"Thank you for showing me I could feel as alive as I do in the pages of my books," -Unknown
Disclaimer: Vaughan contacted me and asked me to give an unbiased review of her novel, I'm On Your Side, in turn for the ebook for free.
Here is the book synopsis:
"When Cassie is placed with her newest foster family, the Benders, she is hoping for nothing more than a place to stay. But when she meets Jeremy she stumbles into a friendship she hadn't realized she wanted. Jeremy might be the one person who can understand her, the only one who's been dealt a rougher hand than she has. When Jeremy finally opens up about his closely guarded past he makes her promise not to tell anyone, and Cassie is left with a choice. Keep her promise and abandon Jeremy to a world that has already taken so much from him. Or don't keep it, and doom him to the life she's been wishing to escape for years."
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| I'm On Your Side by Emily J. Vaughan |
Synopsis and cover photo from Emily's Website.
Like most reviews, I will start out by talking about the things that I didn't like about the book, and reveal my star rating at the end.
I felt that some of the flaws were the writing. While it wasn't inherently boring - I kept reading, of course, it never embellished the story like good writing should. In my opinion, the prose of a story should always enhance what is happening, by making something more intense, more heartfelt, more whatever the author is trying to convey via word choice, phrase variation, etc. And while Vaughan's writing style is functional and there's nothing inherently wrong with it, it didn't add much to the story in the way of a literary art form, as it should. Some moments that should have been dragged out with visceral detail, were written in flat narration. Some moments of expression or feeling could have been enriched with clever figurative language. It wasn't all that distracting, but this novel could have been taken to the next level with a unique writing style.
But maybe that's just me being picky.
Another thing is that I feel that this book should be longer. It felt like it took place in such a short amount of time, and this might be because it's a novella, but everything could have been taken to a much deeper level if it was a full length novel. I say this because I was enjoying myself throughout the book, but felt unsatisfied at times because of it's clipped pace. I wanted to spend more time with Cassie, Jeremy, Megan, and Bill. I wanted these side characters to be more developed. I wanted more side plots and insight into their backstories and emotional change and healing. However, this was all limited because the novel was only 44,000 words. The climax would have been more impactful if more time within the story as well as time outside of the story (length) had been taken to develop everything.
However, I must give Ms. Vaughan props for developing characters in such a tight space. Cassie and Jeremy were wonderful - I fell in love with Cassie's bravery and was pulled in by Jeremy's tender wit. And Cassie's emotional journey was absolutely beautiful and ripped my heartstrings straight out of my chest and stomped right on them. Wonderful characters in this book, and like I said, this might have been one of my favorites if it only had been longer. However, the plot, mystery and journey of the novel was unraveled with skill and care by Vaughan. Those two elements were spot on.
Unique and grippingly concise, I loved the theme of 'sometimes being a friend means breaking a promise', as seen on the cover of the book. This is not seen a lot in YA literature today, and the deviant from the mainstream is admirable of Vaughan. The whole book was a breath of fresh air from the steamy romances and serious dystopian trilogies that pollute YA today.
Overall, I liked this book, and will definitely read it again. 4/5 stars.
Contact me at oliviajthewordshaker@gmail.com or @olivia.j.the.wordshaker on Instagram
~The WordShaker
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