the majority of her feelings as she watches her family slowly drift apart. We see and feel the pain that is ripping her apart, as well.

Emotions are a strong focus of this book, but a lot of character development was shown because of this.

Characters: 4 out of 5

Writing Style/Setting

The writing style was well handled for this book. Because of the strong focus on emotions and back story, there was no real focus on setting. There really isn’t much else to say on the topic other than that. The book did not really need a vivid setting, though. The lack of one really made everything else shine through.

Writing Style/Setting: 4 out of 5

Overall 4 out of 5 stars. This book was a difficult read, but a good one. There is a good bit of language in the book, so parents may want to keep that in mind, but otherwise the book was clean. Interested in getting a copy? You can buy This Is Sarah by Ally Malinenko on Amazon for $9.89.

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